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A Wide View- Professional Photographer
My main format of choice is 6x7 medium format. It’s ideal for magazine and calendar work, especially as an enlarged 6x7 fits perfectly onto an A4 page and therefore also makes it ideal for front covers. Even in the supposedly superior digital era that we are now in, the majority of my clients still insist on good old transparencies for reproduction rather than digital files, as they know that the 6x7 format will deliver the quality that they require.
On odd occasions however, the 6x7 format has not been the most ideal for the subject in hand, but due to its size, it can be easily cropped down to suit the subject. This can just be a case of cropping down to 6x4.5 or 6x6, to concentrate more on the main focal point in the picture or alternatively, crop out some unwanted distraction. My favourite technique however, is cropping it down to a panoramic format.
My first introduction to panoramic photography happened this way, when I was viewing one of my 6x7 transparencies on the light box and about to put it in a black card mask ready for a submission. I found that if I used extra black card and crop down to only show the centre strip of the trannie, the composition suddenly took on a new dimension.
I now find this format so useful with my type of photography, as I find it quite easily captures the essence of a place with a single shot. It is such a wide, striking format that it draws the viewer in, making them feel like they are there in the picture. It is also a format that is being used more often in magazines, as it creates such an unique and dynamic shot that can be produced across a double page spread with great effect and is often how mine appear. The format also makes an ideal wrap around for book covers, and both greetings card and calendar publishers have caught on to the appeal of the panoramic look. I have even had several cropped, 6x7 format pictures used in large format calendars, which shows the quality of the format.
Anyone who has used the Hasselblad XPan will know this panoramic format is one that you easily fall in love with. It is partly due to the success of this camera that the format has gained greater popularity. A combination of convenient size and versatility, in that you can swap from standard 35mm to the elongated panoramic format at the flick of a switch, makes it the ideal travel camera.
Rather than invest in one of these myself, I do however, use the XPan’s format popularity to reframe my medium format transparencies. By mounting a 6x7 format transparency in an XPan panoramic black mask, I can achieve the same letterbox frame and thus produce pictures in this fantastic format. Personally, I also prefer to crop a 6x7 transparency, rather than use an elongated 35mm frame, because I believe a better quality image is achieved. A larger, medium format original produces a smoother range of tones and ultimately a better quality original to work with.
Even though, I often crop the image after processing on the lightbox as an afterthought, most of the time I shoot the subject on location with a view to framing it this way when I get home. To make this easier, I have even made myself some panoramic frames out of black card to sit in the viewfinder of my Mamiya, which enables me to frame the shot accordingly. I have made these in both horizontal and vertical sizes, as it is not only horizontal panoramics that work. The format can create an even more dynamic picture when presented this way too.
For some people, the panoramic format is a difficult one to work with, but for me the format seems to come naturally when composing a shot. The vertical orientations do need a lot more thought however, because they need plenty of foreground for them to work, but these types of pictures are slipping into my compositions more and more, so it’s just down to a bit of practise.
It’s because I love this format so much, that I recently made the next step and decided to buy a purpose built camera for producing them with. Once you step up in size from the XPan format, the next alternative is to go for either 6x12 or 6x17 and after a long decision about which camera to go for and inspired by the work produced by the likes of Colin Prior and David Noton, I opted for the Fuji GX617. This camera was unfortunately discontinued by Fuji a few years ago and is only available now secondhand, but I eventually managed to find one on Ebay. To buy new in this format, then there are a growing number of Japanese alternatives cropping up on the market. Some come with fixed lenses, whilst others have the advantage of interchangeable lenses, just like the Fuji. Linholf and Horseman, also do their own version albeit, at greater cost, largely due to their amazing build quality. These are offered in both 6x12 and 6x17 formats, but I stuck with the 6x17 of the Fuji, as I knew I could always crop down to 6x12 if needed.
You can also attach a panoramic back to 5x4 large format cameras, in both 6x12 and 6x17 formats, but for me the 6x17 format was the right one to go for and the Fuji was the camera that was always the class leader in this format. So, I was delighted when I managed to snap one of these rare beasts up for a good price.
It’s been several months now since I have had the Fuji and results have been good. I have found it a very different way of working however, as I have been so used to using SLR’s. The Fuji, like the smaller sized XPan, is a rangefinder model and thus you view and frame the shot through a separate viewfinder and not through the main lens, as an SLR does. This means that filters are a bit trickier to use, especially polarisers and ND grads, but they can still be used successfully with some thought.
The 90mm lens that the camera came with also needs to be used with its own ND centre spot filter, which compensates for the wide viewing frame of the format and is vital to achieve shots that are evenly exposed across the frame. An extra stop of exposure is needed to compensate for this, when calculating exposures, but several times however, I have forgotten to do so. This, along with getting used to this new type of camera with its rangefinder viewing and focussing by guesswork unless you use the optional ground glass screen, has meant that a lot of my early shots have only been fit for the bin. But I’m getting better and obviously the more I use it, the more it is becoming second nature to use, which thus allows me to concentrate on the subject and not about getting all the settings on the camera correct. I still have to have my wits about me though to avoid silly mistakes. Thanks to Ebay again, I have also recently purchased the 180mm lens that I so wanted to add to the kit, which means I now don’t have to go back cropping down a 6x7 shot taken with a 90mm (the 180mm equivalent in 6x7 format) to get the telephoto panoramic that I sometimes need.
Where these 6x17’s look most impressive is when they are printed out as fine art prints. I invested in an Epson R2400 printer, with its ability to print on panoramic paper and now produce 36” panoramics printed on Moab fine art matte paper, which I sell at specialist art fairs and from my website. The response to these by the public is, as you would expect, amazement, as the pictures just hit in the face when viewed at this size. My website has a gallery devoted to the format and is also how I display my pictures on the home page, to great effect. I’m hoping to do a book using the format and have been offered an exhibition by one gallery who has seen my work on my site.
So, until a manufacturer produces a purpose made digital panoramic camera, I will stick to traditional film and the Fuji. Stitching together digital images on the computer might prove successful for some, but for me, I prefer shooting the full image in one go, even though the camera still attracts so much attention when on a shoot, but I can live that.
© Craig Roberts
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