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Bill Lawson

Get that 4×5 large format look by photographing the ground glass of a large format camera

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Large format film is something that many photographers would like to experiment with if it wasn’t such an expensive way of shooting. There are a number of great inexpensive options out there for cameras, like those from companies like Chroma, but the film is still relatively expensive. Even black and white film can work out to almost $2 per photo – and you don’t even know if you’ve got the shot until you’ve developed it.

But what about photographing what that large format camera sees with your DSLR? Will it still give you the same look that you’d get if you’d shot with the large format camera? That’s a question that photographer Bill Lawson explored over this three video series to see if he could find a definitive answer.

Comparing Real film grain to Adobe Lightroom film grain

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In my never ending search for that “special” photographic look that sets me apart from the competition, I recently discovered that overexposing film increases the grain and adds a vintage pictorial look to my images. So I wanted to explore that look further. To that end, I wanted to find out if this film grain can be copied in the digital world using Adobe Lightroom. So I went out and shot a few rolls of film and shot the same images with my digital camera. I used the same lens and F stop for each image. (Well, almost the same F stop. I made a few mistakes but it was close enough for my purposes)

How dynamic range compares on film vs digital

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The film vs digital argument has been going on since DSLRs first hit the market a couple of decades ago. But it doesn’t seem to be dying any time soon, especially with films popularity growing again. One of the big debates between the two formats that regularly pops up is that of dynamic range.

So, photographer Bill Lawson put it to the test. He shot some Kodak T-Max 100 in a Nikon N90s vs the more recent Nikon D750 DSLR using the Nikon 135mm f/2 AF-D DC lens on both to see how they compare.

The ultimate portrait bokeh shootout – Crop vs full frame vs large format

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When it comes to the discussion fo bokeh, we often hear of the “benefits of full frame”. There are many comparisons out there all over the web, extolling the virtues of a larger sensor, and how a full frame mirrorless or DSLR is the “ultimate”. It’s really not, though, if that’s your goal, which this video from photographer Bill Lawson sets out to prove.

In this side-by-side shootout, he compares a Nikon D7000 DX body, along with a Nikon D700 full frame DSLR and 4×5 large format. He uses 50mm, 85mm and 300mm lenses to achieve a similar field of view with each of the different cameras, and gets to work.

7 DIY gobos using items from around your home

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Gobos can be wonderful things. They’re essentially stencils or templates that go between the light and your subject. They’re designed to help shape the light and project patterns. But you don’t have to cut them out of card yourself. You can use pretty much anything to cast a shadow on your subject or the backdrop. In this video from photographer Bill Lawson, we see 7 household items that we can turn into DIY gobos.

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