Tim Parkin - Landscape Photographer

When I decided I’d really like to start using 5×4 (4×5? one of them is US I know) I also knew that I didn’t want to forget about the 5D. It has produced some amazing pictures and will enlarge to 16×20 if I’m happy to sacrifice dpi (I think it’s about 160dpi for a 16×20) but will enlarge to 10×16 at a resolution most people wouldn’t notice was a compromise. So it’s still going to be a tool in my arsenal but I also want it to play double duty if possible. So I’ve bought a set of focussing screens for my 5D that mask out the sides of the viewfinder to give a 4×5 ratio (there is a square one if I ever feel that Charlie Waite urge).

This makes my 24-105 lens on the 5D a very good finder for 110-400mm large format. If I ever want to go smaller I’d get the 17-40 (Which is still under consideration but to do so I’d have to sell my 24 Tilt Shift and at the moment I’m still unsure how much I’m going to use it.. If I don’t use the 24 then it will get traded in for a 17-40).

So the 5D becomes a functional finder and scouting tool. But can it do any more? Well I figured it would be very good at giving me an indication of exposure range and to give me an idea of what to expect if I take a large format shot. In order to do this, I need to take into account a couple of details. The first is that the Canon has a large dynamic range than the transparency film. So in order to get a good assessment of highlights and shadows I need to make two exposures. The first exposure should be taken at the reading you are going to use on the LF camera (i.e. whatever you’ve read with the light meter). This will give you a good indication of whether you are going to blow any highlights. The second exposure should be taken 1.5 stops below (or 1.333 which works better for digital camera 1/3 stops). This will now give you a good idea of where shadows will be blocking up.

One thing to bear in mind whilst you are doing this is that the histogram and the preview on the back of the 5D use the settings you have entered for your jpg view (i.e. if you’ve set the camera for high contrast, the meter will reflect this.) So if you want to have an accurate histogram that will reflect the contents of your raw file, then don’t play with the contrast setting. However, if you want to emulate transparency film, setting the contrast as maximum does a fairly good visual approximation of what to expect.

I think I’m heading towards a situation where I will be using the 5D as an exposure meter to support my spot meter readings. I also think I may end up using the 5D as a a full exposure meter but not using the internal meter, just looking at the results on the back of the camera. I have a feeling that this will be a LOT faster and more accurate than taking the equivalent readings with a spot meter (when I say more accurate, I don’t mean the individual light meter readings, for which I imagine the dedicate light meter will be better, but I mean the accuracy of the overall exposure).

Time will tell with this one and for the near future I plan to use the spot meter and then check the results I get on the 5D. The 5D will also then give me a good ‘scrap book’ picture to represent the results of the Large Format.

addendum:
Using the 5D as a meter doesn’t really work unless you can mount the SLR on the same tripod so you can see the result as you are looking.

I am absolutely honored and humbled to be exhibiting my pictures with some of Yorkshire’s most celebrated artists. Four of my photos (which you can see elsewhere on this blog) are being exhibited at Three Albion Place in Leeds alongside a collection of Ashley Jackson’s exhibition pieces, some of Joe Cornish’s North Yorkshire photographs and Graham Ibbeson’s recent bronzes. In fact I feel a little embarrassed about it in some ways as I don’t feel I yet deserve the company but it is great to be able to see my pictures printed big (16x20s framed up with a 6 inch 3 ply matt). It took a very tiring Saturday to get everything printed and framed but it’s proved to myself that I can get ‘volume’ if I need to (although 4 pictures a day is pretty slow to a lot of people I imagine).

At the moment, the pictures are mostly my Hebrides ones, although I do have a Nidderdale picture. I will have to work hard to get some more Yorkshire pictures so I can keep the Theme.

Well we went over to Malham Cove this weekend and walked from the pavement area, across to Malham Tarn and then back via Goredale Scar. The weather wasn’t particularly nice, the sun only came out to play about 10.30 which is just as we were getting back to the car but we had a nice of about 6 miles, if a little wet.

At the end of the walk I got my camera out and spent 20 minutes taking a picture (which you can see my digital snapshot of above). The good thing that came out of this is learning the lesson of always setting everything to zero before taking a picture. After being back for 2 days, I was testing my light metering and noticed it was still on +3.5 filter factor from my “Door” shot. Doh! Anyway, the good news is that I won’t make that mistake again quite so quickly next time.

The picture needed better light to work well anyway (as you can see above). I’ve also added a picture of the view into Goredale scar.. This could also be very nice given the right light.

I got a little bit of a shock this week when I investigated how much it was going to cost to get scans done of my transparencies. I had already sort of accepted that the processing of transparencies was expensive but not too bad at £2 per shot (or £3 if you want to push process) but when I looked at getting a decent scan done that I could blow up to 16×20+ I was horrified to find it would cost between £8 and £12 per shot (and that done on an Imacon). If I wanted a drum scan, the costs jump to £10-£20 which is a hell of a lot of money. I can understand the pricing reflects the time involved up to a point and there is little demand for a professional service but if I end up taking 50 pictures over a year that would be £500-£1,000.

So, I looked around at the possibility of buying a scanner and seeing if the ‘semi-pro’ scanners were suitable. The Epson 750 looked like a good prospect but looking closeley, they aren’t even close to the imacon, which seemed to be the only afforable alternative (and one that both Joe Cornish and Baxter Bradford are familiar with and recommend). However… I was browsing on the http://lf-photo.org.uk and saw this
thread
and started looking into second hand drum scanners.. The screenshot you can see at the top of the article convinced me there was something in the Howtek’s and I contacted Pete Slynn at
PS Electronics
and he said that they have Howtek 4500’s for less than a thousand pounds. Well this sounds very attractive so once I get the available cash it could be worth and investment.

So I got out to use the 80 a bit and although it’s a little difficult to use, it is certainly very “usable”. After speaking with a fellow named Baxter Bradford, who I emailed because he also uses the 80XL and one of the Robert White chaps said he had solved the problem with an extra back, he said the purchase of the extra back with a wide angle fresnel solved the problem completely.

However I was also chatting with Bill Maxwell of Maxwell Precision Optics. He produces custom fresnels that have a greater brightness than the standard fresnels in many cameras. The general online consensus is that it is the best replacement ground glass/fresnel on the market (although it is expensive and I imagine there may be a little bit of post purchase justification going on). Bill can supply an extra wide angle fresnel that starts working at around 90mm and will show the corners of a 58 lens with no light fall off. The only downside is that he has to fit it to the back himself (or get an engineer to do so). I’ve spoken to him about what actual works needs to be done to get it to fit but had no reply yet.

I will most likely be ordering an extra back for my Ebony with the stock wide angle fresnel. At some point I will order the Maxwell standard fresnel and based on the performance of that and how much machining work needs to be done for the extra wide, I may also purchase that. The Maxwell gg/fresnel is about £150.

I was also out near Sutton Bank in North Yorkshire this week just before a meeting with our chairman and myself and my dear wife went for a little walk in the woods and I took the photo you see above. Charlotte also took a photograph of me looking like something steampunk from Naked Lunch.

So I didn’t get out much in the week apart from Monday. I did receive my new Schneider 80XL Super Symmar though only to realise I didn’t have a lens board for a Copal 0 shutter. The lens is beautiful though, very light indeed. The other problem was the filter size, which is normally 67mm but with the IIIb centre filter is 88mm which means the normal Lee filter adapters don’t fit. So, another order to Robert White goes in for an Ebony lens board and a Lee push on adapter with donut spacer. Oh, and while I’m at it I thought I’d order the lens shade clip so I have somewhere to put my ground glass protector.

The next day not only do all of these extra items arrive but so does my BlackJacket. Very good timing as I get to try out the BlackJacket at the same time as the 80XL, which probably needs it. As it turns out, the BlackJacket is fabulous, it’s a cunning design that is made of a material that feels heavy but is in fact quite light. A great combination when it’s hanging on your head (it means it drapes nicely and isn’t affected by the wind much). The 32″ actually does fit over the ebony back, including the rear standard base, although it is quite tight. The gap below the rear standard and the base is covered by the bag that the BlackJacket comes in (see the website for more details).

Mounting the 80XL onto the lens board was a little fraught, although Robert White kindly helped me with simple instructions. They told me one of the critical things which is to remove the grub screw on the front element. They also said that the lens only needs finger tightening up (using two fingernails).

Onto the 80XL. Well, first thing is that it’s not like the 210 symmar where you have a great clear picture that is equal intensity all over the ground glass. There is quite a lot of light fall off that I think is probably normal for a wide angle lens but makes it somewhat difficult to see the whole of the picture in one go. If you look straight one, you can see a ‘hot’ centre spot and the edges are very dark. As you move your head around you get to see the edges better. I’ll have to compare this with other lenses to see if it’s normal. The edges of the 80 are also quite soft at 4.5 although this does sharpen up nicely by f8. You can focus OK at f4.5 but the picture doesn’t snap into focus like the 210 Symmar S. I had a chat with Joe Cornish about it and he said he uses a wide angle fresnel. Robert White also said that Baxter Bradford bought a wide angle fresnel with a new back plate so he could swap easily. I’ve spoken to Maxwell screens about a possible replacement but I’ll focus on getting the basics sorted before I start straying into new screens

The lens shade clip is a neat device, if a little strange to work with. The one thing I had to do was to stick some foam in the mouth of the clip so it would hold onto the plate better (foam tape is useful for this and many other applications, like stopping your glass protector from rattling).

Finally, the push on filter holder from Lee is a nice bit of kit but I’m now unable to use the polariser whilst using this, although I probably shouldn’t be using it at this wide angle anyway, we’ll see. I think I probably won’t use the centre filter with the 110XL anyway. If needs be, I’ll have to look at getting a dedicated polariser for the push on mount.

I’ll hopefully be getting out with the 80 at the weekend.

Well there is a quite a body of work out there of doors in various locations and as I didn’t get to go for a proper walk this weekend, I thought I’d pop up to Harewood Hall and photograph the strange door that is next to the main entrance.

I got lots of ‘what is that nutter doing’ looks as people were driving past but it was good to get some practise in and it was also good to have a subject that needed a little rise/fall and swing.

The BlackJacket worked very well and allowed me to get an accurate focus across the plane of the door (I focused on the wall first using the assymetric swing and then focused back onto the door part to make sure it was at the critical focus point). The photograph was taken f16 @ 1/2 sec but I think I screwed it up slightly. I used a 2 stop hard grad over the door and below in order to try to get more detail into the tree shadows above. I originally was going to place the door on zone V but I figured it’s actually quite dark wood so I decided I’d like to place the wall stone on zone V instead. Then I took the readings and it said to use 0.7 of a second but the closest I could get was 0.5. This meant I’d actually place the wall on zone IV and a half, meaning most of the picture was low key. This might turn out quite ‘rich’ but I have a feeling it will probably just look underexposed. I realise now that I should be using the f stop in order to achieve 1/3 stop increments.

Anyway, as usual I took a post exposure 35mm shot at 24mm (which seemed a fairly close match to the 80mm.

I got to show David Ward his new website yesterday and he seemed quite happy with the way it was all coming together (although I think he was dreading the amount of writing he was going to have to do on top of finishing his new book). I wrote a new feature for the site that inverts the view from a black background (good for pictures) to a white background (good for reading text) which went down well. Although it seems a little gimmicky it’s actually really nice to be able to switch.

I was quite worried about showing him the pictures I’d added of his as part of the process involved rating the images (for various ordering algorithms). Obviously going through and rating the whole of someones portfolio is a little cheeky to say the least but I think I didn’t make too many faux pas (like ranking his favourite photo ‘null points’ for instance).

Hopefully well get a site launch in the next month or so.

So we manage to get out onto Ilkley Moor at about 5.30pm on Sunday and walked up to the ridge. On the way up we saw quite a few flying ants and as we approached the ridge the ground was teeming with them. Not to be deterred, we setup at the top of the ridge and I went ahead and set up for a photograph. I’m still paranoid at the chance of the tripod falling over and add to that my inexperience, the whole process was a little fraught (including the 100ft drop 2ft to my left). I decided to use the Acros black and white film to begin with and tested my exposure settings on the 5D which seemed to be OK. Apart from forgetting to lift the darkslide everything went OK. There appeared to be a lot more insects flying around though. We decided to head down to the bottom of the bank where there is an old quarry area with pine trees and cotton grass but stopped on the way to take a photograph looking down the river. At this point the wind dropped and obviously this was the only thing holding back the bugs. I have never seen so many insects in my life, At one point I had my head in the dark cloth and was accompanied by over 10 that I could see. And these were starting to bite. This, and the heat inside my dark cloth, added to the levels of frustration and after I accidentally forgot to close the shutter on one slide of Velvia 100 I gave up. We tried stopping again on the way back to the car but the midges were everywhere now. Charlotte ended up with over 30 bites and I’ve got a few here and there.

The big lessons learned were that you have to have a check list in your head. If you don’t, things will go wrong. The second thing was that there are lots of things that have to be put away whilst you are taking a shot (loupe, darkcloth, filmholder, film, lenscover, rearplate, ) and it would be nice to have somewhere to put some of them. To this end I’ve ordered the Gnass quick load holder (as seen in the Dykinga book). I also need to get better at ‘seeing’ upside down. At the moment I found it difficult to locate a crop that I’d seen with my eyes (or camera). This will come with practise I think. Finally, working with a view camera is a bugger for your back and I think I’ll have to either get the tripod working higher up or sit down to take the photographs (I broke my back 10 years ago and have three vertebrae fused together and two mashed discs – generally OK but bending over very slightly is one of the worst positions).

After the aborted trip out yesterday, I was determined to get a couple of color frames shot so drove over to Roundhay park and walked over to the lake to take a picture. Sitting on my stool with the large format in front of me reminded me of fishing in some ways, and the comparison is not that far off when you think about it. I got the chance to actually spend some time on the shot and took my exposure readings using the spot meter (one for highlights, one for shadows and one for a guessed midtone). I then checked the difference between the highlight and my midtone and worked out what stop grad I would need. Also from this I could work out what areas would end up too dark. After taking the shot, I took the same shot with my 5D and checked the results. I have a feeling the frame will be too dark but we can check later.

After this I walked back and stopped in the middle of a field to take a shot of a line of trees with sunset lit clouds above them. The white in the clouds is really bright (about a stop more than the blue of the sky) and I think I might have cooked the shot again. Surprisingly, I could quite happily see the shot on the back of the ground glass without the dark cloth (even more so when using the loupe). This was sufficient to frame and check the focus.

The ballhead I’m using works particularly well with a heavier camera on it. It’s a Really Right Stuff BH55 and has a very functional tension control that you can set to not allow the camera to ‘flop’ but still allow you to move the camera around to frame. The ‘lock’ is particularly strong also.

The pictures I’ve attached are the ones that were taken with my 5D at the same settings as the camera (but only done after I’d worked everything out so I can see my mistakes quickly!). I’ve not been too concerned with composition and subject in these photographs, I’m mostly trying to learn the camera (although thats not much excuse for crap photography).