Many who know I shoot large format work in 4x5 and 5x7 want to know if they have to learn large format photography to get ahead and be recognized. After all, Ansel & Weston and so many others used large format. I believe it can help to learn where photography has been and it can help sharpen your technique in a great many ways. But if you are part of the group who can't slow down you might be disappointed in large format.

It isn't fast. It isn't lightweight. It doesn't have superfast or super-tele lenses. It has more ways to screw up images than you can imagine and they are compounded with swings & tilts and shift & rise & fall. In short, it can be a nightmare for anyone who doesn't like detail and control. That is what large format is really about. Detail and control.

You can get more information on a large format negative or chrome when photographing the same angle of view than you can with smaller formats. That is a real plus if you like detail and sharpness in your images. You can control more aspects of the final image due to the movements of even relatively inexpensive large format cameras. And, go big enough and you can live without an enlarger.

But you can also find newer and more creative ways to screw up your pictures. But remember, you are doing it in large format and that helps you to become a real photographer.

Actually, LF work can be a great help if you have the temperament for it. It is confining and slow but for some these are not boundaries, but paths to creativity. For some, LF helps on the road to becoming a real photographer. Its control, and its controls allow individual images to be created, processed and then interpreted on paper like no other format. As to everything you can do to ruin your photos, if you try this road you will(just like all the rest of us) make a bunch of mistakes. Some more than others and even with years of experience you will still make the occasional ones like forgetting to turn over the dark slide after shooting and end up double exposing a shot.(for me usually when others are near & I am talking instead of concentrating fully). But, LF can help on the road to legitimacy in photography.

But, you aren't attuned to big cameras that need to be used on a tripod but still want bigger pictures because "bigger must be better".(else why would Hassy & Rollei & the others keep spending so much on the advertising?) So, how about medium format?

Well, choose your poison here. Square? 6x7? 6x8? 6x9? 6x12? What will it be? Then, rangefinder or SLR? Interchangeable lenses or fixed? Ditto with the backs? Do you get one that requires you to look towards your belly button & toes or one that is like a 35mm SLR on steroids?(legal in Olympic photo venues tho) And to make it even worse, Nikon and Canon don't make medium format cameras?!!

So, you pick one and live with it for awhile. Most of them are smaller than 4x5 cameras, tho some are bulkier and heavier than many LF offerings. But, these are smaller & lighter and you can do street shooting with them. You show up at weddings with your Hasselblad and immediately notice you have to prove you are a lousy photographer because everyone assumes that your Hassy somehow gives you talent. And it is just as easy to be a lousy photographer with a $3000 camera as it is with a $200 one. In some ways it is even easier. Waist level viewing is only for the brave or foolhardy. Tilted horizons and a stiff neck are the rewards here. It takes practice. It also takes a big bankroll for the major names.

It takes patience. In many ways more than LF work as you expected to be quicker in medium format and the good results don't come easy. Yep, bigger negs & chromes than 35mm, smaller ones than 4x5 but you can still fill trash cans with rejects even with a very expensive camera. Run out & rent a Hasselblad or Rollei, or borrow an old Mamiya twin lens & try shooting & see how different it is. But, just like LF work, some will take to it and love it and others will curse the things and all the options as just more ways to help them screw up. But if you take to it, use them. Work with them and get better & more familiar with the camera. In all the models on the market there will be one or two that really helps you to see the world the way you think it ought to be on film with your vision and touch and interpretation. And if it still doesn't feel good, move on to another camera or format.

Which brings us to 35mm. Auto or manual? Autofocus or manual focus? Electronics or manual? Big & heavy Pro models or lighter ones that are easier to carry around? Big fast lenses or smaller ones? Huge teles or lighter, smaller & slower ones? A ton of choices here. Or, should we just go to the big argument-Nikon or Canon?(this one is the favorite of many who can't photograph but like to sound knowledgable)

It doesn't matter. Not a bit. If a camera feels good & you are comfortable with it that is enough reason to get it. The comfort equation plays a big part in becoming a "real" photographer. Yes, you have to live with lens choices, body choices(both in cameras & in those you photograph) and film choices. But no matter what you choose you will need to be comfortable with it.

Unless...

Unless you are one of those who buys their gear to be seen, not to use. We all know some of those in every field. Please don't do that, or if you do don't come near me. I don't like seeing people with good gear who don't know their butt from the batmobile. Owning good gear and not learning how to use it is criminal.

So, learn to use whatever you get. Practice with it. Know it inside & out. Take pictures. And more pictures. And even more. Analyze them & critique them & enjoy them & look at them. Make prints of the good ones & look at them & let your friends see them. Even if you never sell a picture in your life, enjoy photography. Enjoy cameras & film & prints. Learn what quality is and strive for it in your images. Take pictures.. Lots & lots & lots of pictures.

That will make you a "real" photographer.

Real photographers take pictures. Yes, the talk about it and even obsess on equipment & film & printing. But, above all, they take pictures. They use the gear, the film and show & display & make prints. From LF, Medium Format & 35mm. Even from Leicas!

Real photographers take pictures, create images, shoot photos, whatever. Real photographers impress you with their pictures, not their stories. They show you results. Some are good, some aren't, but they all take pictures. Almost everywhere and whenever possible. Some are pro's and some are not. But all of them take pictures.

They don't walk around with a camera to look cool, but to take more pictures. They don't buy another lens to be seen with, but to take pictures. Quite often they have older & beat up gear, or they may have brand new & expensive & beautifully cared for lenses & cameras. But above all, they have pictures from all their cameras & lenses.

Real Photographers take pictures.