I went out and took a couple of photos with my intrepid 4x5 today, and found out some things. First of all it was rather hot outside, even though I went out early. And then there were some process issues:
- Accidentally double exposed one holder.
- Left the aperture open fully for one shot .
- Didn't quite know what to do with all the movements, made some shots with a slightly tilted lens.
- I didn't have a well established order of operations yet.
- The tripod was a bit cumbersome, both getting to the location and on location itself.
- Only took 6 shots, while there was more to photograph.
- There is some weird stuff on the negatives after development.
This is kind of what I signed up for, I should have stayed with an automatic 35mm camera if I wanted it to be easy. The thing I'm (re)discovering with 4x5 photography is that there are a lot of separate steps that are automated away in even the simplest 120 roll film camera. I have to slow down a lot and consciously go through each step.
Right now I'm in the "Ugh, I have to solve this problem" phase. Eventually I'll figure it out and it will become a bit easier. Luckily past me bought 100 sheets of film, so I have some material for experimentation.
