Andrew, I'm with Andy on this one. Just give it a try. You bet you'll get falloff. When I shoot 4x5 using 50mm of focal length, the fall-off is a good 2-3 stops from center to corner. Not only that, but with a focal length that barely covers the film (or even doesn't), you can get very interesting distortion of near objects. Even when I've gone radical, and used a mere 18mm of focal length for 4x5, and ended up with a 1-1/2 inch circular image on the sheet plus the usual falloff, it's still been interesting and provocative. I find the results so worthwhile that when I designed my 7x17 camera, I deliberately chose a focal length of six inches so it barely will cover the film corner to corner. That one still isn't up and running yet, so I can't vouch for the results. I'll tell you, though, the edges are going to look just fine, no matter what they look like.
Some of the photographers who participated in this year's Pinhole Exchange showed just how interesting an image can become if we embrace this "edge problem" that's making you hesitate. I'm thinking of Ingo Guenther's image of a church and (one of my absolute favorites) David Balihar's "simple" image of fruit rotting in a field. Each of them achieved a stunning effect by working with the falloff. In fact, I think that one reason Ingo's is so strong, is because even without falloff, the image is overwhelmed by negative space. The edge falloff actually contributes to the eye's impression that the brightly lit church is having to fend off darkness and shadows. Another good example is Michael Vaughan's, which was shot from inside a 35mm film canister. How much focal length does one of THOSE give you?! All of them terrific examples of what you can achieve with a focal length that's, ahem, "too short". Mike Healy ----- Original Message ----- From: "andy schmitt" <aschm...@warwick.net> To: <pinhole-discussion@p at ???????> Sent: Saturday, March 15, 2003 1:44 PM Subject: RE: [pinhole-discussion] 6x22 pinhole camera coverage?! try it. I have a 4x5 that does about a 30mm focal length. The fall off is a really neat effect. You can crop it if you don't like it for the particular image. andy -----Original Message----- From: pinhole-discussion-admin@p at ??????? [mailto:pinhole-discussion-admin@p at ???????]On Behalf Of Andrew Amundsen Sent: Saturday, March 15, 2003 2:48 PM To: pinhole-discussion@p at ??????? Subject: Re: [pinhole-discussion] 6x22 pinhole camera coverage?! The camera is said to have a 60mm focal length. Does anyone have experience with images made that wide, nearly 8.5 inches, from such a focal lenth (at f/360) on 120 film? Are the edges even useful at that extreme? I guess what I'm getting at is this camera a gimmick? Will the user most likey have to crop only the center portion of the neg. for a usable image and not really get the full 22cm effect? What do you think? Thanks, Andrew ---------- >From: Scott Sellers <scottsell...@mindspring.com> >> Andrew Amundsen <a...@tcinternet.net> wrote (snip): >> My inquiry is regarding how an image would look from such a >> long neg.? The stated aperture size is f/360. Would the edges >> suffer from extreme distortion? I'm surprised that the coverage >> would even fill that length of 22cm!? >> >> They share no images produced with said camera so I have >> doubts, with my limited understanding of pinhole imagery, to >> how good the detail would be at the extremes? >> >> Anyone care to enlighten us with some expertise? >> > The main factor when considering coverage is focal length. To > get an idea of how a particular FL will cover various formats, > you could make say an 8x10 a camera of the same focal length, > shoot some images, then mask off the negative size you are > considering, be it 6x6, 6x9, 6x22, 4x5, 5x7, etc. > > cheers, > Scott _______________________________________________ Post to the list as PLAIN TEXT only - no HTML Pinhole-Discussion mailing list Pinhole-Discussion@p at ??????? unsubscribe or change your account at http://www.???????/discussion/ _______________________________________________ Post to the list as PLAIN TEXT only - no HTML Pinhole-Discussion mailing list Pinhole-Discussion@p at ??????? unsubscribe or change your account at http://www.???????/discussion/
