4x5 Archives

Shooting large format on a budget with 4×5 direct positive paper

Nov 7, 2016 by John Aldred 1 Comment

There’s little question that getting into film photography can still become rather expensive, especially if you’re going large format. But it doesn’t have to be. Sure, you can spend a fortune on a large format view camera and complete darkroom setup, but do you really need it? I’ve been following Joe Van Cleave’s YouTube channel for a while now, and in this recent video he’s going to help answer that question.

Joe regularly posts videos documenting his adventures with film, with some great tips for the rest of us. From compact darkrooms to DIY 35mm film canister pinhole cameras, Joes videos cover a wide range of film related topics. In this video, Joe takes a look at the minimum requirement required for shooting 4×5 large format Harman Direct Positive Paper.

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Photographer documents nature vs humanity with a 4×5 large format film camera

Sep 12, 2016 by John Aldred Leave a Comment

Helene Schmitz is one of Sweden’s most successful art photographers. Her work focuses on the complicated and sometimes violent relationship between humans and nature. This idea has led to several award winning books, including her latest book Borderlands.

In this short documentary by photographer and filmmaker Johan Stahlberg, we get an insight into Helene’s thought process. We find out how her life went the way it did, and how it could’ve gone in another direction entirely.

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The SP-445 is a 4×5 film developing system that can fit in your backpack

Dec 17, 2015 by GB Leave a Comment

It’s safe now to say that film is anything but dead. More so now than ever, it seems photographers young and old are looking to get back to the days of darkrooms.

Recently, we shared with you the Filmomat, a completely automated film processing machine created from scratch.

Today, we have for you a less automated, but equally as interesting contraption. It’s called the SP–445 and it’s a compact and portable 4×5 film processing system.[Read More…]