Large Format Channels on YouTube

[r.e.]

@Dan6077 has asked for an example of the format for converting channel names to links. The format is shown in the attached screen capture, using Todd Korol's channel as an example. The blue Todd Korol link in the post immediately above shows how this code looks and functions on this forum.

There should be no spaces in the code except in the channel name. In other words, there can and should be a space between Todd and Korol, but not anywhere else. The ] at the end of the first line in the image and the [ at the beginning of the second line should not have a space between them, so it's ][. The code here is separated into two lines just by virtue of how my margins are set up, not for a code reason. The whole code could be on one line, and would be if I used a smaller typeface.

[r.e.]

First Australian, it appears from Canberra. Added to the list in post #1. Peter Guo has a collection of cameras and makes short videos that document him making photographs with them. No narration, just music. The cameras include an 8x10 Deardorff, a Linhof Technikardan S 45 and a Linhof Technorama 617s.

[r.e.]

Based in England, George Muncey is one the young YouTubers who has helped revive interest in analogue photography. His channel, Negative Feedback, has 237,000 subscribers, which is probably more than everybody else on the list in post #1 combined. He published a video today about 8x10 portraits that he's started making of strangers that he's met on the internet. Sounds like it will be an on-going project, so I'm adding him to the list. Judging from the portraits in today's video, it may be an interesting series.

This is today's video:

[Hugo Zhang]

Just watched this one today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vG1M2XxJyIA

[jmdavis]

1981 Meyerowitz interview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NVk7nuYPI4

[jmdavis]

One addition that will turn off some people. While there is value to the videos of beginners. It seems to me that many of the Youtube photo channels are more youtube than photo. Clearly there are channels by those who have mastered and are mastering their craft. But many times the results that we see are examples of what not to do. Whether its bad lighting forcing wide open lenses with not enough attention paid to focus, un-zeroed camera movements leading to focus issues, gray prints (ie. limited overall and micro contrast), etc etc. I certainly know the feeling of setting up a shot and then having someone pay attention to trees blowing in the wind in the background and not to the luminosity of the subject (in this case Limestone headstones at magic hour in an empty cornfield). I don't mean to do that and I hope that the videos that I see are a learning process.

I've always believed that learning one right way (process) is vastly better than learning 10 wrong ways and stumbling across the right one. Large Format Friday, the Naked Photographer and other video creators can help get people on track, but the fact is that much of the best photo advice and technique doesn't exist on youtube or the internet. It's in books, where it was collected from the minds of out photographic predecessors. A library card can go a long way, especially if it's a University card.

[Ulophot]

jmddavis, I would add interlibrary loan, especially for those without a handy university. I have read/viewed about a dozen books this year that I could not have comfortably afford to buy.

[r.e.]

One addition that will turn off some people. While there is value to the videos of beginners. It seems to me that many of the Youtube photo channels are more youtube than photo. Clearly there are channels by those who have mastered and are mastering their craft. But many times the results that we see are examples of what not to do. Whether its bad lighting forcing wide open lenses with not enough attention paid to focus, un-zeroed camera movements leading to focus issues, gray prints (ie. limited overall and micro contrast), etc etc. I certainly know the feeling of setting up a shot and then having someone pay attention to trees blowing in the wind in the background and not to the luminosity of the subject (in this case Limestone headstones at magic hour in an empty cornfield). I don't mean to do that and I hope that the videos that I see are a learning process.

I've always believed that learning one right way (process) is vastly better than learning 10 wrong ways and stumbling across the right one. Large Format Friday, the Naked Photographer and other video creators can help get people on track, but the fact is that much of the best photo advice and technique doesn't exist on youtube or the internet. It's in books, where it was collected from the minds of out photographic predecessors. A library card can go a long way, especially if it's a University card.

What I notice is that there's an amusing disconnect between the rather frequent criticisms of YouTube on this forum and the reality that this thread has had almost 2500 views since I started it last month

There are 50 YouTube channels on the list in post #1. I don't doubt that some people don't like all of them. Some may not like any of them. And?

On the upside, it was a good six weeks before somebody decided to use this thread to take shots at YouTube, and at one of the 50 channels on the list in particular. Sorry if my decision to add a channel, I gather Negative Feedback, doesn't meet with your personal approval. Not only do I disagree with you, I think that the people who make the technically perfect, board stiff 8x10 portraits that I see over and over could learn some things by watching it. At the very least, I think that the series has promise on the issue of process and interacting with subjects. Finally, it isn't obvious to me why I should omit from the Channel list an influential YouTuber doing large format work because someone, you for example, might not like one of his videos.

As you know, the idea behind this thread is to have an easily accessible list of active large format YouTube channels. As the beginning of post #1 says, "There doesn't appear to be a list of large format channels. The ones below are entirely or significantly about large format. I've omitted channels with only a few LF videos. Also, the list only includes channels that have been active in roughly the last year."

As a matter of curiosity, why did you decide to use this thread to post a single video, of extremely poor quality, of an interview taped in 1981, from a channel that has nothing to do with photography, let alone large format photography? Would you like this thread to become a place for you to post whatever your favourite one-off videos are over the last 40 or so years? I'm just thinking that it might be an idea to do that in a different thread, maybe one that you could start yourself.

[r.e.]

Just watched this one today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vG1M2XxJyIA

Hi Hugo. I hadn't thought of Aperture Foundation. Let me think about how to fit it in. It needs a new category.

[jmdavis]

As a matter of curiosity, why did you decide to use this thread to post a single video, of extremely poor quality, of an interview taped in 1981, from a channel that has nothing to do with photography, let alone large format photography? Would you like this thread to become a place for you to post whatever your favourite one-off videos are over the last 40 or so years? I'm just thinking that it might be an idea to do that in a different thread, maybe one that you could start yourself.

That 1981 video discusses, in part, Meyerowitz's switch from 35mm to LF and his reasons for it. If you watch both it and the Aperture video in Hugo's message you have the opportunity to see his contemporaneous thoughts on the matter and his perceptions 40 years later. That seems valuable to me. As a matter of curiosity, did you watch it. Yes, it's studio likely on 3/4 inch tape with 3 tube cameras (of limited contrast ratio). But the information might be valuable to people seeking to understand the reasoning behind his switch at that time.

You might note that the title of the show is: "Vision and Images." Personally, I am more interested in the "Vision and Images" as well as the words than I am in the fact that it is likely a copy of a copy of a copy. Or perhaps that tape was deteriorating and saving it lead to issues with quality. I'm just happy that someone thought to save what I consider a historical document. Then again, I recommend Art Wright's Brett Weston Doc to both aspiring photographers and documentarians.

Beginning at 10 minutes is the discussion of the quality issues, among others that lead to his work in LF even though he continued to shoot "with the small camera, almost daily."