Large Format Photography Australia

Round Stair Well




Afternoon Lattice

Both are 4x5 negative scanned and digitally prepared & presented.

Superb formal qualities! The large camera facilitates these chanceless compositions that elevate looking into seeing.

Thank you very much Maris. I have always favored seeing over looking.

This is my interpretation of afternoon lattice.



I liked the CND symbol on door lamp. Didn't notice that when I shot it!

Alastair Moore wrote:This is my interpretation of afternoon lattice.



I liked the CND symbol on door lamp. Didn't notice that when I shot it!

Alastair you must have exposed this only a few minutes after Walter's shot, the shadows have moved but not much. And the camera positions look identical within a few centimetres. But what a difference. Walter has accentuated the rectilinear formal qualities of the subject by "squaring up" the camera but your version has the film plane skew to the building frontage and the lattice work converges obliquely off to the left; a much jazzier (?) composition. Putting the rough stones and the steps at the bottom again accentuates the informal.

I guess the differences come down to a sense of design versus a sense of place.

Well spotted Maris,

As a rule I do tend towards the formal and geometric - and especially in this case where I am hoping to make a series on verandahs and fretwork.

I shot from the pavement opposite with a 210mm and Alastair shot from the roadway with a 150mm in a choreography of avoiding passing cars.

We'd met up and went for a drive though the cramped suburban streets of Kirribilli in quest of a motif. We saw this and I thought, 'I'll have a play". We parked a block away and on the way I saw the white façade with the stair well. All a bit of fun.

Alastair's pic is highly commendable - especially in view of him risking life and limb and show a number of differences in additions to the aligned vs unaligned viewpoint.

I have gone for a brighter rendering over all to try and maintain the glare and intensity of the lattice whereas he has taken it sort of a Zone down. And I have opened up the shadows a Zone or two more, again to capture a sense of glowing afternoon light.

In my mind the key thing here is that two guys can shoot within feet of each other at roughly the same time of day and each put their individual stamp, or vision, on a scene.

It can't get much better than that, can it?

Thanks for the feedback and encouragement chaps! I suspect the brightness is probably due to my inability to scan properly more than anything - I'd like to get the negative on a lightbox and see if it is a stop darker than it looks.

I've got the betterscanning.com film holder which I've been experimenting with, with mixed results. I've been trying it with both Vuescan and the Epson V700 scan software and I'm finding that sometimes it scans in really, really bright, other times dull as dishwater, occasionally perfect. But then I can put the negative on the Epson film holder and it looks fine. Sometimes the BS film holder works perfectly with the Epson software, other times not. I've not quite figured out what the variable is! I'm sticking with the Epson film holder for the time being as that's what I'm getting best results with but missing the sharpness from the BS film holder!