Achieving adequate DOF in 8x10

[jesse1996]

Hello all, pardon in advance if this has been posted before but for whatever reason I'm having difficulty pulling up search results on the forum. I live in NYC and have pretty muted tattooed on my brain that I'm getting an 8x10, most likely a Gibellini WAN810 since its pretty light and appears to have all the movements one could need. My concern is with the apparently disputed topic of depth of field.
Most of my photos I take currently are vast swaths of the city skyline here in the city from high up on top of building looking down at a slight angle and the correcting the distortion in photoshop. Now I'm pretty confident that 99% of LF cameras can easily correct for the slight perspective distortion of looking down at the city from 80 floors up. If I recall I've never had to adjust an image more that 20 degrees or so.
My question between my rambling is; how severe is the DOF on an 8x10? If the closest thing to the camera is well over 200 feet away will I even give a crap about DOF? or will I still need to heavily account for DOF and the aperture setting for such scenes? photos are some decent examples of my overall work.
If you guys/gals have any examples/images of how versatile or not the DOF of these cameras is its greatly appreciated.


Thanks in advance!!!

[Luis-F-S]

...Most of my photos I take currently are vast swaths of the city skyline here in the city from high up on top of building looking down at a slight angle and the correcting the distortion in photoshop. Now I'm pretty confident that 99% of LF cameras can easily correct for the slight perspective distortion of looking down at the city from 80 floors up. .............My question between my rambling is; how severe is the DOF on an 8x10? If the closest thing to the camera is well over 200 feet away will I even give a crap about DOF?

The answer to the first question is yes, the answer to the second question is immaterial. Focus at infinity and use a Dagor at f/45 and the whole world from 80 floors up will be in focus!

[jesse1996]

Belissima!

[stawastawa]

And make sure you have enough bellows for those longer lenses! and a good tripod. =)

[Cor]

somewhat off topic (but not completely), and you did not ask for feedback on your images, but I find the not so horizontal lines at the bottom of your first 2 images quite distracting from otherwise nice photographs..something to keep an eye on once you have your LF camera I would suggest..

Good luck and enjoy,

Best,

Cor

[Lachlan 717]

Have you considered a4x5" with long bellows?

Looks like you could be using long lens compression in some of your shots.

Far easier to get a sharp image outside with a 600mm on a 4x5" than with a 1200mm on 8x10".

Plus, film is cheaper and easier to get in 4x5".

[Pere Casals]

Hello all, pardon in advance if this has been posted before but for whatever reason I'm having difficulty pulling up search results on the forum. I live in NYC and have pretty muted tattooed on my brain that I'm getting an 8x10, most likely a Gibellini WAN810 since its pretty light and appears to have all the movements one could need. My concern is with the apparently disputed topic of depth of field.
Most of my photos I take currently are vast swaths of the city skyline here in the city from high up on top of building looking down at a slight angle and the correcting the distortion in photoshop. Now I'm pretty confident that 99% of LF cameras can easily correct for the slight perspective distortion of looking down at the city from 80 floors up. If I recall I've never had to adjust an image more that 20 degrees or so.
My question between my rambling is; how severe is the DOF on an 8x10? If the closest thing to the camera is well over 200 feet away will I even give a crap about DOF? or will I still need to heavily account for DOF and the aperture setting for such scenes? photos are some decent examples of my overall work.
If you guys/gals have any examples/images of how versatile or not the DOF of these cameras is its greatly appreciated.


Thanks in advance!!!

Hello Jesse,

Here you can see yourself http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html, select 8x10 and see.

Also just download a DOF calculator App for your smartphone.

"The calculated" DOF also depends on the circle of confusion you are to allow on film to say something is in focus or not.

The circle you consider can be related to the lens/film performance or the print/display enlargement you are to show the image.




DOF is inherently severe for 8x10, imagine yo use a 360mm or 400mm with a DSLR, you have that, but with LF you can allow a larger "circle of confusion". LF photographers deal with that with aperture stopping and with movements.

With 8x10 it is common to stop the lens much more that with smaller formats, often lens is stopped beyond f/16. Beyond /22 or 32 the optical resolving power is lower because difraction, but as with 8x10 you have huge resolving power this can not be a concern. So at the end you can stop a lot the lens in exchange for larger DOF.

Then you use tilt/shift to inclinate your plane of focus to have your subject in focus, so you use the Scheimpflug principle to place an inclinated plane of focus to suit what you want and allowing incredible creative effects. Movements are not only for perspective correction...

If you go 8x10 instead 4x5 perhaps you'll notice no practical Image Quality enhacement because 4x5 may have more than you will ever need, but you obtain a different look from longer lenses, ...and a larger negative if you are to make contact prints.

This is the second 8x10 I shot in my life, notice /16 and that both the cathedral's clock and the near stairs (well, a region of it) are in perfect focus, it took me 30min to get things in focus because I was learning, with practice one can do it quickly:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/125592...posted-public/


So with 8x10 you will have narrow DOF, and this is what you exploit from 8x10 to get a sound shot, IMHO.


Here you have Yousuf Karsh 8x10 DOF portraiture samples, (he used a lot a Calumet C 8x10)

https://www.google.es/search?q=yousu...yousuf+karsh&*





Regards

[Randy]

I found this old image on the Shorpy website a few years ago and was intrigued by the depth of field - shot on 8X10 - glass plate from the late 1800's. I examined the large image file and it is pretty sharp from top to center to bottom. So with the right lens and aperture, it looks like extreme depth of field is possible on 8X10.

[N Dhananjay]

It is a myth that 8x10 suffers from problematic DOF. Yes, the DOF is smaller because of the longer equivalent focal lengths for the format. This means you stop down more for the same DOF. People coming from smaller formats immediately cringe thinking about diffraction losses but remember 8x10 is enlarged less - so the larger, diffracted image of a point on the negative is enlarged less. In other words, what you suffer in 8x10 is actually a loss of speed (due to the smaller f stop) rather than a loss of DOF.

In addition, for your purposes of shooting essentially at infinity setting, it is completely moot.

Cheers, DJ

[BetterSense]

If you use the same aperture diameter (d), DOF is the same on all formats. It's that simple although it is annoying that lenses are not marked in mm.

I use an aperture of about 5mm for most landscape work, and the pictures look the same whether I'm using my Pen or 8x10.