i can zoom in and out with large format?

[Derrel]

How odd-- I have a Fujinon W 150 mm view camera lens. It's a pretty good lens actually. I'm not sure exactly how bright yourshooting area is, But I would expect that wide open you can get an exposure time in the one to 1/2 second range.

You will not need a lot of depth of field, just enough to get the front plane of the face and body into decent focus. Absolute Sharpness is not required when replicating a photo like this.

 

[vintagesnaps]

Lenses in antique/view cameras would focus by moving the bellows in and out to move the lens closer to or farther from the film/focal plane. A 'modern' lens does the same thing in a different way, by rotating the barrel of the lens to focus (which moves it in closer or farther away). Try turning the lens on another 'modern' camera and watch it to see what it does.

The Sally Mann self portrait is in the Corcoran at the National Gallery. It looks to me like she was in a dressing room in an arena or other venue?? because there are concrete walls in the background and what looks like an arrow painted (I guess) on the floor. It looks much more roomy than a typical bathroom.

I would think you'd need a fairly small aperture if you want to get everything (or almost) in the background in focus that would be reflected in the mirror (and if not use a larger aperture.) Now that you described it I think I get how you're thinking of field of vision/depth of field. If you're close to your subject, say within a few feet, then your depth of field would be from a number of inches in front of you to somewhere less than those few feet (depending on aperture). If your subject is far, far away, your depth of field would be from some distance in front of you to waaay off in the distance (depending on aperture).

What comes to mind to demonstrate it would be to get a tape measure, go outdoors, put it on the ground and stretch it out to a certain distance - see what in front of you is in focus at various aperture settings. I tried it quick indoors in low existing light, stretched it out about 5 ft., and with a larger aperture eyeballing it I was only getting a few inches in focus starting from maybe a couple of ft. or so in front of me (after a few inches the rest of the tape measure and beyond got gradually more out of focus). Don't know if that makes sense.

edit - But now I have a mental image of Sparky and Derrell twerking, which could be enough for me to post an 'oh sh$%!!' if you want cussing!