Hello from England

[soulstar89]

Hi,

I am from the UK and have recently acquired a large format camera. I have ALOT to learn as i mostly shoot 35mm and 6x7 film.

I look forward to going through the rabbit hole and on the way learning and getting to know people on here.

cheers

Soulstar

[Myriophyllum]

Hi,

sounds good. :-)
Welcome here!

Best
Jens

[Ulophot]

Welcome, soulstar. You have found the best place on the web to be for LF. Be sure to spend some time on the homepage, where you'll find loads of info on many aspects of the craft. will you be shooting B&W and color both? Do you have a darkroom? Just curious.

[mpirie]

Welcome from NorthWest Scotland.

Mike

[soulstar89]

Thanks a lot.

[soulstar89]

Welcome, soulstar. You have found the best place on the web to be for LF. Be sure to spend some time on the homepage, where you'll find loads of info on many aspects of the craft. will you be shooting B&W and color both? Do you have a darkroom? Just curious.

Hi Philip,

Thank you for the warm welcome. I’ve already started going through the home page. So so useful. I’m learning new things to look out for when considering lenses, image circle. I feel I need a note pad lol.

I’ll be shooting B&W. I have a medium format mamiya rz67 proII kit. As colour roll film is cheaper I’ll shoot colour on that if needed. Sadly portra on 4x5 makes my brain crash and do a master reset every time I see the price looool.

I don’t have a darkroom. I have access to a community darkroom if needed. I develop at home. My view is to print big so I’m undecided on darkroom or digital.

I love continuous lighting but my tests just with strobes has shown me I need ALOT of light more light compared to smaller formats. I am not sure continuous lighting is realistic considering f16 and up apertures would be used. I now understand why Gregory crewdson uses film lighting for his work.

[RJ-]

Welcome from London England too.

There are a few community darkrooms left in London still and digital cine techniques in studio lighting using cheaper LED continuous lighting with 80watt systems have really changed how we used to work with 250watt strobes before the advent of the European energy crisis.

Definitely encourage printing traditional darkroom: digital prints are a dime a dozen and flooding our spaces everywhere. It's refreshing holding onto the traditional optical handcrafted darkroom aesthetic of large format view camera photography.

Kind regards
RJ

[Duolab123]

Welcome from Iowa City Iowa.!!!!

[Andrew O'Neill]

Welcome, Soulstar!

[angusparker]

Worth reading Leslie Stroebel's View Camera Technique to really understand your rabbit hole completely! Making mistakes is part of the process. I would second developing your own B&W film and printing it as well.

[soulstar89]

Welcome from London England too.

There are a few community darkrooms left in London still and digital cine techniques in studio lighting using cheaper LED continuous lighting with 80watt systems have really changed how we used to work with 250watt strobes before the advent of the European energy crisis.

Definitely encourage printing traditional darkroom: digital prints are a dime a dozen and flooding our spaces everywhere. It's refreshing holding onto the traditional optical handcrafted darkroom aesthetic of large format view camera photography.

Kind regards
RJ

Hey RJ,

I didn't see your response. Yes, you are right there are a few community darkrooms left. Four corners in Bethnal Green, Photofusion in Brixton and another I can't remember the name in Hackney Downs.

I definitely always aim for hand prints. It is just dependent on the size i want to print.

Once i get my lens setup done i will then look into lighting. I'm using strobes at the moment.

Which part of London are you based? I am southeast Dulwich/Peckham

[soulstar89]

Welcome from Iowa City Iowa.!!!!

Thanks. I look forward to getting to know the community.

[soulstar89]

Welcome, Soulstar!

Hey Andrew,

Thank you for the warm welcome. I actually came across your youtube channel when i was searching for Large format. Nice stuff mate.

[Joseph Kashi]

Hi,

I am from the UK and have recently acquired a large format camera. I have ALOT to learn as i mostly shoot 35mm and 6x7 film.

I look forward to going through the rabbit hole and on the way learning and getting to know people on here.

cheers

Soulstar

Welcome from Alaska (USA) !

[Mark J]

Greetings from North Wales. Hope the clouds clear at some stage in 2025 !

[ajmiller]

Hello from North Yorkshire!

[6x6TLL]

Welcome!

[RJ-]

Hey RJ,

I didn't see your response. Yes, you are right there are a few community darkrooms left. Four corners in Bethnal Green, Photofusion in Brixton and another I can't remember the name in Hackney Downs.

I definitely always aim for hand prints. It is just dependent on the size i want to print.
Once i get my lens setup done i will then look into lighting. I'm using strobes at the moment.

Which part of London are you based? I am southeast Dulwich/Peckham


A few of my ex-students use Lakeside - is that the one? https://www.lakesidedarkroom.com/about

I curated the arts cafe public darkroom in the adjacent borough to you - just ended this time last year. I'm down in Bromley (Kent). It's kind of amazing - the LargeformatPhotography forum stat tells me I've been on this forum for 17 years - I've never ever seen a single LF photographer in this area. We were running London photowalks this summer - only medium format and 35mm photographers show up :)