Real life shutter speeds of 4x5

[Alexz]

In my move to LF, I was just pointed by someone who gained cetain limited experience with 4x5, that due to regular working apertures being quite small (around f/22), usual shutter speeds for landscape and other outdoors work are usually slow (slower then 1/20 sec) which raises the issue of even slow motion not beign able to be frozen, even though the lenses usually go as fast as in MF, i.e. up to 1/500 sec.
I.e. shootign landscape with foreground tree, and there is a slight breeze moving the leafs, it would be impossible to obtain totally sharp image (including leafs).

From my MF experience, most useful apertures are f/9 - f/16 and obtaining shutter speeds in the range of 1/60-1/250 isn't something rare.

Is this the real case with LF ? What are average shutter speeds in 4x5 for landscape/architecture work ?

[David H. Bebbington]

I usually find myself shooting at f16 to f22 at anything from 1/60 to several minutes, probably most often at 1/15 to 1/4. If action stopping is an issue (for example, leaves blowing in a wind), certain workers will use the technique of giving several shorter exposures instead of one long one (e.g. if 1 sec is needed, give this in steps of 1/8 sec. - probably about 12 would be needed as the equivalent of 1 continuous exposure of 1 sec.). Personally I don't find the blur disturbing but this technique does work if you feel the need (of course you need a really rigid camera and tripod!).

Regards,

David

[Donsta]

I would say that apertures wider than f22 are not used often for general landscape and architectural work. This means shutter speeds above 1/100s are used very seldom. I shoot Tmax100 at 64 and frequently have exposures between 1/4 and 1 second. For interiors, you can be anywhere - keep your reciprocity data on hand!

[Donald Miller]

The actual shutter speeds will obviously depend on the film used. I find that I sometimes expose at 1/30 second...more usually at 1/4 to 1/15 for outdoor subjects using TriX (EI 200). Those times would be one stop slower with Efke.

Large format does have another aspect that is not available for medium format. Through the judicious use of camera movements you can adjust the plane of focus in ways that are not available with medium format. In medium format one would achieve depth of field by stopping down the lens. In large format, I use movements before I get involved with stopping down the lens.

With 4X5 I try to never stop down beyond F32...more usually F8 to F16.

[PeterDendrinos]

I would say most of my work is in the f45 area @ 1/15 or longer. it's very common to shoot 1 second or more.

Pete

[Alexz]

Thank you guys.
Apaprently confirms the info I was shared by.
David, I'm not sure I ot your point of multiple exposure:
the leafs are consatntly in move, so each subsequent frame out of the multiple exp. sequence (on signle frame) catches different leaf position which creates blur.
Am I wrong ?

[Alexz]

Yes Donald, fully agree.
However I used to shoot Velvia 50, so this issue amy become even more drastic...
BTW, the movements is exactly the reason I'm getting sucked by LF :-), not by the original size (though 4x5 sounds great even comparative to 6x7 I used to).
Frankly, wuold there be MF 6x7 system allowing movements that at least would come close to the abilities of field folders, I would be morethen happy with 6x7 format.

[David H. Bebbington]

Thank you guys.
Apaprently confirms the info I was shared by.
David, I'm not sure I ot your point of multiple exposure:
the leafs are consatntly in move, so each subsequent frame out of the multiple exp. sequence (on signle frame) catches different leaf position which creates blur.
Am I wrong ?

You would make efforts to make your exposures when the leaves were as still as possible - they're more likely to stop for 1/8 sec. than a whole second. If you manage to make one or two exposures with the leaves still and the other exposures are blurred, the image will still look sharper than if you'd given just one long exposure. Of course the image in this case will not be strictly sharp, but it will be more defined and will not look quite as blurred out to nothing.

[Ole]

Most of mine are exposed between 20 seconds and 1/200. Sometimes I want small aperture and long exposures, at other times I want wide open and find typical fastest shutter times limiting. So I really, really like slow films... You can always use a longer exposure time, but when the fastest is 1/75 you have a problem with ISO 400 film at f:4.5!

[Alexz]

Thanks Ole.
It seem I'm getting the point. Not that scary as I was suspecting...