Apogee Photo Magazine

WHY I SHOOT LARGE FORMAT CAMERAS 

by John Gerlach

Large Format Photography may be easier to get into than you think!

I started shooting large format 4 x 5 cameras about six years ago in addition to my 35mm gear. I originally went to large format cameras because I loved photographing the 150 waterfalls that occur in Michigan's Upper Peninsula where I live. I had very little luck selling 35mm photos of the waterfalls so I thought larger images of the waterfalls might give me an advantage. I felt that photo buyers were discriminating against the 35mm format when it came to landscapes. It seemed that when it came to choosing landscapes and especially waterfalls for publication, they gave most of their consideration to 4 by 5 shots and ignored 35mm photos even though you would be hard pressed to tell the difference in quality between the two formats because they weren't going to blow up the image that much anyway. Over the years, my hunch has proven absolutely correct. Large format landscapes are preferred over 35mm landscape photos by many photo buyers.

I will shoot about 5,000 large format images this year and 50,000 35mm images. The reason for the difference in numbers is due to the fact that large format is far more limiting when it comes to subject matter. Birds and mammals are virtually impossible in most cases to photograph well with the large camera. It is also a much slower camera to setup and work with although I have now speeded up to the point where I can get my Sinar F-1 out of the bag, setup on the tripod, focused, lens movement adjustments made, and ready to shoot in about 3 minutes if I have to. But it still takes me a lot longer than with my 35mm system.

In some ways, large format photographers have great advantages over 35mm photographers. Many publishers want the larger image size of the large format, yet very few photographers shoot the bigger cameras. Most who do shoot large camera's only dabble at it. Very few shoot thousands of new 4 by 5 images each and every year so large format experts have far less competition than the 35mm crowd. Also, large format is far more popular in the west than in the east. Probably, the numerous large vistas of the west account for the big camera being more popular in the west since spectacular scenes lend themselves so well to the big cameras. Also, large format workshops are more common west of the Mississippi so more people in the west are exposed to the wonderful features on the big cameras. Perhaps this is why most large format landscape books on the eastern states are shot by western based large format photographers. There are simply more highly skilled western large format natural history photographers.

Getting into a large format system is also a lot cheaper than obtaining a versatile 35mm wildlife photography system. Does that surprise you? Consider that just purchasing a Nikon F-4 and a Nikon 500mm /4 telephotos will loudly ding your credit card for $4000 plus. And you still need to purchase several lenses in the shorter focal lengths plus a teleconverter to round out your system. In contrast, I can purchase a brand new Sinar F-1 field camera plus a 90mm, 150mm, and a 300mm large format lens plus lens boards, focusing loops, focusing cloth, and all the film holders I need for $4000 or less.

The large format cameras are a lot easier to learn to use well than 35mm equipment in part because the big cameras lack a lot of the automation found on 35mm cameras which greatly increases their complexity and steepens the learning curve. And because large format cameras aren't as versatile as 35mm gear, the big cameras have fewer options for you to deal with. But, it would be expensive to learn how to shoot pictures with large format if composition, focusing, and exposure determination are still mysteries to you. Every time you take a shot with a 4 by 5 camera, you spend $3 to $4 when you consider the cost of the sheet film and processing. So you definitely don't want to learn how to take photos on the large camera. Use the 35mm camera until you get well past the beginners level.

Many people are afraid of all the lens movements that the large format camera is capable of. Don't be. Using the lens movements can be difficult to learn at first if you are photographing products like cereal boxes where the shape must be perfect. But, it is not nearly as difficult when your subject is natural landscapes. Generally, I just use a little tilt in the range of 1-6 degrees to get foreground and background sharp. Sometimes a little swing is necessary like when photographing along a cliff at an oblique angle and sometimes a combination of the two is needed. When photographing trees, I may have to raise the front of the lens a bit so I can shoot parallel to the ground to keep the trees from leaning into the middle. Using the lens movements on a view camera is one of those things that is difficult to tell someone how to do in writing, but easy to show them in the field. Once you get the idea of how it works, working the camera movements is simple. The real danger comes when you get so used to have tilts and swings that you start to dislike your 35mm lenses because they don't offer this wonderful option. Although I used to be strictly a Nikon 35mm shooter, I now shoot both Nikon and Canon because I found Canon's new lenses that have tilts and swings to be wonderful. I sold all of my short Nikon lenses and now use the Canon 24mm, 45mm, and 90mm perspective control lenses on a Canon 10-S.

Successful large format photographers also don't need to know nearly as much about the environment as successful 35mm photographers do. For example, a 35mm photographer would need to know the correct name of every butterfly they photograph. But, a large format nature photographer could easily get by without knowing any butterflies since they will probably never photograph a butterfly with the big camera anyway. Large format photographers tend to need to know the names of specific mountains, rivers, waterfalls, and other natural features so they can properly caption their photos. Most of this information is readily available on maps and signs. Knowing the names of flowers is one area where large format photographers need knowledge since the big camera is often positioned so wildflowers fill up the foreground to lend perspective and color to the scene.

Using the large camera takes more time so it's difficult to photograph things like rainbows that don't last very long. Photography of our natural landscape is much harder in both large and small formats than wildlife photography because you tend to photography fairly large areas. It's amazing how much humans have scarred the natural landscape. Beautiful mountain ranges are scared by jeep trails. Cans and styrofoam cups seem to show up everywhere no matter how remote the location. Fences, ditches, telephone and electric wires seem to surround every acre. You aren't even safe when you do walk into a wilderness area where no human activities or objects scare the land. I can't tell you how many times I have set up to photograph a sunrise or sunset and while waiting for the best color, have a jet plane fly right through my picture leaving an ugly contrail behind. Even during the winter when fresh snow adorns the mountains, the activities of man can be a problem. Snowmobile tracks in the landscape have prevented me from taking many winter photos. Signs seem to show up everywhere. I was shooting tufa tower scenes at Mono Lake in May. My biggest problem was keeping all the interpretive signs out of my photos. And if you think fogging your 35mm lenses is a problem on a dewy morning, just try shooting large format gear which has larger glass surfaces and a big viewing screen at the back of the camera. Now you a have problem!

Large format cameras are a lot of fun to shoot and once you have seen some well done 4 by 5 inch transparencies, you'll know why many photo buyers prefer them over 35 mm photos. There are many different large format cameras available and nearly all will work well for photographing natural landscapes. Most photographers use what are called flat-bed field cameras because they are lightweight and compact. However, I have owned three different field cameras and don't prefer them. Instead, I greatly prefer to use the Sinar F-1 camera that is a monorail camera. The Sinar system is superb. All the accessories are modular which means you can upgrade your camera system at any time without having to purchase a whole new camera body. The fresnel screen makes the image easy to focus and the camera even has a scale on it to help you determine how much tilt and\or shift is needed and in what direction. It also has a scale to help you focus so you get the maximum depth of field available at any aperture. It's a wonderful system that I can highly recommend. At present, I use Nikkor lenses in focal lengths of 90mm, 150mm, 210mm, 360mm, and 500mm. To determine the 35mm equivalents of these lenses, just divide the focal length by 3.

Shooting large format cameras isn't for everyone. If your main interest is birds, mammals, and wildflower closeups, don't even consider large format. But, if you like photographing scenes, by all means move up to large format. It's a lot easier and cheaper than you think. And if you are interested in selling your photos, the larger transparencies are far more marketable than the same scene on 35mm film. Good Luck!