Neil

I've gone all square!

Saturday, 26. January 2008, 13:12:55

No, I haven't decided to captain a chess club, or start a bowls tournament - I'm talking about square format photography! I've been doing this for quite a while, and although I don't have a thousand pounds to drop on a square format camera, I do try my best with the trusty 4:3 SLR instead. I've got an album up (by request, might I add

) with just my square format photos for you all to see

You can see the album here.

Happy New Year π

Comments

Nigel Cliff # 26. January 2008, 18:12

I used medium format 6x6 for many years as a Wedding photographer and for that job it was fine,however when I used it for my other loves of Steam railways and Landscapes the images never seemed as balanced as when taken on a 35mm or 6x4.5 SLR

Neil # 27. January 2008, 09:51

I find that some landscapes lend themselves to a wider format, but with those containing specific subjects can focus on that subject and you can work the square format around it.

kirsten # 10. February 2008, 19:29

i didn't know there were such a thing as special square picture cameras! How strange!

Neil # 10. February 2008, 19:40

Yep! There are

They usually called medium format cameras (although there are other shapes in medium format) and the film you put into them is a lot larger than the 35mm or APS films most consumers used before digital. It's still used a lot by professionals due to its large negative size and greater enlargement abilities, although digital is slowly replacing those too

kirsten # 10. February 2008, 20:23

do you just take normal pictures and then crop them, or do you have a posh SLR which does this to the pictures before you upload them onto your computer?

Nigel Cliff # 10. February 2008, 20:30

Kirsten it is a special type of camera that takes removable backs,these can be for film but also digital backs usually made bt specialist companies.

Whilst the cameras although not cheap can ber picked up second hand for a few hundred pounds the digital backs cost in the tens of thousands of pounds so are very much for the pro or rich amateur.

have a browese here to get some idea

http://www.hasselblad.co.uk/

PS when I had one of these it was old second hand and used film so I no way copme into the rich amateur category

kirsten # 10. February 2008, 23:06

hehe, I am neither a pro or a rich amateur unfortunately!
tens of thousands!!!!! cough...splutter...croak...

oh look! even the camera is square!

I think i'll have to make do with my normal little digital camera for now though

Are you a professional photographer CaptainPenguin?

Nigel Cliff # 11. February 2008, 07:40

Wish I was Kirsten,I did weddings as a weekend job for about 10 years but photography is just a hobby

Neil # 11. February 2008, 12:45

Kirsten: Tens of thousands sounds about right for these things! It's why those school photographers tend to charge a lot for what amounts to a couple of pictures

CaptainPenguin: You did weddings? ouch.

kirsten # 11. February 2008, 18:53

ouch? why ouch?

Neil # 11. February 2008, 19:49

Wedding photography is widely considered the most troublesome kind of job you can do as a photographer, freelance or otherwise

People can be quite a handful when memories of their wedding is at stake!