Large format 4×5"

One exposure, one decision

When you use a large-format camera, you don’t shoot and discard. You don’t make ten photos of the same angle to pick the best one. You make one photograph. Or two, if you’re feeling optimistic.

This completely changes how you photograph: it forces you to look for much longer, to measure the light carefully, to decide the plane of focus using camera movements no other system allows, and finally to expose a sheet — a 10×12.5 cm negative — that you develop yourself.

The result, whether it works or not, teaches you infinitely more than a hundred casually made photographs.

Key contents

Session 1 — The camera and the sheet

• Anatomy of a view camera: body, lens, chassis and film holders
• Large-format movements: tilt and shift
• Loading sheets in total darkness
• Light metering and exposure calculation for large format
• First series of exposures in the studio and/or outdoors

Session 2 — Development and reading the result

• Developing sheets in a tray or tube
• Inspecting the negative: density, focus and defects
• Print options: contact prints and enlargement
• Comparing results and adjustments for next time

What’s included

• Use of the large-format camera, lenses and film holders
• 4 sheets of 4×5" film per participant
• Developing chemicals
• Use of the darkroom (changing bag, trays, drying)

What to bring

• Nothing. All materials belong to the lab.

Not included

• Additional sheets (+€4/sheet)
• Contact prints (paper + chemicals, enquire)