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A Brief Rant About Film
Once, as a society, we cherished the “Kodak Moment,” a marketing masterstroke that now feels quaint, a victim of what I’ll call photobesity: a deluge of snapshots made so mindlessly and frequently that they’ve devolved into pullulating yottabytes of digital dross. more
Michael Kenna’s Darkroom Diaries
Michael will discuss his process of photographing on film and will explain the patient and painstaking work of making prints by hand in his darkroom. more
The Alternative ‘Movement’
Silver-based film and traditional darkroom printing are making a healthy comeback in art colleges and among amateurs. Whether silver-gelatin is really ‘alternative’ photography is a moot point. more
Moving Back to Analog
After starting with film and moving to digital for its convenience, Przemyslaw has come full circle—now embracing both formats to harness the distinct mood, colour, and character each brings to an image. more
Jay Tayag
I have wanted to try platinum palladium contact printing some of my negatives. It's been on my mind ever since I started shooting 8x10 and it's another reason why I started to shoot more black and white film. more
Back to the Future
The personal satisfaction and sense of reward that I get from producing an image through the medium of film is exponentially greater than that of digital. more
Jim Becia – Portrait of a Photographer
I think my main takeaway from studying Jim’s work and his approach to making images is that we should all give ourselves permission to focus on things that bring us joy instead of chasing what has become popular. more
The Bleeding Riverbed
This stretch is no more than 40 meters in length, showcasing deep reds, which, when looking closer, could give people the impression that the riverbed was bleeding. more
End frame: Puglia 1978 by Franco Fontana
I think we can learn from him that great photographs don’t have to be of spectacular, iconic places. There are interesting images to be made all around us; we just have to look harder, and pursue what resonates with our own personality, curiosity, and imagination to find our own voice. more
There & Back Again!
The fact was I had lost the mojo and the enthusiasm. It had become an automated process. There were few decent ones I could have printed, which is my litmus test for a good image. more
Autumn in Monochrome
The project became a good lesson and exercise in using limitations and constraints to produce a final series of images that felt cohesive, and with a unity of vision. more
8×10 film vs IQ4 150mp
It’s been a few years (over 8!) since we performed our mammoth “Big Camera Comparison”. For those of you who haven’t seen it, we compared medium format and large format film against various digital cameras including the then cutting edge Phase One IQ280, an 80mp CCD sensor which we used on a Linhof Techno, an Alpa and a Cambo technical camera (we also tested a D800 and a 5Dmk2). You can find the results of that test here but more
Al Brydon
You can only draw on your own life and experiences when creating something you feel is important enough to share with other people. I find myself thinking again that one of the most basic human needs is to be understood. more
In Praise of Film Pinhole Photography
Film pinhole photography has been prominent in this recent resurgence; the lensless “look”, when recorded on film, has attracted many to this relatively cheap form of photography. more
An Introduction to Large Format Photography
A look at some of the most prominent photographers in the world reveals a significant minority still use film and many of those also prefer to capture their compositions using said unwieldy contraptions. more
Endframe: Basin Mountain, Approaching Storm, by Bruce Barnbaum
I first came across the name Bruce Barnbaum when I bought his book “The Art of Photography: An Approach to Personal Expression”. I remember sitting on the platform at London Bridge Station, waiting for the train home and reading the first pages. I was approached by a stranger who said, “This is the best photography book you’ll ever own.” He was right. I’ve bought dozens of books on photography since then, but this one is still the more
Light Meters and Film
Talking to various manufacturers over the last couple of years I’ve always inquired into the growth of interest in film photography. Three years ago the answer was a tentative “yes” to film becoming more popular but the last two years have seen even more positive responses. I asked about film sales, chemical sales and also interest in processing. The general size of growth has been about 30% year on year, and we have also seen a big increase in more
The Land of the Fire Mountains
Unsure as to whether this was going to be an article about a location guide, photographic inspiration or “what’s in my bag”; I decided to make it about all three! Consequently, it’s quite lengthy but I do split it broadly into those areas if you feel like dipping into one aspect first, although I do think it reads better top to bottom. For information, I did write a little about this location previously on my own website blog after more
The Joy of 6×6
Over the years there have been numerous 6x6 rangefinder cameras some with collapsible lenses. The last true 6x6 fixed format rangefinder was the Mamiya 6. more
Desaturating the Shadows
I’d like to talk about a technique I’ve been playing with for about the last year. It first came about when I started to post process colour negative scans for the film scanning business I run. more
Camera Survey
Just over a month ago we asked our readers to tell us what cameras they used for their landscape photography and we had a great response. We've spent a bit of time analysing the results (my programming skills come in useful still occasionally) and here they are! more
Edward Weston
Edward Weston is regarded by many as one of the most influential photographers of the twentieth century. Interest in Weston extends beyond his images, to that of his colourful life. His many relationships and his thinking processes are well documented; alot written by Weston himself in his Daybooks. It was in these journals, written over two decades, that Weston recorded his thoughts about his own work and the highs and lows of life as an artist; as well as more
Velvia – The End of a Legend?
It's no secret that we're an equal opportunity magazine as far as film and digital are concerned, so when a few days ago Fujifilm UK issued a press release that declared Velvia 100F would be discontinued completely and Velvia 50 would also be discontinued in sheet film form we couldn't help but be <understatement>a little sad</understatement>. The press release stated that more
Big Camera Comparison – Comments
Joe Cornish Having been involved in the testing process I was a little nervous whether our 'work' in the field and studio would stand up to close scrutiny. Previous internet-published tests often seem to have a hidden agenda, (possibly to prove that the tester is right having invested in a particular digital workflow!). As a reader it would be helpful to understand what that agenda is, if any. Tim, no regular reader of this magazine will doubt that you are more
Large Format vs Medium Format Digital and Full Frame
Joe Cornish - Phase One P45 & 5x4 film; Dav Thomas, DSLR, moved to film and large format; Chris Ireland, Phase One’s representative in the NE of England more
The Perils of Testing
The critics were quick to call the test biased but I had the impression that there were a few different complicating factors... more
The Psychology of Saturation
There has been some interesting discussion on the history of saturation boosting in photography in recent days, notably David Hyde on the excellent Landscape Photography Blogger website talks about "Did Velvia Film Change Landscape Photography". His topic was about how the use of hyperreal film such as Fuji Velvia and whether it fundamentally changed the look of landscape photography. Well the first question I'd ask is 'could you get saturated colour before Velvia came out?' and I think the more
Kodak’s New Portra 400 Film
Looking in Amateur Photographer this week shows healthy signs that film is nowhere near dead yet. They have featured a whole host of vintage great recently and the current issue has a 'Bigger Pictures on a Budget' which includes medium format cameras available second hand - although some aren't quite so budget as the recent purchase of a Mamiya 7 kit demonstrate. More about that in a future more
Colour Film Comparison – Pt Two
As in the previous tests, the comparisons are between colour films available in large format sheet sizes (comparing roll films is expensive and time consuming). more
A Landscape for the Imagination – AF & DJ Unsworth
The book is a self published, no compromises effort. The oversize format added considerably to the cost but Angie and David were insistent upon giving the pictures the room to breathe on the page. more
Tristan Campbell
Tristan Campbell is a photographer whose work stood out for me when I started working with the camera. more
The Art of Slowing Down
Could it be that the very things that make digital capture so appealing also inhibit the creative process of image making? more