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Kraftwagen König
Hello Mike,BMWFREAK said:
a contact print is where you place the negative (or transparency) directly against the photographic paper (rather than project the image onto the paper) -- if you look at photographs from the early twentieth century, you might notice how shaprly in focus they appear to be, this is usually because those images were contact printed -- the print is the same size as the actual negative.
The quality of images photographed on such large sheets of film is superior to anything digital technology can yet match ...but in time I have no doubt that will change ....but it is some time away yet.
Large format film comes as sheets (rather than rolls) and several different sizes are available -- 5X7" is probably the most common size.
The cameras look really ancient and are technically quite simple -- a bellows with a lens at one end and a film holder at the other end, the shutter is in the lens. You focus the image on the large glass screen (the picture is upside-down and reversed) when you are ready to take the photograph you cock the lens shutter and slide the film holder into place -- remove it's "dark slide" (the screen that covers the film on the film holder) and press the shutter release.
As you can see these cameras are rather cumbersome and require a lot of patience, they are not for snapshots -- these are cameras for serious portraiture or high-end commercial use-- these are the types of cameras used by people like Richard Avedon, Annie Liebowitz, or Robert Mapplethorpe. They are generally not very suitable for on-location work -- for that you would be better to use a large-format field camera like the one below. It looks like something from the distant past but this is very much a professional camera at a very high level -- the lenses made for these types of cameras are among the best available.
Of course most of these types of view cameras are also compatible with digital accessories -- like this Sinar -- the bellows allows the photographer to manipulate the perspective of an image -- this can be vital for professional architectural photography.
Here is a photograph (of a photograph) by Richard Avedon -- you can see the benefit of such large film when you blow the image up to poster size -- the detail and sharpness is quite extraordinary. I like the way they didn't crop the edges of the film when they printed the image (you can see the edge of the film on the print) -- there's a kind of raw honesty about it.
And finally, this is a self portrait by Richard Avedon -- in it he is holding up a negative of a photograph of himself -- you can see how large the sheets of film he uses are ..no wonder his images are so sharp and life-like when blown-up to poster size.
