articles/Nature/tiltandshift-page4

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

by Paul Gallagher Published 01/08/2009

You should be mindful that small changes in tilt lead to large changes in the focus plane angle, and that tilt is correspondingly less influential as the tilt angle increases. The most common mistake I have seen while teaching clients and students large-format camera movements is over estimating the amount of tilt needed. Just dialling in 5 degrees of tilt to get a Scheimpflug effect on a normal landscape is usually far too much and the photographer is left confused and frustrated that their composition has not 'snapped' into pin-sharp focus.

Generally applying the principles I had used for many years made the use of the Nikkor very easy indeed and the overall ease of having the exposure preview available with a histogram was a treat! The real test was the final image. Having made many exposures on my trip and pushing the lens to its limits, when back at home I began to look at the RAW files on my monitor - I was impressed. Although my main concern was the performance of the lens itself, the D3x camera had also performed excellently and I was presented with clean, crisp results which I could easily print up to a size of A2 and beyond, without any loss of quality.

The 24mm PC-E lens stopped to a maximum of f11 offered me some stunning results and when I had had the time to process my black and white sheet films I must confess there was little difference in terms of image sharpness and definition. This did however leave me with something of a conundrum - do I carry on with my large format camera? At this moment there a few reasons that are stopping me. The cost of replacing all my equipment would currently be crippling because I would need the D3x along with a range of lenses as well as the 24mm PC-E, and secondly a scan of my 5x4 negative can easily produce images that can fill a wall and I have printed images in the past up to 5 feet by 7 feet in size! The benefits are the opportunity to have colour and monochrome images from the same capture and the costs of film and processing chemicals soon adds up.

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