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This short film hilariously parodies that first 8×10 large format experience

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At some point or another, many photographers will get the idea into their heads that maybe, one day, they’d like to have a go at shooting large format film. For those who shoot digital, it’s often a far-fetched fantasy. But for those already working with 35mm and medium format film, the idea isn’t quite so crazy.

In this hilarious short film, Jason Kummerfeldt from grainydays beautifully expresses that first 8×10 large format film experience and he does it in the entirely pretentious way that most of us hear from some large format film shooters. And it’s absolutely brilliant.

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How I shot this wet plate portrait of a sword-wielding medieval knight

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The task was clear – an original portrait of a Medieval Knight Sword Fighter (national champion).

So I planned to do a collodion wet plate of a knight with his armour and sword. My first thought was, that an original armor has no “color” so to say. You just see the reflections of the environment. That was the reason I wanted to shoot the first portrait in my garden. Unfortunately, the weather gods were against us and just after when we started a thunderstorm was on its way.

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Intrepid cuts straight down the middle with their new lightweight 5×7 large format camera

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Large format cameras typically come in two sizes these days. They’re either 8×10″ or the more common 4×5″. But there is a size in between, and that’s 5×7″, and now the British large format camera manufacturer, Intrepid has added one to their line up.

About the new Intrepid 5×7, they say it offers all of the features you’d expect from a traditional 5×7″ camera, but at a fraction of the cost and weight, coming in at a mere 1.4kg. It uses many of the same parts that Intrepid uses in their 4×5 and 8×10 models, including fully independent front standard movements and linear focus.

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How to build a DIY 4×5 large format digital scanning back from a portable flatbed scanner

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Large format film still holds a huge draw for a lot of photographers. It has a look that the relatively tiny digital sensors today (yes, even the medium format ones) just aren’t capable of. But shoot large format on film can be a laborious task. For many, the end result is worth it, but if you want slightly more immediate results, digital scanning backs are the solution.

The problem is, digital scanning backs for 4×5 cameras can be very expensive (and they’re not exactly common). In this video, Sean at Fotodiox shows us how we can turn a simple small portable flatbed scanner into a digital scanning back for a large format camera.

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How we built Bertha – A large format camera that will shoot 1.1×1.1 metre slides

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It’s called Bertha, it’s a gigantic camera built out of a desire to find out what photography can reveal beyond certain limits.

From the first moment I started experimenting I sensed that there are still many ways to go, past and present can merge, just as old and new technologies, historical knowledge can find new contemporary interpretations.

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How to make your own DIY ground glass focusing screens for large format cameras

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These days, if you want to shoot large format, you might have difficulty finding replacement parts. Large format cameras aren’t exactly as common as they used to be, and there aren’t many companies making spare parts for older ones these days, or creating custom pieces for odd-sized cameras.

In this video, though, photographer Markus Hofstätter walks us through how we can make our own ground glass focusing screens at whatever size we need.

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Ektachrome 120 and 4×5 formats will be available in the next ten days, Kodak confirms

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In early 2019, Kodak announced the comeback of Ektachrome 120 roll film and large format sheet film. After keeping us waiting for almost a year, it seems that we’re now only days away from the official launch. According to Kodak, the Ektachrome 120mm and 4×5 film will be available to order worldwide within the next ten days.

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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.

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This photographer turned a broken computer into a working large format camera

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What would you do with a computer you used 20 years ago? Most of us would take it to a recycling center, perhaps feel a bit emotional about ditching it, and that’s about it. But Iranian photographer Alireza Rostami had other plans for his old, broken computer. He dismantled it and turned it into a working large format camera.

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