Large Format in the Digital Age

Large what?

You know that times are changing when people are completely clueless when the words 'large format' are mentioned. One professional photographer in Trinidad surprised me by not knowing what 'medium format' represented, much less large format. There is no mystery really, the format description just refers to the film size used in a particular camera. 35mm film (now fast going the way of the dodo) was sometimes called 'small-format'. Large format is generally accepted to begin with cameras that use a film size of 4 inches x 5 inches. There are large format cameras that use even larger film sizes, most notably 5x7, 8x10, 11x14 etc. There are still a couple cameras in use today that use film sizes up to 20 inches x 24 inches! That is, the size of the negative is as big as a large print on your wall! By far, the most popular large format size is 4x5. It is always a trade-off between expense, portability, availability of films, and other factors that determine the format a photographer will use. A large format camera is basically your great-grandad's big box camera with bellows, where he would have to disappear under a cloth to focus the contraption. Who is crazy enough to use one of those things nowadays? Well, we are.

Image quality

The perceived quality of an image is related to a number of factors. These include technique (that is whether a tripod was used, no vibrations etc), lens quality, film quality, and film size. One of the most important factors is the size of the film used, or, the size of the digital sensor used: the bigger the better. As of 2006, nothing can rival the image quality of a large format image. A large format film needs to be enlarged far less than a smaller format film for any given print size. Hence, the film grain structure is less apparent in large format prints. Pictures from a large format camera seem sharper, more three dimensional, and have far more fine detail than their smaller format counterparts. The same principle applies to digital sensors: the larger the sensor, the less digital noise is accrued on enlargement of the picture. Below is a comparison of the size difference between a 35mm slide (or negative)and an 8x10 slide (or negative). An 8x10 large format film has 60 times the area of a 35mm frame.







Digital is catching up, though. 39 megapixel medium format digital cameras are approaching 4x5 image quality, but digital has yet to reach the quality delivered by 5x7 and larger film sizes. Cost is another matter entirely. These new digital backs are in the region of $35,000US, not including the cost of the expensive cameras that the backs will have to attach to. One must also consider the depreciation of digital equipment with time. Digital cameras are rendered obsolete quickly, sometimes within months.

Camera movements

Large format cameras allow the user to focus in any plane. For example, one can tilt the lens focal plane to be, effectively, parallel to the ground, hence allowing foreground and distant objects to be in focus without stopping the lens down excessively. This helps a lot in landscape photography. Other movements are possible allowing an infinite array of creative choices in perspective manipulation.

Slowing down for better pictures

The path to taking a picture is a "process". The "process" can be protracted or eliminated altogether, depending on the user. Many digital shooters are irritated by the "process" of taking a picture. They are not interested in learning about the arcane world of lens apertures and shutter speeds. They just want a picture! They press a button and expect picture perfect results. Digital cameras are geared towards these types of users. There is nothing wrong with this. Most people have no interest in photography, per se. But they like to take pictures of special moments and of special places. Photography, to them, is about the final result: the picture. The "process" is an anathema to a 'digiphyte'. On the other extreme is the large format photographer. Setting up to take a shot can sometimes take hours. Just focusing the camera can take up to thirty minutes and, depending on the subject, sometimes the picture can't be focused at all! The photographer must study the scene carefully. The large ground glass affords a detailed (though dim and upside down) view of the scene which can be studied to eliminate unwanted distractions from the final picture. Film is so expensive that mistakes come with a high price. Pictures can never be spontaneous, but they must be planned well in advance. Although it is certainly not universal, large format pictures are usually compositionally excellent due to the photographer poring over every detail of the image on a ground glass. The photographer, in darkness under the dark cloth, is in a different world, viewing a scene as if through a giant window. Every time I use my camera in Trinidad I allow curious onlookers to go under the dark cloth and view the scene on the ground glass. In every case, so far, viewers seem mesmerized. I don't think they even realize how long they remain under the dark cloth, just staring. It's like a Zen experience. The slow, contemplative approach to photography allows for a little reprieve from the bustle of modern life.

The black and white advantage

I was recently disappointed by the black and white photographs displayed at the University of the West Indies Photography Club 2006 exhibition (St. Augustine campus). Ansel Adams would have fainted, and Walker Evans would have needed sedation. Although the standard of the photographic subject matter was high, the black and white photographs were merely obvious digital imitations of the real thing. Bad imitations. I surmise that it was highly probable that the students had never seen a real black and white print to try and match. A pity. Black and white prints derived from large format camera negatives are the stuff of legends. Black and white print quality is very much linked to film size. The subtlety in gradation in tone and the luminosity of a wall-sized large format print is awe-inspiring to behold. The mere fact that an 100 year old camera and even older film technology can so humiliate today's best digital faux black and white gives new meaning to the catch-phrase, "who's yer daddy?".

Digital paraphernalia

I can never understand how professional digital photographers lug all those power dependent devices around and "be cool with it". Digital requires multiple batteries in the field, back-up hard drives, flash memory, more batteries, maybe a laptop, sensor cleaning kit, 100 cables, back-up camera, DVD/CD writer - it just goes on and on! What happens if all that stuff gets wet? What happens when the $8000US Canon 1Ds Mk II falls into a lake? (Which happens more often than you'd think). Time for a new camera is what. What happens when a large format camera gets a 'dunk'? Nothing. How many batteries does a large format camera need? None.

Concluding remarks

Running this website is not conducive to large format photography. We cannot match the output of other sites in terms of number of pictures. Additionally, the quality of the large format negative becomes irrelevant on the web; all pictures being viewed at low resolution. If output and results were our overriding concerns, then we would have retired our large format cameras and switched to digital. We believe, however, that although digital may furnish us with the results, it just "ain't got no soul".

- September 2006