Making mistakes with the large format camera 

I really enjoyed this video. It reminds of your earlier ones where you took the time to explain not only what you are doing, but why. Very interesting, informative and inspiring. Hope to see more 4x5 in the future.

The expert will always find a way 📷👍

pleasant light, pleasant vid!

Wow, great video and impressive photos. Ansel Adams would be pleased.

Very enjoyable, thanks a lot.

Great outing, Steve.I understand your preference for the first composition, but in the second, you achieved some great separation between the foreground and background. Very impressive job and the challenging light provided a dreamy effect to the highlights, especially in the background.

I thought the over exposed image looked incredible. Steve those misty conditions were incredible.

That flashlight trick is great. One to keep in my back pocket if I ever have occasion to use it.

That flashlight trick is really handy

good video, and love the 'eveready' battery ad refference.

Every artist must bleed for his art Steve, and this was your moment mate. Your persistence is an education, I would have been banging my head against the trees LOL! You got some great results though 👍

A most enjoyable episode, Steve. I liked your commentary as you went along, explaining what you were doing, along with relating the challenges involved. Thanks for posting.

The thing is Steve, taking out the 5x4 too often might kill your enthusiasm for taking pictures as you have to shoot video for the vlogs as well. All takes a lot of time. I admire the purist in you though. The shots were well worth it. absolutely loved the gradual tonality. A testiment to your printing techniques.

That's a lovely spot and captured beautifully.

absolutely beautiful images! Well done

Amazing location and great video. I loved your " the joy of large format!" =)

Love your videos, well done!

Remarkable pictures, Steve.Lovely idea about flashlight!

Very informative. Patience always pays off.

Lovely image.

The notebook is excellent advice. I always carry one in my camera bag for film photography.

Lovely. The tonal range and detail is incredible. Thanks

Great video again!

That last image turned out great Steve. Nice and contrasty, but not too much. Like you I was also surprised how balanced the image was considering how harsh the light was getting. Nothing beats a nicely exposed large format image for detail and looks.

Large format is very unforgiving... but that is some impressive latitude the FP4 demonstrated! If you decide to print the first shot, I wouldn't ordering a copy!

Well, that happens to all. We get use to some routines where some cameras handles some features. And even that, forgetting to set the f/stop to the one we want, happens to me with DSLRs, that preview button needs to be used more often. It was a nice, relaxing and pleasant video on your foggy morning. Thank you for sharing it.

Even the wrong aperture shot was still nice. It seems with large format, and especially with landscapes, that we always want everything in focus from two inches to infinity. But a wide open shot gives a different and interesting look. Call it "dreamy". I would have tried to photograph that spiderweb. I think the mistakes are enjoyable for your audience, because everyone has done that. One of my all time favorite videos is Nick Carver photographing Joshua trees with Polaroid on a 4x5. He's stormed by bees, forgets to pull the dark slide, and many other faux pas. The thing that makes it fun is not seeing Nick suffer ( and he's clearly having a bad day ) but rather seeing that even the truly great ones can make mistakes.

Great video, Steve. Lessons well learned. I now test my shutter , before pulling the dark slide. Still with 2 sheets of TMax remaining maybe I'll take a tip from you, just photgragh something , I've done before. Oh, great color coordination . I love the repeating colors . KB

I gave up on large format this year. I just couldn't get past the frustration and aggravation of the endless opportunities for cock-ups, and decided to stick with medium format. It's such a pleasure to see you deal with it with such aplomb!

Really enjoyed the video, can you do a video about grad filters and when you would use them? Thanks

your videos and images inspire me to shoot and try things out of my comfort zone. Keep up the great work!

Yes, large format does call for the ability to concentrate on good procedures. I've made all of the above "cock-ups" and more!

I did the same thing last summer when I metered a scene for f/45 and shot at f/5.6 by mistake. Twice. Wasted a sheet of Ektar and a sheet of Portra 160. All the details were retained but the colours didn't look good. The Portra gave - surprisingly - still a reasonable result though.

Holy freaking crap! What’s glorious morning. As usual, lovely video and thank you for sharing the details. I also love that shot after pulling HP5.

I don't want to admit how often I have done something similar. At one point I had a checklist on my phone where I checked of each of the elements. That slowed everything down even more.

Great video, great images. Very tranquil. You have the perfect voice for this mood and instruction. Amazing how the overexposed shot held up! I really like it.

Beautiful images, serene yet complex. If I were trying to make a tutorial video while shooting LF I'd surely make plenty of mistakes. Don't wait too long to go back with the 8x10 or that woodpecker may have eaten your tree!

Nice one Steve! I must get back to the 4x5 for some practice, too. I have some FP4+ sheets hiding in the freezer that need to see the light of day. Keep clickin'.

Really nice images. I use the side of a cornflakes box to focus on, the letters snap in and out of focus, plus it's light and fit's anywhere in the backpack. Also have you read the Alex Burke article on Hyperfocal focusing for large format camera's? You can pull his Focus scales from your PC. And it's free.😁

Thank you very much for sharing this experience. As they say: Practice makes perfect. As I rarely shoot large format, I go through all the motions several times at home, but it is easy to forget something when on location. Good luck with your efforts!!!

All appreciated, even the self-flogging. That first one really is the best composed. The 8 x 10 will lap it up, surely.

Color film, now the 4x5, mentioning the 8x10, and now a longer 10+min video? Is it Christmas already? I have been hoping for all this for like 18 months now. Thanks a lot, Steve! I always loved your long 4x5 adventures and the way your colors turn out, also the Provia examples from the past.

My 4x5 kit came with a compendium shade. Pretty useful IMO.

The shots turned out good, even the overexposed one. It looks like a really tedious process using large format though.

Great video, it happens to all of us. Large format takes time, patience and the light can change very quickly. I wish I had more time to use my large format camera. I am fortunate to take a dozen shots a year. I think your shots came out great, really like the second one.

What a wonderful atmospheric morning that was... loved all images shown Steve. Looking forward to seeing you return with the 8x10 too - talking of LF I came across an interesting chat this morning that I had not seen before - Martin Parr chatting with Jem Southam, somoen I am sure you are aware of. Its on RU-vid if you havent seen it. regards Al

We’ve all made those mistakes mate. I use a ten stop nd sometimes when I’m using lenses without a shutter. One time I calculated the exposure but forgot to put the filter on after I focused 🤦‍♂️ Still managed to save the shot somewhat. Love the shots Steve, looking forward to seeing some 8x10 👍🏻 You always manage to give me a chuckle. “Kicking my butt for not knowing what I was doing Oh look a cobweb” 😂

Happens to the best of us :) And, usually when we're concentrating too much on one or another things whilst we're shooting.

No question about it, five stops overexposed is a LOT better than five stops underexposed... Still, I agree, the first composition is better.

I felt that all three prints held some interest - and I'm beginning to see why this tree... I wasn't that impressed the first time you featured it, but we all have to learn!

Steve, you continue to inspire. Now I also have Bronika SQ-Ai and it's an amazing experience after the terrible Kiev-88. I consider You my teacher.

Beautiful light. Guessing you must have been up very early to catch it! The first image is gorgeous, the composition, tonal range and detail. The “cock up” one is amazingly good. I expected it to be black, but don’t be too hard on yourself Steve. Don’t forget you are multi tasking, making a video as well as your photography.

At least you noticed it before you left the area, instead of wondering what happened, later in the darkroom. Do you pack a changing bag to load more film, or did you have more film holders ready to go?

Heh, forgetting to stop down. At least you remembered to close the shutter

If the original exposure shutter speed was taking reciprocity failure into account then does that mean opening the aperture by 5 stops is not really 5 x the overall exposure. To increase the exposure 5 times on the film wouldn't reciprocity failure also have to increased 5x (not mathematically but according to the non linear change)

What zone do you like to place your shadows in? Zone IV? Enjoyed the video. Large format is definitely a labor of affection. Your results get the beautiful play of light.

The over exposed shot looks like infrared - wonderful subject and composition. A 4x5 to Ansel Adams was 4 feet by 5 feet - haha.

I really enjoyed this! Makes me want to start using my Zone VI 4x5 again. However, at roughly $5 a click plus processing, I'm a little hesitant. Thanks for sharing!👍

Great video and the photographer always has last word on his/her favorite composition but I felt the root on the left of the first image needed just a bit more space. I thought the re-shoot handled that better but your tonality was really stunning on both.

What happened this time and the fun of running out of f-stops! Whaddayamean no smaller than f-32 ! I know I have limited patience esp. when I was younger.. That's why the Linhof Color 4x5 and I soon took a different path. If you could have heard my laughter, I'd be banned. It's all that suffer to make a Photo. .I won't deny the advantages. Why no lens shade like Hasselblad have? (sure there is 4x5 and fit your 8x10. I loved the phone image showing wider view! Time for a wide angle? all best, in total admiration, jason.

Well, we all learn from mistakes. Thanks for showing them. I by myself started to use the old Isolette I from my father. For know I forgot to focus twice ;-) . But nevertheless really nice shots.

LF! It does not forgive 😅 Essential note book 👍 Enjoy All images over exposed frame looked Good 👍 4x5 has been out twice this year, B&W next time perhaps.

Be careful with lasers around Sony sensors. People have burned their sensors. Maybe more of a concern around higher power lasers, such as survey / construction, but why take the risk.

Hi Steve . I just managed to get an intrepid 45 mk4 with a Rodenstock 150 mm 5.6 at a price I could not ignore , that's me broke again , only got 2 film holders, `coat for a dark cloth , bought cheapo fomapan 200 to start with , alarm set for 445 am tomorrow morning ! What make of dark cloth do you use It looks pretty good , I also purchased that Nikon 70 -300 VR based upon your previous vids . Watching your channel is costing me a fortune !

Nice! :)

Steve, hope you don't mind me asking, where did you get that white cable release?

Those are all beautiful photographs, and all valid shots in their own right, Steve. I know what you mean about getting rusty so quickly with LF photography. Last year I thought that I had a beautiful shot when the lighting was just spot on. Took the exposure, but forgot to put the darkslide back in, pulled the film holder and just stood there like an idiot with the emulsion side of the exposed film facing me. Felt a right fool at that moment. On a different subject, I have been looking for over a year, to find a 5X7 film holder as I intend to shoot 5X7. I have a few lenses that easily cover 5X7. I have had no luck at all. There are a lot of holders advertised on the usual auction site as 5X7 but they are not . They are Half Plates, 4 3/4 " X 6 1/2" I believe. So annoying as the Intrepid 5X7 does appeal to me . Looking forward to your 8X10 adventure.

This is the total opposite of taking snapshots. Suppose everyone has to find a style to match his/her temperament.

why bother with careful metering if 5 stops overexposed gets an image like that! a bit too harsh on yourself at the end of the video, not many people are able to make any kind of image on large format, so if you goof up from time to time its okay even if it is a bit of a waste.

Film is ok but noobs - but real photographers shoot wet plate.