Mixing the old with the new part two.
Finished edit using photoshop and lightroom
Having bought my 5×4 camera, lens and all the parts needed to mount my Sony A7r4 to it, it was time to start to learn how to use it. The first thing you notice is the time needed to set it up as it’s nothing like picking up a DSLR turning it on and pressing the button.
Mounting it to a tripod or studio stand is a must and a sturdy tripod is definitely needed, I have a studio stand that I bought years ago second hand and I love using, this was perfect for the job. Next, you have to level the front and back Standards these and the parts of the camera that hold the lens ( the front standard ) and the film back ( the rear standard ) and you level them with the fixed bubble levels attached to the camera.
You compose your image while looking through the ground glass screen at the back of the camera and with a blackout cloth over your head as this makes it easier to see the images on the glass. You look like an old victorian photographer at this point. It’s a slower process but also a very rewarding one as it really makes you think about what you are doing in setting up the camera.
The lighting you use doesn’t change and setting it up for a portrait is exactly the same as you would do regardless of camera format used. I will say though that using a studio strobe light does give you more chance of capturing a sharper image as flash duration can be used to your advantage as I’ll discuss in a minute. So you have your sitter in front of the camera and all the lighting is in place you have composed your image on your ground glass and you have swopped the back and replaced the glass screen with your digital camera and you’re ready to take the shot and there is only one thing left to do and that’s focus the camera.
I’m going to just talk about one more thing at this point and that is which shutter do you use? I say this because you now have two ways of using the camera. The lens fitted to the 5×4 has its own shutter and so does the Sony. Which do you use? The 5×4 lens can be locked wide open and when you do this you use the digital shutter on your camera, or you can set your digital camera to Bulb mode and shoot with the lens shutter on the 5×4. If this sounds confusing it’s not really but it’s one of the issues you come up against. Both have their advantages and can be used to be very creative.
I decided to use the digital shutter on the Sony as it was just easier and I didn’t have to re-cock it for every shot.
A crop of the original image not bad for an old lens
Right back to taking the image, everything is ready and all you have to do is focus. I have been spoilt over the years as being a Sony shooter, I have their brilliant eye focus system which is just something else, not now though as its all manual. Focusing is very different and a challenge. You soon realise that the slightest moment will throw the eyes out of focus and its imperative your sitter doesn’t move. The reason for this is the depth of field you now have with this format and the lens being wide open is shallow and I’m not talking centimetres it’s millimetres. This is one of the appeals to me of using this system as it’s very difficult to replicate using a DSLR even if it’s fitted with a large aperture lens. For example, the eyelash can be sharp and the eyeball out of focus. Your focal plane is now like a sheet of paper viewed straight on. This can be altered of course by changing the aperture but that’s not what I’m interested in.
You now also have the ability to change the crop as in effect your using your digital camera as a scanner by moving it about on the back and you can just scan the area you’re interested in. You don’t necessarily have to use the same image coverage as a 5×4 would give you. It takes a few seconds to record the image and this again is why your sitter has to remain still very reminiscent of the Victorian portrait photographers.
File sizes can get a little bigger than normal.
When you have done all this you can look at the image in your software and edit it to your liking.
I will say the files are quite a size and the image here is 18456 pixels along each edge. I edited this image in photoshop and have added a collodion plate effect as this is also something that appeals to me with this format. You can also see from the part of the image I’ve blown up that this old lens has some great qualities. With the images being 60 inches square at 300 dpi straight out of the camera I’m looking forward to seeing them printed as, to be honest looking at them on a glass computer screen does not do them justice.