I tend to shoot my film cameras in a rotation pattern, shooting one system, missing the advantages and forgetting the disadvantages of another and circling back around. I don’t think I’d enjoy shooting film as much if I only shot 35mm or medium format. My Intrepid MkIV 4x5 large format camera had sat on the shelf for several months when I picked it up again in January. I’d bought my first box of Ilford Delta 100 after I finished shooting Ilford FP4+ but after being given some old, expired film to play around with that had also sat unopened. That all changed when I decided to make the most of engineering works which actually made it easier and cheaper for me to pay a long-awaited visit to the city of St Albans. With its rich history and old buildings, it made for the perfect subject for large format photography.

I made sure to go early and headed straight for the Cathedral not long after it opened. I knew shooting at ISO 100 with the small apertures of large format I would need very long exposures (taking into consideration reciprocity failure) so I didn’t want to be awkwardly setting up and standing around for a long time with huge crowds of people. Thankfully it really was very quiet, with only a handful of other people walking around. Such long shutter speeds meant that people would simply disappear, but at times I really was the only person there. Even though the maths does add up when calculating reciprocity failure, it always leaves a question or two about whether you got it right, though the margins of error are forgiving. My photo of the Nave is my longest ever exposure taken on any camera at a lengthy 810s or thirteen and a half minutes! Thankfully with T mode I didn’t have to hold down the release the whole time.

Using my large format camera infrequently doesn’t do me any favours when it comes to mastering movements, but it’s a bit of a myth that you need to use a lot of them to be effective, especially when you are stopping down the aperture to F32 or F45. You just need enough to help you out. Another area I have yet to master is getting things to appear symmetrical in the viewfinder, extra challenging when everything is upside down and the edge of the frame on my big 90mm lens can be quite dim, especially inside. All the more reason to keep going out and shooting with the camera. But with a little bit of cropping in post processing I am able to tidy things up.

Delta 100 is a film I’ve really enjoyed shooting in both 35mm and 120 roll film and in large format it once again came up trumps and produced very good results. The grain is practically invisible and very fine details are rendered exceptionally well. Though I haven’t tried Ortho Plus 80 in large format, as this is a T grain film this could very well be the most detailed thing out of Mobberley you can shoot with a large format camera. Though having said that I am left wondering whether I actually prefer FP4+. That film has a more classic look, with a bit more grain (though it is still very very fine) and it has a different quality that’s hard to quantify. It’s almost more black and white, whereas Delta 100 produces images that are more a charcoal grey. Though results will of course vary depending on how you shoot and develop the film, as well as how you handle it when scanning it digitally. More testing is required.

My two favourite images from the roll are the ones inside the Lady Chapel in the Cathedral and the final shot I took of the stream that leads into Verulamium Park. Truth be told I did actually shoot a tenth shot of the old clock tower, only to find when I came to develop it, I’d made the rather amusing mistake of not even loading a sheet of film on that side of the holder in the first place. Not a mistake I ever thought I’d make. What really works for me in the Lady Chapel image is the lone figure who thankfully sat still praying for several minutes, enabling me to have her in sharp focus despite the long exposure. She was also sitting in just the right place I think. The photo of the stream really shows off the great tonal ranges achieved with large format. There’s just that bit of added magic that just gives it that wow factor. Having such a large piece of film captures something that even modern high performance digital sensors cannot, it must just be a matter of physics. It never hurts to have a strong leading line as well and I think I used the 4x5 aspect ratio to its full effect here.

Overall, it was a very enjoyable day of shooting, it’s always slow with large format but it does produce really stunning results and I was glad I didn’t mess up any of the shots I did take. At least I still have that sheet of film I forgot to load for another day. In some ways I am a bit limited by only having 90mm and 180mm lenses, but limits are often a good thing in photography and both lenses are different enough for me to shoot both architecture and landscapes with. I’ll have to plan out another outing to use up the rest of the box and this summer I really would like to shoot my first colour images with this camera. Even if I get a few shots right, I know it’ll be magic.

If you enjoyed this blog then please consider leaving a tip below.