My 8x10 Process From Start To Finish - Episode 004

Today I'll be showing you the steps I take to shoot a sheet of 8x10 film. This is just how I personally do it, there are plenty of ways to shoot and process. Will you give large format a try after watching this? I hope so!
I'm using a DIY film holder to scan I found from Ben Horne. Here is the template if you want to try:
www.benhorne.c...
INSTAGRAM: / yourpalmarcus
WEBSITE: www.marcusubun...
CAMERA GEAR I USE: bit.ly/ArcaSwi...

[@ursysmiles]

Talk about a labor of love- this takes true dedication! Bravo to Kam as well, it’s so hard to stand in front of that camera.

[@BetweenTheBellows]

😘

[@c.augustin]

Thanks for the quick go-through (I was curious about the tent and your development equipment)! I'm already on 4x5, and might stay there for a multitude of reasons. But who knows, 8x10 does have some attraction …

[@BetweenTheBellows]

You should definitely give 8x10 a try one day!

[@c.augustin]

@@BetweenTheBellows Yeah, money is an issue (not the camera, an Intrepid 8x10 is quite affordable, but all the rest), also weight (I do have shoulder problems). Who knows, I might find the one or other solution … ;-)

[@Agedwheel]

Fantastic, not sure how many times I’ve come back to this video but really appreciate you putting out the LF vids. Not many on here and very inspiring and insightful

[@luistavares6670]

Yes you did me make to jump on a large format but I am in brazil and that's all só expensive, but I emjoy your vide well done.

[@BetweenTheBellows]

I'm so happy you're trying large format! Thanks for watching!

[@dennislee8253]

Great, damn that Jobo tank is HUGE!

[@mariozorzi]

what a marvelous journey!

[@CanoeToNewOrleans]

I borrowed a Cambo 8 X 10 for the long weekend so I can try large format. I'm looking forward to the experience. Thanks for the tips.

[@JessicaHTLi]

Thank you for sharing your experience with 8x10. I love every episode of your Between the Bellows series! I recently got an 8x10 camera and still learning the ropes. Your videos have provided much inspiration and motivation to shoot 8x10. I hope to start shooting soon! Just got a pack of HP5 in 8x10. So excited and nervous at the same time!

[@BetweenTheBellows]

I'm glad you're enjoying the series and I'm so excited for you try 8x10! Once you get used where the movements are on your camera you'll be flying in no time. It's really fun.

[@harleyjaffar]

Super cool video, thank you for posting it, I definitely want to try 8x10

[@BetweenTheBellows]

Thanks for watching, it’s such a cool experience to try, I high recommend it 👊🏼

[@ChrisCummins]

One thing I found useful is to write the date next to where you write "9 left" or whatever on your film box. That way if you have multiple open boxes you can prioritize the oldest box to load first. Also would love to see an extended version of this which goes over the development side in more detail. I've heard great things about the Jobo tanks but have never used one

[@BetweenTheBellows]

Great point! However I don’t have a lot of room in the fridge so I only have a few boxes at a time. But if I end up with more I’ll add the date. I’ll consider doing a deeper dive into the developing after a few more stories of people. Thanks for watching!

[@JonasSakamoto]

Thanks for sharing this! Amazing!

[@dfiglide]

Well done mate, I`m tempted to take the plunge. But it`s the expense especially here in Oz.

[@OneMonthTwoCameras]

You are so next level my friend. Love it. Can't wait to see this on the wagon! :P

[@BetweenTheBellows]

Thank you Ali! I'm still figuring the wagon situation out!

[@weezintrumpeteer]

Great video, really enjoyed it!

[@BetweenTheBellows]

Thank you for watching! Glad you're enjoying it!

[@ordinaryhunter]

These have been great! You have been doing a wonderful job with your videos, keep it up!

[@BetweenTheBellows]

Thanks Jason, you too brother.

[@tundrusphoto4312]

Great video - thank you.

[@BetweenTheBellows]

Thank you for watching!

[@RYANPARKPHOTOGRAPHY]

love large format.. and really want to go 8x10 but. havent made a decision yet...(I am a big fan of Ben Horne)

[@GrainAndPixels]

Nice video! I've never seen that huge Jobo tank, what is the volume of chemistry needed? I use hangers and tanks which is a gallon per tank.

[@caneestudio]

The gear looks like Sinar p2

[@fepatton]

Great overview and nice to see it’s not much of a scale-up from 4x5/5x7. I have a couple of lenses and film holders for 8x10, and have been thinking of getting an Intrepid. (BTW, my wife always makes fun of me for my “changing bag blank stare”. 😂)

[@BetweenTheBellows]

Thanks for watching! The Intrepid would be the easiest and affordable way to jump into 8x10. If you’re used to 4x5 you’ll do well. I find it’s actually easier since the sheet is bigger. Also focusing on an 8x10 ground glass is pretty great. The blank stare is pretty standard every time I’m in the bag 🤣

[@fuckenlucy]

Really enjoying your channel. Would have been cool if you went over what movements you used for the portrait. Subscribed.

[@JohnnyMcMillan]

Just naturally lit? What was the soft box for?

[@BetweenTheBellows]

The window was basically the key light and the small soft box was to bring up Kam’s level a bit more compared to the ambient from the window.

[@zoneVgroup]

You should try liquid scanning. It lessen the grain and dust at the same time. It’s also very flat to the glass and sharper. Besides that well done. I didn’t know there is huge tube for 8x10 developer. I did tray development long time ago. Thinking of going back to 8x10. Well done

[@BetweenTheBellows]

I actually just ordered all the supplies for fluid scanning! Super super excited to get the most out of my negs. If I had the space I would tray dev, but the expert drum is the next best thing I think.

[@zoneVgroup]

@@BetweenTheBellows ohh yea drum scanning is top dog. Expensive. lol.

[@zoneVgroup]

@@BetweenTheBellows although if you ever try to do darkroom prints and scan that. It has unique look and it has great aesthetic. If you are low contrast and do the tweak after you scan the darkroom print. You might like the look.

[@youngfolkmedia4831]

Marcus great video and nice to see your daylight setup. Using the Besler motor do you find it’s consistent when developing 3 plus negs at the same time with the Jobo Expert. Been using a tray daylight system from Stearman for 8x10, but developing one neg at a time takes forever when you have 5 or more negatives and even 4x10. I see the Besler motors are hard to find especially the continuous version you recommend. Would this be your go to system if you were looking for a quicker system to develop quantity?

[@RollinLeonard]

i would love to see the detail. just curious how this would look printed as big as possible.

[@film-walks-en]

nice method .. I'm curious. How did you build that funnel and tube that goes into the tank?

[@BetweenTheBellows]

It’s a plastic funnel used for car oil changes, any automotive store will have them!

[@Dikaiosune02]

Do you ever find your self needing to use the rear tilt on the camera during your portraits? (I'm considering the Misura as opposed to the F)

[@BetweenTheBellows]

I never use the rear tilt, or any of the rear movements really. The Misura looks like a great camera. The front movements are manual, so they're not geared like on the F-Metric, but it does save a good amount of weight I hear.

[@sarahstellino1954]

Nice tonality in that negative. How fast of a shutter speed do you generally use in studio work? Glad the motor base is working well for you too!

[@BetweenTheBellows]

Thank you Sarah! I rarely shoot in a studio and I also use continuous light so I'm typically dragging the shutter lol. I think this was at f6.8 and 1/10th shutter speed for HP5. The motor base is great! It did fall off a couple of times at the beginning but I figured out the balance! Thanks for your help.

[@vikingsruleU]

I love seeing the process for shooting 8x10. And the photos came out amazing! When you scan the negatives, how big are the file sizes? I could imagine they are pretty big

[@BetweenTheBellows]

Thank you for watching! Depending on the DPI (800-1600) the files can be from 250mb up to 1gb 😳

[@pitchygroans]

How important were the camera movements for this shot? (that is, what would have been the downside of a zeroed field camera on a geared tripod head for composition?)

[@BetweenTheBellows]

For a shot like this, I typically use a little bit of swing to keep both eyes sharp. But often times in a shot it will be someone's hands or elbow or shoe that's closer to the camera and I'll use some tilt to hold that along with the eyes. So in a full body portrait a lot of LF photos out there are sharp on the face and their feet will be soft, since no tilt was used. You'll notice in the 2nd shot of Kam, focus starts to go soft at both of her wrists. I could have used some movements, along with a deeper f-stop, to hold more of that. Hope that helps!

[@pitchygroans]

@@BetweenTheBellows thanks! Really short DOF!

[@Pablo-px3ct]

Amazing, thanks for showing. Can you also develop C-41 with this setup and how consistent are the results? How much DPI do you scan at? 2000 would be like 320 megapixels? It looks a lot more space efficient this way then with the whole lift setup - I guess it is just a bit more effort and you need to control temperature yourself? How do you make sure you stay within the tight range of C-41- any issues from doing it this way? Do you use a thermostat? Thanks a lot for your tips, Greetings from Zurich, Switzerland, Pablo

[@BetweenTheBellows]

Thanks for watching Pablo! C-41 can be done with this, I will do a pre-wash for a few minutes with 102 degree (sorry this is all Fahrenheit!) water to get the negative up and tank up to temperature, while heating the developer a bit higher to 104 degrees, so when I do pour in chemistry it will average out over the 3.5 minutes. I've gotten good results but I admit I've only done color two times on this setup. I also don't want to buy a bigger lift! I'm using a digital infrared thermometer to read my temps. I'm scanning for web at 1200dpi right now which is already massive but can go higher if needed.

[@Pablo-px3ct]

But if one uses a Jobo expert drum and a consistent rolling agitation - you mean due to temperature stability? That's why a whole jobo system is better?@@FireplaceHarmony

[@AnthonyD42]

6:14 What software do you use to scan? Also, nice to have met you at Beers & Cameras!

[@ronwolfept]

Nice! I've not tried to pour chemistry into my jobo expert while its on my rotating stand, any sketch moments?

[@BetweenTheBellows]

I switched to pouring during rotation because it was taking too long to do it while it was standing. I may have gotten uneven dev the first time too. Bought a mechanic's funnel and it did the trick. No sketchy moments, but it will spill if you pour too quickly!

[@doriangasseling]

Excellent video. I shoot 4x5 pretty regularly, but haven't dipped my toes into 8x10 yet. Curious about the constant rotation point with the drum roller, I use a Jobo CPP2 with the lift for LF sheets and when you put that to "film" it rotates in both directions. It does like three towards you then one or two away. I don't enjoy dragging that large bastard out just to develop a few sheets though, so I've picked up a Stearman 4x5 tank. What focal length you running on 8x10 there? If I can negate some of the cost by using a lens I already have, I know of a cheap body I could grab that just needs holder/lens. Anyway, good stuff as always mate!

[@BetweenTheBellows]

I set it to continuous because on this roller base it wont actually do a full rotation on the Expert Drum so it could cause uneven dev. It looks like it's spinning at 30rpm which is consistent with my smaller Jobo CPE2 when I disengage the reverse switch. I'm using a 300mm in this video, which is like a 150mm on 4x5. Thanks for watching!

[@blueboy4244]

I use the same roller base and jobo tank ... and I'll go 2 minutes then stop and flip the drum the other way.. do three minutes - stop and flip back and the final two... of course fix and wash I don't bother flipping.... @@BetweenTheBellows

[@AllergicToMyself]

Amazing channel. Cool to see you also develop too instead of a lab. Do you use flexicolor? I've been using c41 kits but have been thinking about moving to flexocolor.

[@AllergicToMyself]

Oh oops.... if you shoot color too of course with 8x10. Haven't watched your other videos yet so I don't know if you do, :p but onto watching them now.

[@BetweenTheBellows]

I use Rollei C41 chemistry or Cinestill for color, but I admit I use it less for 8x10. From 35mm up to 4x5 I’m pretty comfortable doing color.

[@conanruisi]

I don’t understand the appeal of bellows, maybe nobody explained them to me well enough. I’d prefer a rigid cone personally

[@BetweenTheBellows]

Hi! Well speaking for myself, the bellows allows me to focus super close to things so any lens could technically be a macro lens if you have enough length on the bellows. Also having bellows lets you apply movements like rise, swing, and tilt. So all of that to say there’s more control over what you can do with the image when captured. Hope that helps.

[@conanruisi]

@@BetweenTheBellows I mean I knew that already but like many SLR cameras do not have bellows and they work just fine so I’m like “if I don’t care about that is the cone actually much worse, or is it just not what other people would’ve chose?” I don’t personally want to do all of the bellows tricks I mostly just want to shoot large format film, and usually the camera that does that is a graflok

[@BetweenTheBellows]

@@conanruisi hey Conan, if you’re talking about the 4x5 cameras with fixed rigid/plastic cones in place of bellows then you would lose all the benefits of view camera movements and also limit how much you could focus. If you’re planning to use it more as a wide angle point-and-shoot at deep f-stops it could be a great walk around camera. It’s still a lot of steps and effort per sheet, with a big lack in control over the image. Maybe that’s why it’s not seen very often or worth it for some people and they stick to medium format. Just guessing here. If you don’t need to manipulate the focus plane to keep multiple things sharp on the film, and stick to shooting wide scenes, it could be a great way to shoot large format.

[@conanruisi]

@@BetweenTheBellows yeah bro mostly erotic close ups and macros. Maybe some stuff with cool cars, I definitely understand the benefit of having it, but for me it just seems like it wouldn’t be all that important, and most of the cone cameras I’m looking at still maintain some amount of minor shift function, they just don’t extend. I definitely understand shift and I could see myself using it, but maybe not all that often.