Response to Can I get medium format quality from 35mm?

I mainly use large format but I also use 35mm and 120. I year ago I entered a professional art competition with a wildlife theme, I won the award for best landscape (I love beating painters with my photographs). Of the the entries that I had, I won with the one made with a 35mm not the 2 large format images. I never heard any comments about the 35mm image being in anyway technically inferior. This is the photograph that won. It was a very cold and windy day, I usually carry my 35mm with me when I look for images for my LF. I made this exposure but it was to cold and windy to return with my LF equipment. The important elements in making this a successful photograph is that it was 1. developed in PMK developer and 2. printed 6" by 9". The PMK makes large grain but masks it with its stain making a very sharp image (the film was t-max 100) it also creates a palate that I haven't seen with any other conventional developer. A 6x9 image properly presented can seem like a large picture. When you are using a smaller negative a smaller print will improve the quality of the image, a 6x9 is equivilant to a 24x30 from a 4x5. So making a 16x20 isn't reasonable unless you want the larger grain and less sharpness. High quality images a very possible with a 35mm but bigger isn't better, better is better.

[ Previous | Next ]