Leslie Smith LRPS
I am a semi-professional photographer now based in Toulouse, France and specializing in travel, landscape and commercial photography with a strong bias towards Visual Art. I am a Licentiate of the Royal Photographic Society and former member of the Digital Imaging and Contemporary Special Interest Groups. During my time in the UK, I was also on the committee of the Digital Imaging Group Eastern Centre.
My first photograph was an abstract of an electricity tower taken in 1970 on a 35mm film camera, later upgrading to a Russian Zenit and then onto various Canon SLRs. Searching for ultimate quality of images, I moved into medium-format with a 6x6cm Bronica where I found the square format inspiring.
Once digital sensor technology had progressed sufficiently (in 2003) I bought my first digital camera, a Canon EOS 10D and now shoot with an R5. More recently, I wanted to take my photography further and so I am also shooting large-format and developing 4×5 (inches) sheet film. “Once, my camera went with me as I travelled… Now it takes me places.”
The Lure of the Dark Slide
Why go back to film? It’s the only (affordable) route if you want Large Format, so why Large Format? Several reasons:
- For the flexibility of changing the plane of sharp focus as the lens and film planes are adjustable unlike most other cameras where these planes are parallel.
- The front & rear standards can be raised and lowered, tilted and swiveled, thus certain distortions can be corrected for in camera, for example, converging verticals. Yes ok, you can use software to do this too, but it’s better to get it right in camera. If you stretch your image about with software, you’re losing resolution in the stretched regions.
- The contemplative approach to taking a photograph, the equipment is heavy, requires about an hour to set up, load film, focus and decide on exposure settings to take just one shot.