Large Format Landscapes

[Vaughn]

Stone -- some folks use a polarizer to eliminate some of the blue light from the sky being reflected off of foliage. In the image above, it probably helped to maintain the yellow-green on the ferns.

[skiers4life]

I use a polarizer a lot for scenes with Velvia50, but why in this shot?

I used it for two reasons in this scene. First, I wanted to knock out any reflections on the ferns. Even though it was overcast, there were still some shiny areas, and the polarizer helped maximize the green saturation by cutting out all reflections. Second, my polarizer is the warming kind so I used it to make sure I compensated for the cloudy conditions. My polarizer is pretty much on my lens all the time if there are leaves or water in the scene.

[Gary Tarbert]

Ferns and a Fallen Tree, 4x5 Fuji Velvia 50

I'm quite proud of this exposure. When I was in the Smokies a few weeks back, it was an overcast day following rain...the greens were out of this world. I passed this particularly vivid spot on my hike it, but decided to photograph it on my way out if I had time. A few hours later, the clouds were beginning to break. I came back to this spot and set up my camera as fast as I ever have. I quickly metered for around 2 minutes (with polarizer) and opened the shutter. I could tell that it wouldn't last the full 2 minutes before my scene was in direct sunlight though...the clouds were moving quickly. I watched as the bright sun made its way toward my through the forest. About a minute in, the first bits of light hit the right side of my composition. I closed the shutter and mourned the loss of a sheet of precious Velvia. Later on the hike I decided I would have the lab push it a stop just for giggles; I'd never done that with Velvia. When the transparency returned, I was blown away...perfect exposure!

Indian-Flats-Falls004-copy

by skiers4life, on Flickr

So glad you got the result you were after this sort of shot just reminds me why i like Velvia so much , It just has that something ,No other film or digital sensor for that matter has .Enjoyed the view . Cheers Gary

[Gary Tarbert]

Newbie in large format learning with Joel's Tachihara.Can't thank him enough ...

Water of the first Spring(North Minnesota) :-

Tachihara 4x5 with 180mm Nikkor
Ilford Delta 100
Rodinal 1:100 for 1 hour (stand development)
Scanned with Epson v750

Really great stuff like that you havn't blown the detail in the water . keep it up my first LF was Tachi 4x5 as Well ,Great camera . Cheers Gary

[Toyon]

Have you tried this with D-76?

For stand development to work, you need to use a compensating developer. That means that the developer molecules adjacent to the lightly exposed areas of the negative will continue to work at development, while the molecules adjacent to the highly exposed areas of the negative will be exhausted. The result will be a decrease in contrast between the highlights and the dark areas of the print. Still development does not work with highly active developers. It works best with compensating developers that are highly diluted such as Rodinal 1:100 - 1:300. But there is a cost for compensation and still development. The micro-contrast of the print is dulled. So while overall a highly contrasty scene may have been made printable without excessive highlight or shadows, many low-contrast areas can become muddy and uninteresting. This is not dissimilar to what happens in Zone development.

[StoneNYC]

Stone -- some folks use a polarizer to eliminate some of the blue light from the sky being reflected off of foliage. In the image above, it probably helped to maintain the yellow-green on the ferns.

I used it for two reasons in this scene. First, I wanted to knock out any reflections on the ferns. Even though it was overcast, there were still some shiny areas, and the polarizer helped maximize the green saturation by cutting out all reflections. Second, my polarizer is the warming kind so I used it to make sure I compensated for the cloudy conditions. My polarizer is pretty much on my lens all the time if there are leaves or water in the scene.

OH!!! I had never thought of that! Luckily I always use my polarizer for most work as most color work is landscape with water or sky so cutting down on haze or reflection, but I hadn't thought about the blue cast, or known about it being part of what polarizers eliminate, but that makes sense.

The only scene I think I did NOT use a polarizer was this image, of corse it took horrible notes at the time (I'm better now) and so I can't be sure...but with the amount of reflection, I believe I did not, the sad part is I was shooting side by side comparisons using my 6x7 as well so I used the polarizer on one of them I think... I haven't scanned those yet as they just came back from the lab, but appear to be stronger in saturation with less reflection (yet the same film) but I would like to look full screen side by side before making a statement, but this is the only image I think I did NOT use a polarizer with E-6 sheet film.

[abhishek@1985]

Really great stuff like that you havn't blown the detail in the water . keep it up my first LF was Tachi 4x5 as Well ,Great camera . Cheers Gary

Hi Gary,

Least to say I am highly honoured and privileged.
It was my second shoot with the 4x5 and first ever development. Am super excited to see the pictuire come through. I was sure I must have screwed it up in so many ways possible in 4x5 shootout.
Glad to have an experienced guy like Joel Truckenbrod by side to help with the details ..
Large format is very addictive!!!! I might end up selling all my hasselblad medium format gear for a large format gear set

Regards,
Abhishek

[Vaughn]

OH!!! I had never thought of that! ...

As I understand it:

If the sun is not shining down on the scene, giving everything it's warmer light, the primary cast of the light coming down from the sky on a scene is blue, perhaps a little less so on overcast days. So light reflecting off of leaves will have a lot of blue in it. Polarizing and eliminating a lot of the reflected light off the leaves thus reduces the blue light bouncing off the leaves towards the lens. Funny how our brains tends to ignore this blue light when we are out there and tend not to notice it -- but notice it in the print.

[StoneNYC]

As I understand it:

If the sun is not shining down on the scene, giving everything it's warmer light, the primary cast of the light coming down from the sky on a scene is blue, perhaps a little less so on overcast days. So light reflecting off of leaves will have a lot of blue in it. Polarizing and eliminating a lot of the reflected light off the leaves thus reduces the blue light bouncing off the leaves towards the lens. Funny how our brains tends to ignore this blue light when we are out there and tend not to notice it -- but notice it in the print.

Very true, and I always forget, the fun trick is to cover one eye for a minute or two, then uncover it, and you'll see the blue (or wherever tone is dominant in the scene) seems to for me, but I've never actually tried this for any kind of color film work, just an observation.

[premortho]

"of course, this is just my opinion. I could be wrong", but I don't think so. The reflection on the water makes the picture, as far as I'm concerned.

OH!!! I had never thought of that! Luckily I always use my polarizer for most work as most color work is landscape with water or sky so cutting down on haze or reflection, but I hadn't thought about the blue cast, or known about it being part of what polarizers eliminate, but that makes sense.

The only scene I think I did NOT use a polarizer was this image, of corse it took horrible notes at the time (I'm better now) and so I can't be sure...but with the amount of reflection, I believe I did not, the sad part is I was shooting side by side comparisons using my 6x7 as well so I used the polarizer on one of them I think... I haven't scanned those yet as they just came back from the lab, but appear to be stronger in saturation with less reflection (yet the same film) but I would like to look full screen side by side before making a statement, but this is the only image I think I did NOT use a polarizer with E-6 sheet film.