Technical Notes

What is ultra large format?

Most people are familiar with 35mm film-the rolls of film with the sprockets along the edges. And some may know what 2 1/4” roll film is as well. But few have seen, or worked with, large and ultra large format film. What differentiates large format from the smaller formats is the film-it is sold in sheets, not rolls. And the size of the sheet dictates just how sharp an image will be.

In the 19th century, before enlarging a smaller negative to a larger print became popular, photographers contact printed their negatives. This means they took their negative and put it in contact with photographic paper (also a negative) and when processed became a positive print. These are charactierized by incredible sharpness and detail since there is no loss of image content.

I began working in large format 4x5” in 1987, and then began working in Ultra Large Format in 2012. My cameras currently include 4x10”, 8x10”, 12x20”, 14x14”, and 20x24”. The latter two I built myself. I enjoy showing every bit of these larger plates, and so you will often see a black border around the white edge. This shows you exactly what I saw on the camera’s ground glass. Most importantly, it shows you what I saw and was moved to make an image of. I hope enjoy the work.