However, once I get the transparency back from the lab, modern technology kicks in. I scan the image onto my computer and use software to control the final characteristics of the print (colour balance, contrast, dust removal etc.) on a calibrated monitor. I print digitally. This means that every print I make has a consistent, quality result.
My main camera is a Linhof Technikardan 45S (often just called a TK or 'Techie'). This is a Large Format 5x4 inch folding monorail camera. For those who have little experience of such things it is basically a metal bar with two plates holding the lens and a sheet of film, connected together by a flexible bellows. The camera allows me to adjust both plates and hence lens and film in virtually every direction (tilt, swing, rise, fall, shift, focus) to control precisely the plane of focus and the perspective of the image.
A 5x4 inch sheet film when scanned properly yields detail up to 15,000 pixels by 12,000 pixels - which is a whole lot of mega pixels. With large format quality prints can be made easily up to 40x30 inches or better.
The camera is focused using a dark cloth covering the ground glass screen, which enables me to see the image properly. (It is very dark). The image is upside down, which sounds hard, but like many people I find this helps to balance the image by viewing a more 'abstract' version of the picture. I have a fresnel screen attached to the ground glass to help increase the apparent brightness of the image. I use the new dark cloth designed by David Ward and Joe Cornish, available from the light and land website - which I have to say is the best I have come across and very efficient at keeping out light when I view the screen.
I use lenses at 5 focal lengths - a ‘wide angle’ 90mm Nikon, a 125mm fujinon, a 'standard' 150mm Schneider, a ‘short telephoto’ 240mm Fujinon and a 'telephoto' Fujinon 450mm. (Divide by three to get 35mm equivalent). They are all very light and produce superb results.
My preferred film is Fuji Velvia 50 colour transparency film, although I also use Provia and various colour/black and white negative films from time to time. I use a Fuji ‘Quickload’ system to load and expose individual sheets of film and I use Peak Imaging based in Sheffield to process my film. I will typically expose two sheets for each image I make so that I have a backup. I never use roll film which annoys me. I will often expose sheets of different emulsions to get a choice of results (e.g. velvia and provia).
I also own and use a digital SLR (Nikon D2X) and a set of Nikon Lenses (including many old manual focus lenses which work great due to the ‘sensor crop’.) My current favourite is an 85mm PC tilt/shift lens. I capture my images in ‘RAW’ format. Digital camera technology is great and I enjoy using it – it is lighter, quicker and you can be confident you ‘have it in the bag’. However every time I make a strong landscape image on digital, I wish afterwards I had made it on my TK, because the result is still a world apart. I often return to do so. I never take both the TK and DX2 out together - too much weight.
I use a Ricoh GX100 compact digital camera to take and review snap shots at locations. This helps me to decide where I am going to setup my Large Format gear and give me a more extensive record for later. Also I would not be without my Linhof Viewer, which allows me to see how the resulting image will look at different focal lengths without getting the LF gear setup (which can take several minutes). I can also use it to help get the tripod pretty close to the desired position before I unpack the camera.
For stability I almost always use a tripod. I have two. A lightweight Gitzo 1228 with a Arca style ball-head (Kirk BH-3) for use when I have to walk longer distances or use my D2X (which has a custom made Kirk ‘L’ bracket attached ). The centre column is removed and replaced by a short column. For the TK (with less walking), I generally use a heavier, sturdier Gitzo 1327 with a Manfrotto 410 geared head. I have adapters for both Manfrotto and Arca permanently attached to the base of the Technikardan. I carry my gear in a Lowepro Trekker AWII bag.
To get accurate exposures, I use a hand held spot meter. This allows me to calculate the exposure precisely and to retain control over this critical part of the creative process. I use a Konica Minolta Flashmeter VI.
The dynamic range of transparency film is limited (barely 4 stops on Velvia 50) and therefore Graduated Neutral Density Filters are essential to darken areas of the image so that the highlights can be exposed without going white and losing detail. I use a range of Lee graduated filters (hard and soft) to achieve this. I also utilise digital technologies (photoshop ‘levels’ and ‘curves’) to balance the contrast and brightness of various areas of the image. In the past, I have used digital blending techniques to extend the dynamic range of D2X digital images, but to be honest using lee filters are easier and quicker, even on digital most of the time. Apart from a polarising filter and a warm up filter (very occasionally), I use no other forms of filtration.
My resulting transparencies are scanned using an Epson V700 and Silverfast scanning software. The Epson has a large format film holder which holds the film flat whilst scanning. It produces excellent results so long as you set the height of the film holder to its maximum setting (+). I scan as a HDR file and use SilverFast HDR to convert to a TIFF file. Thanks to Tim Parkin for the tip about scanning at 1600 (which appears to be the native resolution of the scanner). The equivalent stage of the digital workflow is the RAW editor, for which I use Nikon Capture NX. This produces superb results and gives a great amount of control over the final image.
Once my image has been produced (as a TIFF file) I edit it using PhotoShop CS2. Every image requires some degree of balancing of colour, saturation and levels. I will also eliminate any remaining spots of dust using the clone tool and crop the image to tidy it up. I do all this as I project my transparency on a 5x4 inch lightbox. My objective with this whole practice is to get the original transparency as close as I can to the visualised image and to get the print as close as I can to the image I can see on the lightbox. I have no interest in creating things that were not there.
The final images are stored on my hard drive and backed up. I use a Lacie Electron Blue 22 inch screen which has been colour calibrated (essential) using Lacie Blue Eye 2.
Printing is done either on my Epson R2400 A3 printer or via a lab. I utilise printer profiles for each printer/paper combination to ensure accurate colour rendition. My preferred lab is MPS photographic who have an excellent Lightjet printer which produces stunning high quality, images. I send my files electronically to them and they have provided a printer profile so that I can get consistent results.