It's really great to see the expressions on peoples faces as they walk by me while I put the hood on over my head!  While this may seem like an archaic method of photography, once you start enlarging the pictures to 16X20" or more and see the incredible detail that you can get, it all becomes worthwhile. 

The 4X5" camera is very basic but highly versatile.  The body consists of two wooden frames connected by a bellows.  The front frame holds the lens, which is a fixed focal length, and the rear frame holds a glass screen.  To focus, the lens is opened to its lowest f-stop setting (the brightest) and the inverted image is aligned and focused on the glass screen.  Since this is a direct view through the lens it is a bit dim so this is where the cloth hood becomes useful in blocking out the background light.  I use a loupe to magnify a part of the image to obtain the best focus.  Once the image is aligned and focused, the film plate is inserted into the back frame where the glass plate was, and the lens is shut and adjusted to the desired f-stop setting.  Then the cover plate is removed from the film plate and the picture is taken.  Afterwards the cover plate is replaced and the film plate is removed.  Later the film is taken out of the film plate in total darkness and developed either by hand or in a special light-proof tank, which I use.  A special enlarger is required which can handle the 4X5" negatives.