Whether it's advertising, travel, fashion or product photography, I can capture images on a variety of formats.

At some stage of any given project, I can guarantee that I will discuss format choice, and how it relates to the planned project, with every one on my clients. I've prepared this page as background information for anyone unsure about which format they should be considering for a photographic assignment.

To arrive at the best choice of format, you should consider the eventual use that your images will have, in tandem with the budget you have for the project. Decide whether the photographs are to be used for publications, like magazines and books, or whether you will need very large reproductions made from the photographs, like posters, banners or signs. Think about your timetable for the project, and how the delivery of the photography will be timed - for very tight deadlines, a digital format may be the only option for your requirements, but you should also consider the limitations of shooting digitally.

Digital or Film?
Today, this is getting to be a question few people on lower budgets consider any more - for most people, the ease and speed of the digital workflow is more of an advantage than the loss of final image quality, compared with shooting on film. For most, it’s now simply a choice between shooting on DSLR or a larger digital format.

However, if you’re still happy to work with film-sourced images, it boils down to a matter of how quickly you need your images, the use you will put your photographs to, and, to some extent, the nature of the subject you're photographing. Most of my commercial work is now shot digitally. Digitally sourced images can be shot, corrected and supplied within a matter of minutes, compared with the several hours it takes to get a film-sourced image processed and scanned. Some high resolution digital shoots will have more expensive equipment hire costs -  conversely, you will need to allow budget for scanning images sourced on film.

Remember that ALL final digital images, whether they're sourced on digital cameras or acquired by scanning film, need a certain degree of retouching before they can be used for their final application. I'm happy to undertake retouching to your requirements, or to supply unretouched images.

WHICH FORMAT DO I NEED?
The following is a breakdown of some of the formats that I can use for your shoot - the list covers most digital and film formats. If you've already made a decision to shoot digitally, scroll down to the DIGITAL SLR or MEDIUM FORMAT DIGITAL paragraphs.

My rates for shooting digitally are based on the capture resolution of the equipment your needs require. Small scale print or online final use means that you need only shoot on lower spec capture (up to 8MP) - while larger scale final use - say double page editorial use or posters, is best suited to resolutions of 12MP - 22MP. For the largest possible final use, the best - but most costly - option is Medium Format Digital format, which has resolutions of up to 39MP available.


35mm Film
All of my travel, editorial and reportage projects are shot on 35mm film. Mechanical or semi-automatic cameras and equipment (like my own Leica and Olympus systems) are generally much smaller, lighter, more robust, unobtrusive and less dependent on batteries than digital or even highly automated 35mm film cameras. Shooting digitally tends to demand a laptop and/or other heavy equipment to be brought along on the trip as well - so it's just not an option for Travel or Reportage. Whilst there are ways by which images captured on 35mm film can be used at very large sizes, results can be grainy and it's often best to choose a larger format to start with, if this large size is your intended final use. I've shot 35mm film for small-format print advertising and travel books, whose final page sizes was not greater than A4 size.


Digital SLR
'Professional' Digital SLRs (DSLRs) typically provide a resolution of between 6 and 21 megapixels and are ideal for when images are needed quickly, or for small or low resolution use (like web pages). Prints of between A4 (29cm x 21cm) and A1 (84cm x 59cm) size are generally of acceptable high resolution print repro quality (ideally, a minimum of 8 MP for A4; 12-16MP for A3, and so on), though I've seen acceptable images from 6MP cameras reproduced at A0 size!

If you're planning to make such use of images sourced from digital SLRs, make sure you've identified a capable bureau, retoucher, or large format print specialist. I always prefer shooting in RAW format on DSLRs, to achieve the highest possible image quality. Please don't hesitate to contact me if you'd like to see samples of images shot on DSLRs.
A large number of my commercial assignments are now shot on Canon DSLRs, and my preferred combination of Canon DSLR, Canon L or Leica R lenses (the best lenses made anywhere on the planet!!), Macintosh laptop and Apple's Aperture software means that a light, portable and very capable location kit can be taken on almost any assignment, and, depending on the resolution of the sensor, provide results that easily rival Medium Format film. The facilities to review, select, edit and produce final artwork are the same as those in my main desktop system, which means that, if required, clients can be supplied with a set of print (or proof-) -ready images on DVD, at the location, within minutes of the photographs being taken.

Remember that there are a range of sensor resolutions at which you can capture the images for your shoot. Broadly speaking, the higher the resolution, the larger you will be able to use your final image, for example as a poster, without it diminishing in clarity or appearing pixelated. Of course, the higher the resolution you choose, the larger - and slower -  the files from the camera are to work with, and the higher the cost of the shoot. If you require images for online use only, your shoot may be more suited to lower spec capture (6MP or 8MP); while printed use will require higher spec capture (dependent on the final size, between 8MP and 22MP). For the largest possible final use, a budget route is 22MP DSLR, but the quality of the image will not match MEDIUM FORMAT DIGITAL systems, at resolutions of 39MP.

NB The best summary of requirements for final image use, and how this relates to the choice of spec for digital image sourcing is the following paragraph, taken from the excellent Luminous Landscape website:

         “....... Many people ask, “why I need so many pixels?” Now consider an argument in favor of the megapixels race. We know the human eye can resolve, at best, 6 line pairs per millimeter from a destance of 25 centimeters. If we make a 8x12 print (DIN A4) at 6 lp/mm (300 pixels per inch, ppp) the image needed will have 8 million pixels. If the print is double that size (A3) the viewing distance must to be longer, and the resolving capacity of the eye will fall, so 240ppp (5 lp/mm) is more than enough, needing 10 million pixels. Many editorial assignments ask for a double page at 300ppp, and a A3 print with that resolution requires 16 millions of pixels. Even bigger images could be convenient for cropping of for big enlargements. Now comes the key argument in favor of bigger images. The real resolution (detail really resolved) is lower than the theoretical resolution of the sensor, which determines the size of the digital image (in number of pixels), and therefore, an image of 8 millions of pixels cannot contain enough real detail for a A4 print reproducing a pattern of 6 lp/mm. A bigger than needed image will have a particular percentage of real detail that can be preserved after downsampling. If you need 16 millions of pixels for a print, a bigger number will be welcome for more (after downsampling) real detail. This is one of the advantages of medium format’s massive number of pixels.....”


Medium Format Film
Medium Format Film shoots are (given an ideal world scenario of adequate budget and time!) my preferred choice for most fashion and some advertising / product shoots (my own preference is Hasselblad 6x6 equipment). Because the film size with medium format is so much larger than 35mm film, the image needs less enlargement and results in a sharper, less grainy image. High quality drum scans of medium format film can, in practice, be used for almost any commercial application. Film can be processed and delivered in a matter of hours, if required, and even in the digital age when customers give the impression that you haven’t the time to take a crap, let alone wait for film to come back from the lab, I've yet to work on a job whose timetable couldn't have been able to accommodate the slightly longer time that it takes for images to be sourced on film.

Many art directors and photographers also prefer to have the 'safety net' of a physical back-up, in the form of a piece of film, safely stored away in a filing cabinet, in addition to back-ups of files on computer disk. More than one client has made a panicked call to me, requesting copies of digitally sourced images, because they've 'accidentally' erased the originals stored on their system! For most Medium Format shoots, I now shoot digital stills on location to preview lighting (dispensing with the need for polaroids!), and of course the high-resolution digital images also serve as a back-up to the film shoot! Please don't hesitate to contact me if you'd like to see samples of images shot on Medium Format film.

Medium Format Digital
As with 35mm film cameras, the advantages of a larger negative size can be seen when Medium Format cameras are fitted with digital backs. The electronic device which captures the photographic image is much larger than that found in "35mm" DSLR cameras, and resolutions of between 11 and 39 megapixels are the norm. Shooting digitally in a studio where the highest possible quality digital images can be produced, and where an art director can see shots instantly on a computer screen has distinct advantages over waiting for polaroids to develop, but remember that equipment and studio costs for top resolution digital will be higher than shooting on film, or DSLR. Remember too that the higher resolution medium format digital backs aren't really suitable for fast action, or motor-drive sequences - in this case, if the images had to be sourced digitally, a DSLR-based shoot would be the best solution.

Large Format Film
The various large film formats provide the largest possible negative size, and consequently, the highest possible reproduction quality. A greater degree of control can be made in the camera over the perspective in the final image, which, for some product or advertising images, is crucial. Costs per image are of course higher than with smaller formats, and large format shoots are generally confined to the studio, rather than location work. Please don't hesitate to contact me if you'd like to see samples of images shot on Large Format film.

Scanning
Once photographs have been sourced on film, you'll need to scan the film so that your bureau or designer can manipulate them for your final use. Remember that ALL digital images, whether they're sourced on digital cameras or acquired by scanning film, need a certain degree of retouching before they can be used for their final application, so somewhere along the line you'll have to pay for someone to do this! There is a range of scanning solutions available for images acquired on film, from small desktop film scanners to large commercial 'drum' scanners, and your final choice will depend on the size of your final image use and the budget you have for scanning.