shooting 4x5 blind?

[jnanian]

hi scott

bracket your exposures a bit
and see which one looks the best.

good luck.
(i always shoot blind)

john

[Bruce Watson]

IMHO, shooting polaroids is a crutch. Not having your crutch means you'll have to learn how to better control your own workflow to produce properly exposed film. It'll take some effort, but it's clearly doable. There's a huge number of LF photographers out there that have never used instant film for anything. Sadly this is one reason Polaroid exited the film business while Ilford and Kodak continue on.

I have never used any kind of instant film. Instead I learned the Zone System and practiced my ass off. Now I typically make exactly one exposure for any photograph I make, and I very, very seldom miss on exposure. My process is accurate, repeatable, and nearly automatic. I still screw up more often than not, but it's the bigger issues like my artistic vision (or lack thereof), not the craft of exposure and processing.

It all comes down to exposing for the shadows and developing for the highlights. In the end, it really is just that simple.

[singram]

I figured out what "shooting blind" means. It means not having a LCD screen and a histogram on the back of the camera to check exposure

All kidding aside, a friend of mine that does a lot of large format work uses a small digital camera that has manual controls, to shoot "Polaroids" so to speak of the scene before shooting film. Mainly to check the light, and an approximation of cropping and dof.