My Last Large Format Images

[Ben Chase]

Hi everyone - I've recently sold most of my 4x5 gear to move to an all-digital workflow. I will certainly miss the detail and quality of large format film, and below you will find a link to the last 4x5 images I have scanned.

Newest Pictures

Cheers!
Ben Chase

[Brian Ellis]

You may or may not experience a significant loss of quality, depending on the digital camera and lenses you use, the size of your prints, and your talents. However, if you enjoyed LF you won't like trying to compose through a tiny viewfinder rather than a big ground glass. You'll also miss the satisfaction of making an excellent photograph and knowing you made it because you gave a lot of thought to the photograph and made the exposure only after viewing the subject from all possible angles and positions and giving careful consideration to the appropriate lens and settings (as opposed to making 30 different exposures from different positions with a zoom lens at different focal lengths and selecting the best photograph out of the big batch later). Then again, you may not miss a thing.

[PViapiano]

Alas, Ben...we hardly knew ye!

[Ben Chase]

The decision was made for two primary reasons. One is workflow, the other is revenue-gathering opportunities. The $$$ and length of time I was spending from capture to finished product was not economical. Also, it seems that most commercial work has embraced expected a digital workflow.

For those interested, I am on the early pre-order list for the new 5D MK II.

For Brian: You're right about the tiny viewfinder. I'm just glad I still have perfect vision.

One thing I'm considering also is getting a good quality panoramic stitching rig for those times when I KNOW I will want to print big.

[Greg Lockrey]

For those interested, I am on the early pre-order list for the new 5D MK II.

For Brian: You're right about the tiny viewfinder. I'm just glad I still have perfect vision.

One thing I'm considering also is getting a good quality panoramic stitching rig for those times when I KNOW I will want to print big.

It doesn't matter that much, 5D's have auto focus.

[Frank Bagbey]

A number of big time commercial photogs have ditched digitial and gone back to film, especially large format. Believe it or not, it was a question of financial survival. Before digitial they were making big bucks turning out highest quality flower and food photography. After going digitial, their problems just began! Shooting Velvia and other films put them back at the highest quality level and re-established them as tops in their field.

[Marko]

A number of big time commercial photogs have ditched digitial and gone back to film, especially large format. Believe it or not, it was a question of financial survival. Before digitial they were making big bucks turning out highest quality flower and food photography. After going digitial, their problems just began! Shooting Velvia and other films put them back at the highest quality level and re-established them as tops in their field.

That's interesting! Who specifically?

[Brian Ellis]

A number of big time commercial photogs have ditched digitial and gone back to film, especially large format. Believe it or not, it was a question of financial survival. Before digitial they were making big bucks turning out highest quality flower and food photography. After going digitial, their problems just began! Shooting Velvia and other films put them back at the highest quality level and re-established them as tops in their field.

Interesting, I hadn't heard about that. Could you let us know who they are so we can learn more about them?

In an earlier message you said "trade publications are full of stories of big time photogs who gave up digitial and went back to Velvia for food photography, flower photography, etc. One photog almost lost all his clients over his new use of digitial. . . . Going back to Velvia and scanning those images put him back in the million dollar studio catagory." Perhaps you could also give us a cite to some of these stories in the trade publications you mention here. I'd be particularly interested in the story about the photographer who went back to Velvia and regained his million dollar studio. Thanks.

[windpointphoto]

A number of big time commercial photogs have ditched digitial and gone back to film, especially large format. Believe it or not, it was a question of financial survival. Before digitial they were making big bucks turning out highest quality flower and food photography. After going digitial, their problems just began! Shooting Velvia and other films put them back at the highest quality level and re-established them as tops in their field.

Like who?

[Ben Chase]

The way I see it, with digital as soon as you run out of pixels printing at 300dpi, that's when film takes over (the much larger files just let you keep on printing bigger and bigger at 300dpi, it keeps on going like the energizer bunny). Shooting some 4x5/8x10 for fine art work is an extremely cheap solution for obtaining the highest quality, and won't be obsolete in a few years like digital. Some of us like contact prints, or do extreme weather photography....digital doesn't always work. Good luck, too bad you couldn't keep the 4x5 gear, you might miss it.

I am hopeful that if I am financially successful enough, that I will be able to keep a 4x5 around in the future to do specialty types of work with, or for shots that I know that I want to print very large. There's no question in my mind about 4x5's (and larger) superiority for overall print quality, having shot everything from 35mm up to 4x5. I just can't financially justify it "right now". I can't explain how frustrating it has been to come to the point where I realized I had to change my approach so significantly. I love film, I always have, always will, but it's time to put my MBA to use and put the effort I need into making this a viable business.

21 megapixels gets me enough printing room at 300dpi to make it worthwhile. I have only sold a handful of prints 16x20 or larger. If anything, the methodical approach that I've learned as a large-format shooter will benefit me regardless of what format I am using. I only wish I would have started out with 4x5 from the beginning!

Cheers,
Ben