Choosing a 4x5 Camera and Lenses

November 1, 2020 Alex Burke

2020 Update

Since I last wrote this article nearly three years ago, the interest in large format film seems to have skyrocketed. With this comes a wealth of new users, many who have never set their eyes on a view camera. Initially this was a post I had put off for a long time for a variety of reasons, the foremost being that I’ve never talked too much about gear because I find large format cameras to be such simple devices that hardly have any level of modern technology. Another reason is because there's much more…

4x5 Lenses - Choosing the Best Focal Length

June 3, 2020 Alex Burke

Whether you’re just starting out with large format photography or looking for the next lens to expand your shooting style, choosing the proper focal length for the scene makes a big difference. What I’ve noticed with 4x5 is that unlike smaller formats, it’s a lot harder to pick out what focal length a photographer used when taking an image. When viewing an image shot on a DSLR of a flower bush pressed close to the lens and a grand mountain scene in the background, it’s often easy to tell that an extreme wide-angle lens was used. This becomes a little more difficult to pick out when a wide angle lens is 75mm compared to 24mm and distortion almost unnoticeable. This has led to a lot of people asking me “what focal length did you use for this image?”…

Recent Podcast Guest Appearances

March 3, 2020 Alex Burke

Over the past few months, I’ve had the honor of being a guest on two fantastic podcasts and it’s time to share them here for your listening pleasure. First, I was a guest on Adventures in Creativity hosted by David Szweduik, and second I was on Matt Payne’s podcast F-Stop Collaborate and Listen. Both of these podcasts have excellent hosts…

Flying with 4x5 Film - Hand Check Labels

February 12, 2020 Alex Burke

This is just going to be a quick one! As many of you may know, new CT scanners are being installed in airports around the world at a rapid pace. These new scanners are being used to inspect carry on baggage and Kodak has reported that only one pass through the scanner will destroy your film. For decades it has been the recommendation to simply let your film go through the carry on X rays, but that is no longer the case….

The Best of 2019

December 29, 2019 Alex Burke

It’s once again time for a retrospective of the last year, and what a year it was! While I’m not one to look at January 1st as a hard deadline for life goals, it’s still a good time to reflect and see what progress has been made and where growth is needed. I can truly say that this year was a strong close to the decade, it felt like one of those years where everything clicked and the images show it. This was a result of getting out there to photograph as much as possible along with taking a fresh look at my local landscape and…

Pushing the Dynamic Range of Color Negative Film

December 17, 2019 Alex Burke

“Sunflower Sunset” - Backlit scenes are no trouble with color negative film. A filter was left off for this image to avoid flare troubles with the sun. The foreground (also the important part) was average metered and the sky ignored when taking the … — “Sunflower Sunset” - Backlit scenes are no trouble with color negative film. A filter was left off for this image to avoid flare troubles with the sun. The foreground (also the important part) was average metered and the sky ignored when taking the meter reading. Ektar 100 4x5, 210mm lens, 2 seconds at f45, no filters.

Color negative film has increasingly become a larger part of my workflow over the last several years and with good reason: the flexibility of the stuff is just phenomenal. It can be used to capture all the delicate subtleties of a low contrast scene as well as landscape scenes with intense dynamic range. If you don’t know what you will be getting into when you head out for a shoot it’s an excellent choice because it can handle anything you throw at it, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be used for a specific purpose or aesthetic either. Color negatives are the film type that I get the most questions about, mostly because people see such a wide variety of looks coming out of the same film types…

Manual Inversion of Color Negative Film

October 17, 2019 Alex Burke

This one is for you DSLR scanning folks, or those who want more control out of your film scanner. It’s been just about three years now that I’ve been using a drum scanner which has drastically changed my scanning process with color negative film. While the software for this scanner is incredibly powerful, it falls apart when it comes to inverting color negatives. This means that I had to develop a method to do this on my own that can work for every image I throw at it. While I love sharing my findings with the film community, I wasn’t sure that a technique I developed for drum scanning would be helpful to the average shooter. It turns out that this manual inversion can work no matter what you use to scan your film with…

Metering and Shooting Kodak Portra Film

May 16, 2019 Alex Burke

“Luskentyre Morning” - Portra 400 645, 35mm lens, 1/2 second at f16, no filters

If you’ve been following me for a while - especially my recent work - you’ve probably noticed that I’ve got a passion for Portra. This film can have such a unique color palette that is flattering for many types of subjects and light conditions, but it’s also one of the films that I’ve gotten the most questions about when it comes to metering and shooting…

New Prairie Work 2019

March 7, 2019 Alex Burke

“Elevator Sunrise” - Colorado, January 2019

If you’ve been following me on Instagram lately, you’ve probably seen a new and different type of work coming from me in the recent months. While this series of images is still growing rapidly, I feel that now is a good time to share the beginnings and what I’ve created so far. Many of you know that I’ve photographed the plains of Colorado for, well, about as long as I’ve been photographing anything. It’s always been one of my favorite areas…

Using a Large Format Camera in the Dark

February 6, 2019 Alex Burke

“Twilight Spire” - Velvia 50 4x5, 135mm lens - 3 minutes at f22, no filters

If you’ve browsed through my images, chances are you’ve noticed that I’m a big fan of twilight and early morning light; the soft warm glow on the landscape is just sublime. Shooting in twilight comes with its own set of challenges, but those are greatly increased when trying to use a large format view camera. I’m going to share some tips that can help you out when the light is fading fast, or when you arrived well before sunrise and don’t want to miss the morning glow because you can’t see anything…

The Best of 2018

December 29, 2018 Alex Burke

As every year comes to a close it can be helpful to look back on the last year; while one could argue that the date of January 1st is arbitrary, a retrospective still puts a timeline to progress and is a chance to look back on how we’ve grown and where we can go. As a photographer, the best way to do this is by culling down the entire year into my absolute favorite images. I must admit that for 2018 this was a real challenge! I felt as though I’ve had one of the stronger years in a while…

Scanning and Editing Color Negative FIlm

December 19, 2018 Alex Burke

One of the top questions I get from other film photographers is “How do you get those colors out of your film scans?” This was true back in 2013 when I first wrote this post and it’s still true today, so it’s time for a complete overhaul of this article. We all grow as photographers and over time my process has been changed and tweaked ever-so-slightly. The scans that I’ve gotten the most questions about are my color negative images, particularly Kodak Ektar…

The New Intrepid 4x5 MK3 - Field Test and Review

November 12, 2018 Alex Burke

The new Intrepid MK3 4x5, looking good in red in the wild.

After a year of backpacking with the intrepid 4x5 camera, I realized I was really falling in love with the idea of just using a lightweight wooden box to create images. I used the “older” mk2 version last summer during several trips…

Backpacking with a 4x5 - 2018 Update

June 29, 2018 Alex Burke

My 4x5 camera in the wild, right where it belongs!

It’s been five years since I’ve last touched on this subject and I must admit a lot has changed since then. Backpacking has grown into an even larger part of how I create images, and the desire to go deeper into the wilderness while having the miles wear me out less has required more than a few “tweaks” to how I do things…

The Best of 2017

December 29, 2017 Alex Burke

With the new year just a few days away, it's time for one of my favorite annual blog posts where I get to look back on where the last year has taken me and think forward to where I'll go in 2018. I can't think of a better way to do this than by sharing the best images of 2017...

Drum vs Flatbed Scanner - Side by Side Comparison

December 18, 2017 Alex Burke

"Corn Lilies in the Rain" - A fresh image from the Tango drum scanner

Many of you who follow me on social media have heard that I acquired a drum scanner about a year ago. I spent much of the last year learning how to properly wet mount film and operate this beast of a machine. Now after scanning about a hundred sheets I now have some results to share...

Silence of the Wilderness - Backpacking in the Canadian Rockies

October 26, 2017 Alex Burke

"Rampart Range Sunrise" - A brief window of morning light illuminates the towering Rampart Range covered in fresh snow.  Prints available. — "Rampart Range Sunrise" - A brief window of morning light illuminates the towering Rampart Range covered in fresh snow. Prints available.

Aside from creating new images, one of the main reasons I venture out into truly wild areas is for the solitude, the peace, and the diversion from the noise of everyday life. We humans make an astounding amount of noise nearly all the time, often appearing as if that was our sole purpose of existence on this earth. Talking, driving, constructing, and entertaining all come with an incredible amount of noise...

Wind River Range Backpacking with the Intrepid Camera

August 30, 2017 Alex Burke

The Intrepid 4x5 Camera in the Cirque of the Towers, complete with my reflection in the ground glass.

I just wrapped up a nice 5 day backpacking trip in the Wind River Range of Wyoming, which gave me a great chance to become familiarized with the new Intrepid 4x5" field camera. If you're not familiar with the Wind River Range, it's a huge area with over a thousand alpine lakes and deep wild valleys surrounded by lofty granite spires that attract climbers from around the world. It's also known for lengthy hikes to most of the locations that keep the day hikers out and make it a great backcountry destination. Just about all of the good spots.....

The Best of 2016

December 30, 2016 Alex Burke

With 2016 coming to a close, it's time to reflect on the last year and look forward to the next. On top of that, it's time to show my personal favorite images from the last year!

GND Filters - Getting the Perfect Exposure in One Shot

August 31, 2016 Alex Burke

It’s time for me to answer another set of frequently asked questions, one that I get almost weekly so I need to make a blog post about it. Do you use GND filters, how do you choose the right filter, which ones should I buy, how do you position them, and how do you meter for them? Well the answer to the first question is a big definite yes, I use GND filters for the majority of my images and I will explain the rest throughout this post in great detail...

Large Format Film Photography

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