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Editor's note: This excerpt first appeared in photographer and author Harold Davis' recent Focal Press book, Photographing Flowers: Exploring Macro Photography with Harold Davis.
The closer you...
View Camera
Technique by Leslie Stroebel 1999 Focal Press. ISBN 0240803450. You can
order this book from
amazon.com
Les Stroebel is chairman of the Department of Photographic Technology at the
Rochester Institute of Technology and one of the authors of
"the big textbook". I've never met the guy,
but I'm thinking that he must be pretty old because this book has been through
six editions.
This is a very good book. If it were your only source for photographic
information then you'd still be able to take great pictures. Everything is in
here with examples semi-specific to view cameras. For example, there are sections
on film types and exposure curves somewhat similar to what you'd find in a
serious general photography textbook.
View cameras are especially well served of course. All of the view camera
movements are explained with line drawings and photographic examples. Since it
just goes on and on for hundreds of pages, I think you'd have a hard time
absorbing it all unless you supplemented the book with some hands-on experience
and Polaroids.
The final treat of the book is a comprehensive buyer's guide to cameras and
lenses. You will never find this information in any other convenient form. There
is no salesman at any camera store who has really used more than a handful of the
100 or so view cameras on the market. Stroebel includes about 80 specs on each
camera, e.g., how many degrees of back tilt are available. If you've come from
the 35mm camera world, you might find this surprising. After all, wouldn't the
book quickly become out of date? Well, as it turns out the pace of innovation in
view camera design is rather slower than in 35mm SLRs or point and shoots.
I liken view camera photography to software development. The tools are almost
exactly the same as they were decades ago. The difference is that view camera
photographers know that they are using the same tools as their
fathers. Programmers at Microsoft use C and generate the same sorts of bugs in
the same sorts of ways as their forebears in the 1950s; view camera photographers
struggle with the same issues of composition and perspective control in the same
way as their forebears in the 1880s.
So it is your choice: splurge on a new edition of this book
or dig up an old one in the library. You can't really do
much with a view camera until you've absorbed the information in this book.
This book is a tough read and best used in small doses. The book by Steve Simmons on the view camera is a better starting point for anyone wanting to dive into large format photography.
I have read both "View Camera Technique" (VCT) and
Jim Stone's "A User's Guide to the View Camera"
(VC).
While VCT has great pictures, I found VC to be
much more accessable on a first read. I can read
VC for a few evening during the week and then go
out with my view camera and a Polaroid back and
figure out what's going on.
After you have been using view camera for a bit,
go and get VCT.
If you want to be a great photographer, go out and
take lots of pictures, don't spend so much time
reading books.
The new edition (1999) includes a greatly expanded section on digital imaging (and list prices on digital backs... depressing), including some technique. The rest of the content seems to be mostly the same, some of the examples are clearer, and better pinhole information is presented.
VCT is pleasantly comprehensive. It may be a little too much at first, but it will explain to you exactly why that swing didn't work like you thought it would.
If you REALLY want to learn how to use a view camera, then Strobel's View Camera Technique is THE book. I won't argue with others when they say it's not an easy read, but sometimes you just have to put forth some effort to learn something! It's such a good book, you'll refer to it often throughout your career. I've had mine for over 30 years.
