Picdude Loc: Ohio

Kuzano mentioned in another thread that he had a very good business going selling film photography equipment, a growing segment of which is ULF. What exactly is ULF (Ultra-Large Format?) and for what reasons/scenarios would someone prefer film and/or large format?

Darkroom317 Loc: Mishawaka, IN

My understanding is that it is 11x14 and up. 4x5 to 8x10 are considered large format. Preferred reason, better resolution more dynamic range and camera movements.

Searcher Loc: Kent, England

I retired from the quality commercial printing industry two years ago, and was dealing with major ad agencies.

Their images were supplied as:

Digital images as digital pdfs or photoshop files complete with mediocre dynamic range and limited colour space

35 mm film (better dynamic range and much bigger colour space)

4x5 and 8 x 10 transparencies, these were usually a joy to work with, a huge dynamic colour range and colour space, and most important almost continuous tone even after holistic scanning to separate into CMYK.

Retouching the transparencies is an art form that began to die out more than ten years ago, but there are a few specialists still left.

Picdude Loc: Ohio

So is the film and large format more suited to larger size prints and graphics? I would presume that for something book or magazine size digital photography would more than likely suffice - the size of the picture in something like that would not do full justice to the quality of the print?

Searcher Loc: Kent, England

I will not fall into the trap of saying that the sheer size of the medium makes for the higher quality, because that is not necessarily so.

Most magazines and ad brochures now are compiled with digital imagery. My speciality was fine art which included some really special photography. Four colour process (CMYK) was augmented by adding more colours to the mix. You may be aware that CMYK is a limited colour space, so we would add different shades of red and yellow, making it anything up to 10 colour process.

Our largest press was a 6 colour machine, so the paper would have to pass three time through, first just on dampers to stretch the paper, second with 4, 5 or 6 colours, third pas is with the remaining colours and a transparent coating.

Digital photography has a relatively small colour space, sRGB, Adobe RGB and ProPhoto. There are others, but none as large as a well shot piece of film.

HDR photography is making its way into the commercial printing market, but as yet its impact on the fine art printing is still rather low.

In my previous post I mentioned "holistic" scanning, the word is "scholastic", instead of ink dots being placed in a uniform manner, the ink dots are of different sizes and placed in different patterns on the paper.

f8lee Loc: New Mexico

Very interesting story, @Searcher.

I believe the term you meant was "stochastic" - defined as "randomly determined; having a random probability distribution or pattern that may be analyzed statistically but may not be predicted precisely."

imagemeister Loc: mid east Florida

Ken Rockwell has much good to say about film photography on his website .......very good reading !

Searcher Loc: Kent, England

Two errors in one thread, I am having a bad day. Thank you.

4ellen4 Loc: GTA--Ontario

In film photography there is a better resolution. And the larger the camera camera negative--4 x 5 etc the larger an image can be printed.

the info that member here Seacher had posted is very true and to the point

hope this helps answer your question

Darkroom317 Loc: Mishawaka, IN

At small enlargements one generally does not see much difference between large formats. However, when the print gets bigger, even 11x14, it becomes apparent. I looked at one of my dad's digital prints after shooting and printing 4x5 film for several months. The difference was amazing. The digital print was soft, low resolution and blurry in comparison to same size print from 4x5.

f8lee Loc: New Mexico

When all things are equal, then yes, larger format imaging systems (film or digital) will create better enlargements, if only because they need less enlarging. That is, a 4x5 sheet of film must merely be doubled to make an 8x10" print, whereas a shot taken with an APS-C sensor (or half-frame 35MM film camera) needs to be enlarged 10 times as much or more.

However, that said, not all things are equal - the lens has a lot to do with it too. Large format lenses, most of which were designed long ago, were not built with the ability to resolve as many lines per millimeter as modern glass. This image, as an example, was taken with an FX DSLR with 12MP yet holds it sharpness to poster size (for which I used Perfect Resize, as another poster here mentioned).

http://www.fatelyfoto.com/Flora/index.html#walkabout.jpg

Of course, on the relatively low resolution of a screen you cannot tell (plus this is a low res image), but at 300dpi you can count the pollen granules on the pistil (or is it stamen?) if you're so inclined.

The point is, it's hard to compare apples to apples; some DSLRs (and some lenses for them) are just better than others.

Kuzano

Kuzano here, and I want to thank Searcher for the information he posted. He said concisely what I could never do in so few words. I never know when to stop when explaining aspects of subject I know "something" about.

Others have noted how verbose my posts get, and I have been called "loquatious" by some.

So thank you Searcher.

ULF does involve the handling of film up to 20X24 inches and likely larger. X-Ray film is popular in the ULF field.

How big??? Well, somewhere in my archives, I have information about a fellow who built an enclosed trailer to pull behind his vehicle. The tailgate closes light tight and there is a "pinhole" in the center of the tailgate. He loads film, or a light sensitive coating on the front of the trailer and exposes it for a "really big" shot.

I'm not sure what the fine details are, but that is "Extreme ULF"

And somebody said "film is dead" HaH!!!! :thumbup:

Kuzano

Trailer Obscura

Here is one small link to a trailer used as a camera....There are more out there.

http://trailerobscura.com/

Oh yes, and for those wanting to stay shy of ULF.... Remember that the sensor area of a 4X5 Film camera (the light sensitive part) is already 13 times the size of the sensor in a FF digital camera.

And I am awaiting the delivery of two of these, currently being constructed from a KickStarter campaign that went way over the top in 30 days. Donors purchased 1,500 cameras Production nearing completion:

https://wanderlustcameras.com/

And lastly... 4X5 as Fine Art....

A friends web site, same LF camera, Same Three Lense, second film choice for 30 years. His equipment is long paid for:

http://www.brucejackson.com/

GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

Simple! Love the engineering.
This worth a look if only to see the website design.

bkyser Loc: Fly over country in Indiana

I still have an 8x10 portrait camera (gathering dust in a corner, with various other items) I'd sell it, but my daughter wants my "stuff" when I die. I can't imagine how large an 11x14 format camera would be.