Adventures in Large Format - The Press Camera: Crown Graphic

It took about 25 years of dabbling in photography before I decided to plunge into large format.  I knew the image quality was spectacular but shooting 4x5 had some gnawing issues that I really wasn't ready to tackle until now.

1. loading individual sheets into a film holder
2. only 2 shots per holder
3. focusing on the ground glass with my less than stellar vision for a 40 year old
4. tilt, swing, shift and the other one....
5. developing 4x5 sheet film
6. scanning the film without breaking the bank on an Epson V750

This 1963 Crown Graphic came across my plate and I was a hooked and just had to have it.  Maggie had to show me how to use the basic controls because I had literally never touched one in my career.  

It didn't take long to realize shooting with large format is truly slow photography.  A tripod is really essential. There is the opening and setup of the camera.  Opening and then locking the shutter open so you can see the image on the ground glass.  The image is upside down so there is a learning curve on composition. 

Focusing is a big challenge for me as a bifocal wearer.  I have since taken the rear barndoor hood off the camera and started using a loupe to focus by holding it flush to the ground glass.  This has improved sharpness considerably for me. A dark cloth or jacket is also essential to use as a focusing aid to keep stray light from hitting the glass.

All the tripod controls must be locked down tight as one slight movement in the camera will shift the focus.  

This camera has front tilt and swing. It also had front rise. Some nice effects can be had by experimenting with the lensboard shifting.  The film plate does not have any control on this camera, only the lensboard.

One of the first issues I encountered was a consistent underexposure with all of sheets.  I could not figure out why.  I was attempting a lot of close up work at first because this camera can do really nice close ups as the bellows will extend all the way out to the edge of the rail.  After much head scratching I started picking up large format books looking for an explanation.  I soon found it and then wanted to beat myself for not realizing it sooner. 

Bellows Extension Compensation:  Because the bellows extends out this increases the distance light must travel from the the lens opening through the bellows and onto the film plane.   There are a couple of ways to overcome this mathematical conundrum and get the correct exposure.  You must calculate the distance from the lens to film plane, squared (not kidding, really) and divide it by focal length of the lens, squared. This will give you the compensation factor which then must me converted to an exposure value.  

Here is an easy way, if you can find one of these tools. Calumet made a bellows compensation tool for the field. The square chip is placed in the scene. The exposure strip is placed on the ground glass.  Using the instructions below you can quickly determine the amount of exposure to add without a lot of math.

Even better, maybe not as fun, if you have an iPhone or iPod touch, you can download the Pinhole Assist app for about $3. This app includes a bellows compensation tool that does all the math for you giving you the

exact shutter speed to use with any aperture.  It's mainly designed for pinhole photography but the included bellows factor makes it worth the price.