Large format has been a part of my corpus since college, but after a 10 year lull, I’ve shot more LF this calendar year than at any point since I used a technical camera to do street photography for an undergrad project.
The big addition to my stable this spring was a nearly 100 year old Agfa Ansco 8x10, which I specifically got to shoot portraits with, and I have used it for that purpose, and it’s an amazing tool, humbling and frustrating in turn, but I’m just in love with the huge paper negatives I’ve pulled from the soup this year.
Jamaica Pond boat docks, 8 seconds @ f45, 250mm.
However portraits are not the only thing I like to shoot with LF, and so, craving a little exhaustion, I loaded the 8x10, tripod, and a backpack full of the bits and bobs needed to make even the simplest exposure, threw it all on my cargo bike, and spent a few hours making a few frames around the neighborhood.
On the shore of Jamaica Pond, 30 seconds @ f32, 250mm
So is it worth it? Hauling the massive beast and it’s accessories out to make these shots? For me, on paper, the way I shoot, no, it’s not. Maybe occasionally, but by and large no. One of my significantly smaller, lighter 4x5 options, one of which is featherweight without movements and the other slightly larger with limited movements and a wide lens selection, just make so much more sense. I am sure there will be times when I haul the big boy out for not portraits, but when I shoot LF around town it’s an extension of how I shoot smaller formats, wandering, looking for the shot, working deliberately but quickly, and moving on to the next, and while 4x5 does slow me down in comparison to digital or 35mm, I’m still in and out with the shot.
This really reinforces something I had always known deep down, which is that 8x10 to me is all about subject separation with the longer focal lengths inherent to the format. Full body environmental portraits, 250mm, f11, that background is a beautifully blurry field that contrasts so nicely with the crisp and deeply detailed subject. On paper, which is again all I shoot in LF currently, the difference in detail stopped down near infinity between 4x5 & 8x10 is largely lost, and makes for sometimes unmanageable file sizes. So I’ll save the big sheets for people, for human connection, and always have it in my back pocket when I simply want to carry 50lbs of camera gear on a bicycle.