Hello everyone!
Therefore I have resisted the temptation to upload any of my work. Not to mention that although I am very proud of some of my work,
Jim
It's Michael's forum, Michael's website, so what he decides to do with it is up to him. It's his call.
Still, whether this is on topic or not, the definitions of photography, especially for commerce have changed.
I know some people take great exception to the thought that a "35-mm" camera frame would be considered medium format, or a smaller than 645 camera frame could be considered "large format", though I doubt seriously if Canon or Phase One would prescribe to that thought.
This website and many others hailed the original "35-mm" 1ds as a close equal to medium format film and later referenced 39 to 60 mpx medium format backs as the equal to 8x10 film so it's not that big of a leap to see the new formats as one size smaller, because in single shot capture devices there is no large format digital camera. BTW: the S in the 1d series stands for studio.
This carries all the way to sales. I don't know the numbers, but I would bet medium format camera sales today pretty much equal large format camera sales back in the roaring days of film.
Categorizing photography has always been difficult. What is a portrait to National Geographic is photojournalism to Publicis, what is fashion to Old Navy is lifestyle to Neiman Marcus, what is high resolution to Macy's is low rez to Arizona Highways and all of those descriptions can change in a moment depending on who is in charge. In the world of commerce and editorial, the "who is in charge" is changing by the hour.
This forum is based on the technical and brings out the geekiness in all of us, but I think a lot of people here would be surprised to learn that of the photographer's who's work they aspire to, most don't really give a damn what camera they are using as long as it works.
Most just shoot, hand it to an assistant, that hands it to a technician, that hands it to a retoucher, than hands it to a client/AD,AB/DP for correction.
Don't 100% buy into camera maker's websites, pdfs or ads because few people that work professionally only use one type or format of camera, regardless of what they say in the testimonial or user insight pdf. Also be aware that every forum post, regardless of how benign has an agenda. Medium format reps and camera sales people want you to buy medium format cameras and photographers that drop 30 grand on a camera are loath to admit that it might not have been the best investment. The flip side is all of the talented amateurs, semi-professionals and pros shooting a D20 that feel somewhat inadequate because there camera isn't "big enough".
Since this thread is listed as professional works, knocking out anything shot 24x36 would pretty much eliminate 95% of the world's professional photographs.
It's all kind of silly.
Also let's don't turn this into a comparison of formats like that dxo thing that keeps floating around comparing noise floors, dynamic range and pixel level sharpness like the only thing that matters in photography is the scientific experiment.
I use what I use for the situation, or what works. I have way too many cameras, have spent way too much money searching for the holy grail and I can promise you at the end of the day, what goes on in front of the lens is way more important than anything that happens behind the lens shade.
Personally I don't care what equipment any photographer uses to make a photograph, but of the hand full of good photographers I know, all of them have some kind of Canon or Nikon in their bag and most of them use it a lot more than even they will admit, so if you want to limit the viewing of professional images to a format or a frame size it's going to be a small, static world of imagery and your going to miss a lot of inspiring work.
JR
