Why did my son make THAT camera movement?

[jp80874]

At what point should I step in and gently direct him to the "right" way to use a LF camera?

"There ARE no standards" -Jim Dow

I don't know. Three of mine have a front and rear standard. The fourth, a macro 8x10 with 60 inchs of bellows has a middle standard as well. I have always been fond of the middle ground where you can take a look while the ones at the end take the beating.

John Powers

[BrianShaw]

Use reverse psychology: look at his image intently, stroke your beard/chin (whichever comes first) and slowly say something about the "artisic qualities" the image holds. Then suggest printing it really big and offering it for sale. He'll either fess up that it isn't the image he was hoping for and perhaps ask for some fatehrly guidance... or he'll sell it for lot$ and lot$ of money and you can live off of him for a while.

[domaz]

I recently saw an artist who basically all she does is pictures based on strong and wild view camera movements. Selective focus is very big artistically right now..

[Greg Davis]

www.keithcarterphotographs.com

[keithwms]

Indeed the selective focus thing is quite a fad at the moment. Mind you, I am all for any fad that gets people thinking more about LF. Most people who try lensbabies don't feel satisfied, so... I say let the LFers go on and throw everything out of whack and show off what can be done by Scheimpflug. Whether it is to be valued as art is probably not going to be determined in the here and now anyway.

Anyway, just for your reading enjoyment...

http://uvamagazine.org/photo_gallery...lle/monticello

[olleorama]

Ok,

I bought my 21 year old son a 4x5 monorail, lens/lensboard, tripod, film holders, and 50 sheets of Tri-X. He has access to my library of photography related books including several dedicated to large format photography. He even read a couple of them.

His first day of shooting, he invited me along. I watched as he made these torturous and entirely unnecessary camera movements where his subject required almost no movements. I'd look at his ground glass and bite my toungue rather than point out that if he just backed off on the rear swing, moderated the front rise... etc, he'd have a tack sharp image.

Yes, he recognizes that the images he made are "twisted". He likes that. Imagine a cone shaped building whose image on a 4x5 negative is mostly out of focus except for a narrow horizontal band in the middle that is tack sharp. I've held my opinion in, knowing he is exploring his own vision.

At what point should I step in and gently direct him to the "right" way to use a LF camera?

You are very welcome to adopt me. I will follow your guidance very closely when you are accompanying me if you are willing to donate the before mentioned photographic equipment. Please contact me and my lawyer for details in our service level agreement.

Regards.

EDIT: And judging by your name you could mentor me in road racing too, or at least sponsor me.

[Cheryl Jacobs]

Perhaps he is not interested in photography as a literal art form? Some of my favorite works have very little to do with how things actually look, and are much more an expression of the photographer's personality, perspective, and sensitivities.

[Bosaiya]

Beat him senseless while shouting at him about how he's no son of yours. That's what I do with my kids, it works great!

That or take your camera along with you, together, make some photographs together, and later while sharing a nice beverage talk about the photos you made together. Tell him what inspired you to make yours and ask him about his decisions. Who knows, maybe you'll be surprised.

It's kind of an indirect route and not nearly as fun as the first, but he's old enough that his hitting you back may have actual consequences.

[Leighgion]

I should have mentioned before that frankly unrealistic distortion of images is rooted in an artistic traditional that's had far-reaching artistic influences: German Expressionism.

Call it a matter of varying taste, but if I had a 21-year-old son, I'd think he was much cooler trying to make his own Caligari images rather than wanting to be just like Ansel Adams.

[Michel Hardy-Vallée]

I would say offer yourself to explain to him what is the effect of each individual camera movement. Knowing that, he will be empowered to make even crazier images, or realize that he's "makin' a mess" as was said above.

It's fun for a while to randomly use a technical tool, and it's a great means of discovery, but after that, you need to understand how it works to make it useful, expand your abilities, find your own voice, or deepen the implementation of your intentions.

Random is only really fun at the beginning. After that, it tends to turn into a frustration, because you can't reproduce that really cool random thing you did earlier.