Panoramic Photography
I love the panoramic format and have created many with my digital camera sticking several portrait images together in photoshop
- but what is the analogue route?
Lots of images to view in my Portfolio.
Al Vista - Clockwork Panoramic
Much more sophisticated than the later, similar Kodak Panoram - I am exploring the capability of this early 2oth Century camera.
View my initial work with this camera here.
Panoram Kodak 4D
Back in October 2022 I came across an unusual camera that I hadn’t seen the like of before - a panoramic camera. Designed by Kodak in 1890, this particular model (4D) was built between 1920 & 1926. A box camera, it’s the ugliest one I own, but looks aren’t everything as this this camera has a talent for swinging the spring-loaded lens through 142 degrees to project an image onto a huge 12”x4” (30x10cm) negative, held in a curve in the box.
Big Negatives!
These negatives make really good contact prints and I have been having a great time looking out for the kinds of scenes that are enhanced by this format. With 2 shutter speeds of 1/50 and 1/100s and a slot to drop in different sized “stops” there is plenty of scope to control the exposure. The fast shutter speeds mean the camera can be hand-held - but it must be level or the horizon becomes curved, unless that is done for artistic reasons.
Piers and bridges make great subjects - and we have plenty around Bristol and the coast to work with. The long walls and curved towers of the Bishop’s Palace in Wells are emphasised by the format.
“Leading lines” are a common feature of effective pictures and are particularly important here; otherwise there can be dead space with nothing of interest in the a large part of the scene.
Working on the old cameras often leaves me impressed with the simple ingenuity of the mechanisms created and it is rewarding to be able to use a camera that I have repaired and brought to life again to make pictures like these:
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Buy from Studio3 at Clevedon Craft Centre.
