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?”
There is no set-in-stone answer to what makes the “right” focal length for a given scene. This is one of those artistic choices that really changes the outcome of the image. Some people may develop a style where they gravitate towards wide angles or telephotos and mostly use just one lens. Others may find themselves continually changing lenses and adapting to different scenes with a huge arsenal of glass. The best part of it is that both people are right! There’s something to be said for the “zoom with your feet” mentality as well as the idea that you should have the right tool for every job.
“Tidal Flow” - California - February 2020. Ektar 100 4x5, 90mm lens - 30 seconds at f32, 2 stop reverse GND and 4 stop ND filter. Prints Available.
What I want to show here is a variety of landscapes taken on lenses with a wide range of focal lengths. I’ve already covered the basics of lenses and field cameras in this blog post, but the topic of this article is specifically about focal length. This can help you make an educated decision on your own if you’re shopping for lenses, or give you some inspiration to try something different next time you’re in the field. For well over a decade I got by with only four lenses: 75mm, 90mm, 135mm, and 210mm. Over the years I’ve found my shooting styles change from only using wides to mostly using standard to short telephoto, then back again to shooting with everything. Last year I added a new lens for the first time in ages - a 300mm - and found it to be quite a useful focal length as well.
Focal Length Equivalents
Let’s take a second to look at the “equivalent” focal lengths for those that are used to thinking in full frame DSLR numbers. Keep in mind that the equivalents aren’t very exact, since the 4:5 aspect ratio is quite different than 2:3, so you will often see somewhat different numbers around the internet but they are all close enough to give you the idea. Generally speaking, you take the 35mm focal length and multiply by 3 to get the 4x5 equivalent and multiply by 6 for 8x10.
Next I’m going to break this article down into different types of landscapes you may come across, showing you how different focal lengths work for each of them. Get ready for a lot of images in this post!
Grand Scenics
These are those big sweeping views where you just want to capture it all. From an interesting foreground to epic peaks and sunset skies, we often think of wide angle lenses with grand scenic landscapes - mostly just so we can fit in so much awesome! From my experience that tends to be rather true, with the most often used lenses in this category being my 75 and 90mm along with some occasional use from the 135mm.
“Bear Lake Sunrise” - Velvia 50 4x5, 75mm lens - 4 seconds at f22, 1 stop soft GND filter. Prints Available.
Above is a classic wide-angle view with a 75mm lens. Notice that mountains can get a little small with such a wide focal length, but you can still have a full composition. The goal here was to have the autumn foliage framing the lake and peak and it took a rather wide view to make it work the way I wanted to. This is one of those scenes where I knew immediately that a large print would be the goal; in web format the peaks can get a little lost within the foliage.
“Clearing Fog at Loch Vale” - Ektar 100 4x5, 90mm lens - 2 seconds at f32, 2 stop soft GND filter. Prints Available.
Now we go just a little less wide with a 90mm lens. The 90mm is probably the most common, most affordable, and easiest to use of the wide lenses on 4x5. You can see it’s also still able to fit in a lot of mountain goodness. With 75mm lenses you sometimes have to fiddle with recessed lens boards or frustrating movements, but nearly all field cameras handle a 90mm with complete ease.
The 4:5 aspect ratio is a lot fatter than the 2:3 that many people are used to. When composing, especially with wides, embrace the midground and enjoy the extra height available when in landscape mode. For this reason I often find myself photographing somewhere between chest height and eye level rather than getting close to the ground. The midground has a lot of potential for compositional elements that lead you into the scene, shooting a little higher keeps the foreground from hiding those elements.
“Triple Peak Flow” - Ektar 100 4x5, 135mm lens. 4 seconds at f32, 2 stop soft GND filter. Prints Available.
Here we have a slightly longer focal length in use for a grand scenic, the 135mm lens which is close to “standard” on 4x5. Notice that a bit of compression starts to come into play and the mountains can appear quite large and looming in relation to the foreground. In some mountain valleys you may find you can’t fit as much into the frame with this focal length, so you may have to work your compositions differently and make a large mountain the focal point.
“Sunflower Sunset” - Ektar 100 4x5, 210mm lens - 2 seconds at f45, no filters. Prints Available.
Looking through all my images, I could hardly find a time when I used my 210mm in the mountains. This is partly because when backpacking I leave it out to save weight. Above you can see a grand scenic view using a 210mm with this field of sunflowers. The compression of the longer focal lengths made both large foreground sunflowers that fill the frame while still allowing the mountains to be noticed.
Intimate Nature
These are those scenes that speak to the details of nature. Think about the forest, a waterfall, or those more intimate views you want to capture. I’ve used every one of my lenses from 75mm to 300mm for this work and each one can have a very different feel. One tends to think more about longer focal lengths as the goal may be to organize the chaos of the wild into a clean frame. With the addition of the 300mm lens to my kit I found this was an excellent choice for these types of scenes:
“Buffalo Pass Aspen” - Ektar 100 4x5, 300mm lens - 15 seconds at f64, no filters. Prints Available.
Notice how you can really fill the frame up with just a selection of the forest, creating a sense of subject out of the mess of woods. Shapes and objects can work together to form a composition once the clutter is removed. Long lenses like this do create some depth of field challenges, especially in the forest. It was necessary to stop the lens down to f64 to get everything in focus.
“Shenandoah Forest” - Velvia 50 4x5, 75mm lens - 12 seconds at f32, warming filter. Prints Available.
Next up is this example of an extreme wide (75mm) being used in the forest. This image is all about chaos and likely gets lost in the small viewing sizes of the internet. Trying to find intimate compositions with a wide lens is quite a challenge. The woods of Appalachia are a complete mess but that’s part of the beauty. Here, the main tree in the center reaching upward and out gives an anchor point for the viewer. The natural vignette of the 75mm also helps keep the eye in the frame.
“Aspen and Boulder” - Velvia 50 4x5, 135mm lens - 10 seconds at f22, warming filter. Prints Available.
Here’s an image with the 135mm view that is close to standard. This is probably one of my more often used lenses for intimate landscapes, creating a viewing angle that is very natural when it comes to finding compositions and enjoying the final print. The area where I was standing had plenty of room for me to walk forward or back, so in all reality I could have moved a little further back and used the 210mm to achieve a rather similar view. When approaching this scene, I used the zoom lens on my m43 camera to view it under both focal length equivalents, finding that in the end I preferred the placement of the further aspen trees (at the top right) when using a 135mm lens.
“Redwood Fog” - Kodak E100 (New) 4x5, 300mm lens - 4 seconds at f45, warming polarizer. Prints Available.
For the most part, people will probably find themselves using standard to short telephoto focal lengths for these types of images. The above image taken with a 300mm is a great example of how just part of the forest can be viewed to create a clean image.
Isolation
Sometimes the goal is to really isolate a subject to create a minimal composition. You’ll notice that I mostly use this approach when photographing on the prairie. The truth is any focal length can also be used here, but longer lenses often make the job more straightforward.
“Frosty Solitude” - Portra 160 4x5, 135mm lens - 1/15th at f22, no filters. Prints Available.
This image was taken with a 135mm lens, but the feeling of isolation mostly comes from the empty surroundings and the fog obscuring the distance. Getting closer and using a wider lens would have certainly been possible, as well as standing back and going longer. This near-standard focal length created the most natural view, as if the viewer were standing just in front of the tree on the frozen prairie. When the landscape is truly empty enough to allow for it, a somewhat wider lens like this can make the image more three dimensional where a telephoto often appears a bit flat when the scene is this minimal.
“Elevator Sunrise” - Portra 160 4x5, 210mm lens - 4 seconds at f32, no filters. Prints Available.
If you’ve been paying attention to my recent series of plains images, you’ve likely noticed the perfect vertical lines and isolated subjects. The straight buildings come from the use of camera movements (rise), but the separation from the surrounding landscape has been from the longer focal length. Nearly all of these images have been taken using a 210mm lens which helps cut out the surrounding clutter. This also gives less of that wide-angle stretch to the horizontal lines so often seen in architectural photography.
Compression
This is the realm of longer focal lengths. Using extra reach it’s possible to increase the relative size of background objects such as distant mountains. Compositions can completely change when the distant scenery becomes more than a tiny part of the frame, but rather a balancing element.
“Yucca Curves” - Kodak E100 4x5, 300mm lens. - 1 minute at f45, no filters. Prints Available.
In this image the mountain range in the distance is many miles away, but the use of a 300mm lens made it appear larger than life so that it could balance out the composition with the yucca. Long lenses like this let you work with layers, making the waves of dunes take up more of the midground than they would have with a wider lens.
Panoramas
There are two main ways of going about panoramas with a large format camera: Either a panoramic roll film back of either 6x12cm or 6x17cm, or by simply cropping the full sheet of film. Some people also prefer to cut a dark slide in half and use a sheet for two panoramas, but I’d rather have the entire sheet to give me full flexibility when printing. Trying to save a couple bucks at the time of shooting simply isn’t worth losing the ability to print in more than one aspect ratio.
“Lone Pine in the Aspen” - Velvia 50 4x5, 90mm lens - 1 second at f32, no filters. Prints Available.
When cropping a sheet of 4x5 is the goal, just about any focal length lens can be used for panos. I’ve used every single one of mine and enjoy the range of compositions that can be captured. Above you can see a rather wide view with the 90mm, allowing a huge midsection of the forest to be included without any sky. These narrow views of the forest always work well to transport the viewer into the woods when standing before a large print. Longer focal lengths can certainly work well in the forest and are often needed to keep the sky out of the frame.
“Homestead Rainbow” - Velvia 50 4x5, 135mm lens - 1/4 second at f22, no filters. Prints Available.
Above is an example of a slighter longer view at 135mm on the open prairie. This cropped view captured the most interesting portion of the clouds without being so wide as to include needless and distracting elements. For those wanting to use a 6x17 back on their 4x5 camera, remember two things: First, due to the designs of the backs it’s often not possible to use lenses longer than 150mm or perhaps 180mm without vignette. This is because the back has to be wider than the rear of the camera, which blocks the path of light on longer lenses. Secondly, your focal length needs will become different. Equivalents get a little weird with panoramic formats, but there is a crop factor of roughly 1.4 between using half a sheet of 4x5 vs a 6x17 back. A 150mm lens on 6x17 would have a similar horizontal view to a 110mm lens on 4x5.
Backpacking
Most of the time I go backpacking it’s into mountain valleys where peaks tower over my head. It’s also important to save some weight so I don’t want to slog 5 lenses into the backcountry. I’ve found that the 75mm lens works incredibly well for most of these valleys, and in the off chance it turns out to be a little too wide that’s no problem! With such big film it’s ok to crop a little. Below you can see an example of a mountain valley that needed all that width to work with both the peaks and the reflection. Even a 90mm would have felt a bit tight in this valley.
“Desolation Reflections” - Portra 160 4x5, 75mm lens - 2 seconds at f32, 1 stop soft GND filter. Prints Available.
Since most standard lenses of 135mm and 150mm are so incredibly small, it doesn’t hurt to take one of those along either if you want a little more reach or find some closeup subjects worth photographing. When you get high up near the top of the mountains you’ll find that longer focal lengths can work better to capture those sweeping views with layers of mountain ranges.
“Twilight Spire” - Velvia 50 4x5, 135mm lens - 3 minutes at f22, no filters. Prints Available.
Closeup Work
When focusing on close up and near-macro work the bellows become your main limitation. For example, on the camera I use the bellows can crank all the way out to about 400mm. With a 300mm lens that really only allows me to focus on subjects about as close as 6-ish feet from the lens. Not all that great to really capture close up details. On the other hand, wide angle lenses get weird and dim once the bellows are racked out out and are overall rather pointless for this sort of work. That leaves me using my 210mm or 135mm for these scenes.
“Corn Lily” - Velvia 50 4x5, 135mm lens - 1 second at f32, polarizing filter. Prints Available
Which one do I tend to use? Well, that depends on which one I have with me. Remember that any lens can become a macro lens on large format, so long as your bellows can go out far enough. When backpacking I often come across details in nature that beg for a closer image, which is part of the reason I bring my 135mm. Since I don’t have my 210mm with me it’s quite easy to just bring the lens closer to the subject and work with the 135mm. I’ve composed many scenes on both lenses and after fiddling with the height and getting everything perfect, it’s quite possible to have a rather similar view with either lens. The 135mm also works well for these plants pictured above. Since they stand a few feet tall it would be too tricky to get a tripod high enough to use a 210mm lens, especially my small backpacking tripod.
“Autumn Medley” - Velvia 50 4x5, 210mm lens - 8 seconds at f32, no filters. Prints Available.
When I’m working near the car and the subject is flat against the ground like the leaves shown above, the 210mm is my go-to lens. It allows me to work at a comfortable height while achieving focus and the composition I desire. Expect to spend quite a bit of time getting these scenes just right, it’s always quite a challenge perfecting focus and tiny camera movements greatly change the composition.
Don’t forget to add bellows compensation for these images! Any time the lens is cranked out further than it’s designed focal length, the aperture becomes effectively smaller and requires compensation. This isn’t a big deal focusing on something 6 feet away, but is critical when working on something just a foot or two from the lens. The bellows compensation formula is rather simple, but you need to know how far out your lens is to be exact. You can use a mm scale if your camera has one or measure. If you don’t have a measuring tool, make your best guess!
Take the bellows draw (how far out the lens is) and divide it by the focal length of the lens. Then square that number. Let’s look at an example where a 135mm lens was drawn out to 200mm:
200 ÷ 135 = 1.48
1.48^2 = 2.19
In this situation the exposure compensation would be 2.19, this is the number you multiply your exposure time by to get correct exposure. So if you metered 4 seconds, you would multiply that by 2.19 to get a true exposure time of 8.76 seconds. Do you need to be this accurate? Nope. Just somewhere around 8 seconds would work fine. If you are a perfectionist you can do these calculations in the field. I’ve heard there are even apps to do it for you. Or, you can do what I do and make a best guess. I know rather often that when I’m working up close I tend to need about 1 extra stop of light to get the correct exposure and that has never let me down.
Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed this content, perhaps you might also like my ebook “Film in a Digital Age.” Its 180 pages packed with knowledge and dive deep into all sorts of topics to help you master your film technique.