4x5 versus 8x10 portriats

[John NYC]

I have been working on portrait photography in general for a while now (mostly in private since my subjects don't necessarily want their images posted online), and I specifically have a goal to do a lot of this work in 8x10. It has an incredible look due to the combination of depth of field for a given focal length.

Yes, I guess you could use a 50mm f/0.9 on 35mm film and get something similar to a wide open 14" Kodak Commercial Ektar in terms of depth of field, but you would not get the smooth tonality, the ability to contact print, or the ability to make a huge enlargement (either traditional or from a scan).

If contact prints or enormous enlargements are not in the mix, then the argument for using 8x10 over 4x5 is a little harder to make.