Large format and depth of field.

[Grandpa Ron]

This bird house has served many seasons. It has been the home to generations of blue birds.

This is one of my earlier photos in 4x5 format. When I shot it, I discovered the shallow depth of field of the 163 mm lens. The beginner will find out, as I did, that when using Large Format, DOF is a key factor. While I expected the distant background to be out of focus, the upper most branch is no more that four feet behind the bird house.

Though it was not an issue with this particulate photo, I thought I would give a heads-up to those starting out with longer lenses.

 

[Silversnapper]

Large format lenses obey the same laws of optics as any other lens on any film/sensor format and are usually optimized at f16 - f22. There are numerous places on the 'net with interactive calculators and tables that will give you all the information you need for dof etc. Utilizing the in-built movements of a LF camera will enable you to maximize the use of the dof you have - a feature usually only available on smaller formats by using a lens with Tilt & Shift functionality.

 

[Grandpa Ron]

Silver snapper,

Shortly after developing my first set of 4x5 negatives. I downloaded depth of field depth charts. The hyper-focal lengths were interesting also.

As you mentioned I find f22 useful for landscapes.

 

[RAZKY]

Silver snapper,

Shortly after developing my first set of 4x5 negatives. I downloaded depth of field depth charts. The hyper-focal lengths were interesting also.

As you mentioned I find f22 useful for landscapes.

A quality 6x-10x loupe is indispensable for precise ground-glass focusing.