Clients loved 4x5 inch sheet film. Not just because of the amazing detail, amazing depth of field control and the ability to make geometric corrections in camera, but also because a commercial shoot involved the use of 4x5 inch Polaroid test shots. It was a format art directors could really come to grips with. The Polaroids were big enough to see clearly without having to use a loupe. They could be written on for note taking. The clients could sign the backs of the prints so photographers could prove later than the client really, really did approve the shot before final film was exposed.
I loved the results of Polaroid's 100 speed, black and white test materials. A lot of people used Polaroid Type 55 which also produced a printable negative but for me the Polapan Pro 100 was the ultimate.
A lot of people back in the 4x5 inch film days used color Polaroid test materials but I hated doing so because temperature controls were important in getting anywhere close to a representation of the color that transparency film would finally deliver. People spent way too much time on set trying to get "perfect" Polaroid colors apparently not realizing that there was no way (other than luck) that the color of the test prints would end up matching the transparency films.
Polaroid tests were my favorite way to test out new lighting set ups and the relationships between background levels and foreground subject levels.
This is a Polaroid test I made back in the late 1980s. B. was the art director on the shoot and she graciously agreed to stand in during the lighting design so I could see what was good and also what might need to be changed. She was a patient subject because it was her project on the line... And because she's by nature quite patient.
The image was made with a Linhof Technika 4x5 camera and, obviously, a Rodenstock 210mm lens with no filters.
Now, if we needed big test shots we'd just tether a camera to a computer. But what's the fun in that?
I love my collection of old test shots. I only kept the good ones. 4x5 shooting was time consuming but really it was easy and fun and offered so much control. And, as I've written, clients loved it. Put a four inch by five inch transparency next to a 35mm slide and it was laughably easy to know which one the client would pick. And once addicted to large format it's very rare that they ever went back to 35mm...
Last post of 2023. Stay safe tonight. Come back tomorrow.
