Finally, before getting to the essence of the series, a word on the debate between digital and analog photographers. Whenever I see a film photographer talking about digital photography, the film photographer often does this with a misplaced type of arrogance, sometimes bordering against disdain, towards digital photography. Too many times I notice that this attitude is based on very subjective ‘facts’ that are simply incorrect.  I’m not going to take any sides in this series. Nor am I ever going to say that analog photographers are ‘real’ or ‘better’ photographers. But there’s a case against the average digital photographer whose ultimate goal is to have a large following on Instagram with photos, that aren’t an expression of an authentic feeling, but always an expression of a catchy tune that has proven to be a recipe for success and popularity. I like to think that analog photographer’s rejection of digital photography, is an aversion against those types of digital photographers, not so much against the medium itself. As for myself: I like both digital and analog photography. There are things I can’t do with a large format camera that I can do easily with a digital camera. Street photography for example. And there are things I can do with a large format that I can’t do with digital: portraits simply look different and are more deliberate and touching the essence. I will explain this in another part of this series why I think that is. But the thing I like most about analog photography in general, which is especially truer in large format photography, is that you need to slow down and be patient. Very patient. One of the reasons I like long exposure photography for example, is that it forces you to slow down. As a digital long exposure photographer, I very rarely create and publish more than 10 images a year. And when I go out shooting with my digital camera for an entire day, I would come home with on average 8 images. Consistently. I love the deliberate waiting-and-be-patient game in long exposure photography. Now, with large format photography, the entire shooting process till the moment I have it imported into Photoshop for the first time is doubled, perhaps even tripled. And then I’m talking about regular shots, not long exposure shots with the large format camera.

What you need: equipment and considerations

I want to kick off this series on large format photography at the very start: what do I need, equipment wise, when I want to consider taking up large format photography and what do I need to consider when shooting large format? Next up in this series will be articles on taking photographs with a large format camera, developing film, scanning and processing it. Also articles on how to shoot long exposure photographs with large format and using large format for architecture.

Considerations

1. As mentioned before: you need to be patient, a lot more patient than with the slowest form of digital photography.
2. You always have to slow down and be very deliberate about what you shoot and how you shoot it. So if you’re a photographer who relies on action and dynamics in photography, then think twice before taking up a large format camera. It’s not going to work, most of the times. If you’re a wedding photographer, then better don’t do it.
3. There are 2 moments where your large format photo can fail: when taking the shot and when developing the negative. If you waste 1 shot of film, you’ve basically wasted a few hours of work and $5 per wasted shot on average.
4. Large format film sheets don’t come cheap: a pack of 25 sheets of 4×5 film will cost you around $40 for film that’s easily available anywhere in the world. If you want Fuji’s famed Acros 100 film then you pay double that price for 20 sheets of film. If there’s a place where you can still get it, as they are discontinued since May 2018. I’m not even talking about 8×10 or even larger. 8×10 film is double the price of 4×5.
5. Chemicals are not that expensive and you don’t need a real dark darkroom for developing film anymore. Unless you want to wet print your photos and want to go all the way analog.
6. Large Format is especially great when shooting objects that are static and when you need ultimate control over depth of field: landscapes, architecture and still life. Also portraiture, but for different reasons than architecture or landscape. I will discuss that in a separate article.
7. Setting up a shot with a large format camera can be quite daunting and time-consuming. The most important reason for that is that you can’t see what you shoot through a viewfinder, let alone on an LCD display: you see everything through the ground-glass and you’ll see it upside down. Focusing is quite tedious as you do that by looking through the ground-glass while being covered underneath a dark cloth, with a focusing loupe. That is if you can see something at all. What you see through your ground-glass depends very much on the available light. Low-light and large format photography is a pain. So it’s a process of looking at your subject, go back under the dark cloth, zoom in with your focusing loupe, then focus by either moving the lens panel back and forth or by moving the film plane panel back and forth, or both, then look up again, back under the cloth and zoom in and focus again, etc. And now I’m talking about the focusing part only and composition. I haven’t yet discussed taking a light meter reading and determining the right exposure for your shot. Not as easy as with a digital camera! I will discuss this in a separate article. But before I can actually take the shot, it’s easily an hour later.