I would like to know if anyone is aware of what Edward Westons' technique was for taking closeups.Specifically I would like to know which lens ( focal length) was employed with a 8x10 camera and whether any extension equipement was necessary.

-- Robert Slatkoff (blackducks@videotron.ca), February 10, 2001

Answers

http://hv.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=000Efa

-- Sean yates (yatescats@yahoo.com), February 10, 2001.

From his daybook entry of 8/3/30, he states that he was using his 21cm.Zeiss, which was needed to fill the 8x10 frame because the pepper was so small. The pepper in this case was put in a tin funnel, which provided the background.

-- Mark Minard (roswell@a-znet.com), February 10, 2001.

And on September 18th of 1930 he wrote, "Getting closer - using a 5 inch Cooke lens on the 8 X 10 - making the heart of an artichoke to fill the entire plate - a celery heart becomes heroic..."

On August 29, 1927 he wrote, "Yesteday I did the pepper again, - and what a satisfaction to hac a cleanlined, brillian negative! This, and a shell negative, done yesteday too, were made with a $5 R.R. lens bought a few months ago second hand. I like the quality, and being of shorter focal length it is easier to focus and requires less exposure. I stop down to U.S. 256"

U.S. 256 refers to the old Uinform System aperture equivalent of f/64. By R.R. he means Rapid Rectalinear, not Rail Road.

-- Sean yates (yatescats@yahoo.com), February 10, 2001.

I seem to recall that these exposures were measured in hours, and that some were ruined by his porch moving as vehicles drove by!

-- Kevin Bourque (skygzr@aol.com), February 10, 2001.

That would be about right. Figure that normal roomlight is about 1/30 sec. at f:2 at ISO 400. At f:64, if I've done the math right, that would be 32 sec. Now figure that film was probably on the order of ISO 6, if that much, in those days. That would be about 34 min., plus figure at least a stop or two or three for reciprocity, and you're up to one, two, or four hours.

-- David Goldfarb (dgoldfarb@barnard.edu), February 10, 2001.

Further thought: The bellows factor would also add more exposure to the calculations in addition to the other estimates provided. Filling the 8x10 frame with a 5" lens for an artichoke, pepper, etc is certainly a bit more than 1:1.

Fred

-- Fred Leif (Frederickl@aol.com), February 11, 2001.