articles/Nature/tiltandshift-page2

Tilt and Shift - part 2 of 1 2 3 4 5 6

by Paul Gallagher Published 01/08/2009

The move to large format was always something I had considered and I was often tempted after experiencing the huge leap in quality from 35mm to 6x7cm. The truth is that this was a very big leap. Although 5x4 gear was easily available, it posed two major problems for me. They were, having to buy all the associated equipment, dark-slides, focusing cloth, and focusing loupe, but even more concerning was the processing equipment such as tanks, a new enlarger and lens!

I did see sense, bit the bullet and acquired the wonderfully-engineered Walker Titan XL and later the Ebony 45SU. With these cameras I settled into a system, a fastidious routine in which everything was controlled by me and my work improved - I was achieving the standards I had always aimed for.

At this stage I was working almost entirely in film but the digital world was leaping forward and I was eventually tempted to move out of the darkroom for my print production and move into the office - by scanning my negatives and printing on Epson large-format printers. This process of large-format camera movements, hand processing films and scanning the negatives for digital output is a great way to work and I have never had detail problems or depth of field issues since.

Along with advances in printing, so has the production of more and more DSLRs and associated, matched lenses. Being predominantly a large- format film photographer I have happily watched as many cameras have been introduced along with newer and more advanced lens technology and always rested with the thought that no combination of DSLR and lens to date can get close to the performance and fine detail offered by my large format camera with movements.

In the past I have tried some of the DSLRs, and although I enjoyed using them and the convenience of the instant preview, which I have never had, they just did not do it for me as a landscape photographer. Several concerns always came to the fore, such as final image-size limitations, noise in the shadows and finally lack of movements, resulting in the loss of foreground definition. This perception was about to suddenly change when I was offered the chance of venturing out onto the Outer Hebrides with a Nikon D3x and the new Nikkor 24mm PC-E shift and tilt lens.

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