Large Format

I have wanted to shoot on Large Format under my own steam since I was first shown a large format camera after I started university. In these first instances I only used the camera in class with other students learning how to use the camera, but I often don't truly learn something until I work with it myself.

This was my first go with a 4x5 field camera when I was in the second year of my degree. We were taught by Paul Corcoran how to set up the camera, he helped to use a lightmeter to set the exposure, we used a studio flash to light the picture.

I think the colours and clarity in the photograph are amazing, I scanned it on a Hasselblad Flextight, and I was able to get amazing resolution. I could zoom in on his face and it still filled the screen as it came out at around 160 megapixels.

I think the main attraction is how large format really slows you down. I found medium format slowed me down a lot and made me consider my photography much more, but large format is something else, as there is a process you have to follow on every shot just to take one photograph.

Another attraction is the colour rendition, I think the colours are really accurate, but also the resolution helps to bring colours out that a regular digital SLR just couldn't capture. The colours on his skin tone, his jacket and his eyes simply blow me away, by the colours and resolution.