Vertical movements are called rises and falls; lateral movements are shifts; rotation about the vertical axis is a swing; and rota-tion about the horizontal axis is a tilt (Fig.
4-5). These movements have a number of important uses. We are probably all famil-iar with the "keystone" effect of a slide being projected upward onto a screen from a projector that is too loes The image on the screen is narrower at the bottom than at the top. We are also familiar with the apparent tapering of a tall building as we look up at it. You can get the same effects using the swing movements of a view cam-era. Now you might ask, "What good is this?" If we were to photograph that same building with a view camera and tilt the top of rear standard back, we would cor-rect that distortion. By the same token, if we look downward at a tall object, it appears to taper from top to bottom. The tilts of a view camera can correct that dis-tortion too. The same would hold true for a wall that is tapering in a horizontal
plane. The taper could be removed by using the swing movements of a studio camera.
Another critical use for the cameras movements is the placement of the plane of sharpness. With a 35-mm camera and most medium-format cameras, the plane of sharpness is parallel with the film plane and perpendicular to the lens axis. You must be careful to keep key elements of the subject in a plane parallel with the film plane to minimize depth-of-field problems.
However, doing so isn't always possible, especially with group photographs of a number of objects distributed on a hori-zontal plane. The depth-of-field obtain-able by stopping the lens down all the way is seldom able to encompass the total depth of the subject setup. By using the tilt of the standards, you can place the field of sharpness parallel with the sub-ject plane and still keep the camera at the necessary viewing angle, as shown in
Figure 4-6. It is occasionally necessary to use several movements together to deal with complex situations.
Most lenses are not designed for max-imum sharpness at minmax-imum aperture (and maximum depth-of-field). The use of camera movements for optimal placement of the plane of sharpness can minimize
the peed for use of extremely small aper-tures, thereby maximizing sharpness.
Careful placement of the plane of sharp-ness, along with selective focus can also serve to isolate certain subjects or portions of a subject. View camera movements also allow you to control cropping of an image without moving the camera or the subject.
ADVANTAGES
There are numerous advantages to the use of view cameras. The first and most obvi-ous is that the larger film size enables you to retain far more detail in a subject than with a smaller format. Any time an image is enlarged, it suffers due to enlargement of the film grain, focusing errors, depth-of-field problems, and dust or scratches on the image. AB these problems are minimized with large format because of the minimal enlarging necessary. A standard 8 x 10 inch print is about a 60x enlargement of a 35-mm image. A 4 x 5 inch image (which is
about 25x the size of a 35-mm image) blown up to 8 x 10 inches is only a 4x enlargement. The larger image size also allows you to make much bigger enlarge-ments than you can with 35 mm.
Larger images are also much easier to manipulate for purposes of retouching.
They may also allow you to dispense with enlargements for some purposes by contact printing them. Any time an enlarger is used, a whole new set of errors can be introduced from enlarger lens aberra-tions, dust, and focusing problems.
Contact prints are much sharper than enlarged prints, plus they are easier and cheaper to do.
The single sheets of film used in view cameras can also be processed individually for maximum image control. This capabil ity is especially important in black-and-white work. Since film batches can vary slightly, a single sheet from a series can be processed first to determine processing
Figure 4-6 Useof camera tilts to place the place of sharpness parallel to the major subject plane.
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needs for the rest of the batch or filtration for the rest of the shooting session. Sheet film has a thicker base than smaller for-mats, making it more durable and less sus-ceptible to damage. There are also a greater range of emulsions available on sheet film than on roll film, including copying and graphic arts films. Larger original images are also preferred by most publishers.
Just as with medium format, switching fil m types or even formats is easy with large-format cameras. There is no need to keep several bodies around, loaded with different films as you would have to do with 35-mm cameras. The use of Polaroid film for test shots is also a great advantage. They are used to check com-position, highlights, lighting, and expo-sure. Polaroids can be given to a client for approval before the final images are taken. This preview can cut down on reshoots, film, and darkroom time.
The advantage of movements for per-spective control and sharpness distribution have already been discussed and need no further elaboration. With large-format cameras it is also easier to make multiple exposures using mattes and masks with precise placement of the images. The modular system of view cameras makes them much more versatile than smaller formats.
While most of the advantages of view cameras are restricted to that format, there are a few notable exceptions. A number of 35-mm cameras have available what is called a perspective control lens. Such lenses have the ability to rise and fall like the
stan-dards of a view camera. They are sold pri-marily for perspective control in architec-tural photography. Some of them can even shift laterally.
The Aragraph Corporation makes a bellows unit for 35-mm cameras that has all of the movements of a view camera.
Also available from Aragraph is a widefield lens to ensure that the use of the movements does not throw the image off of the film plane, plus adapters for various camera systems. It can also be used with-out the movements for macro work.
Medium-format users shouldn't feel left out, as Fuji makes the GX680 and GX680 II Professional. The 6 x 8 cm for mat camera has a front standard with the movements of a view camera, attached to the body by means of a bellows. Since it lacks the rear standard movements of a view camera, it is no substitute for one.
However, it makes this medium-format camera much more versatile, and a fine hybrid of medium and large format, with advantages of both.
Hasselblad has just introduced their new FlexBody. It is essentially a lens en a bellows with a rear standard rather like a s mall view camera. Two other manufac-turers are now making "miniature" view cameras. The Cambo 23SF has all the features of a larger view camera, but with an image size of 6 x 7 or 6 x 9 cm. Linhof has introduced the Technikardan S, a
monorail-style studio camera with all the movements but in a 6 x 9 cm format, and the Super Technika, a flat-bed style field camera in a 6 x 9 cm format.
DISADVANTAGES
There are a number of disadvantages to the use of large-format cameras. They are generally more expensive to buy and oper-ate, they are slower to use, and the lenses are slower. The latter means that their maximum apertures are not very large.
Because they were designed for tripod-mounted studio work, fast lenses are not a necessity. Since each lens contains its own leaf shutter, they are fairly expensive. On the other hand, leaf shutters allow you to synchronize flash at any speed (most 35-mm film plane shutters synchronize up to 1/60 of a second). The longer focal length lenses require longer bellows extensions, which means greater light fall off and longer exposures. Depth-of-field is also less with longer focal length lenses. So while f-64 sounds great, it may actually only be comparable to f-22 on a 35-mm