Technical

About the photography

I mostly use Nikon 35mm SLR film cameras (F6 and F80). The film stock is mainly Fujichrome Velvia 50 although some images were taken on Velvia 100.

Most work was shot using Nikkor 17-35mm and 28-70mm zoom lenses which I find cover the majority of landscape situations. Occasionally, however, a 70-200mm zoon is used. I do shoot some subjects ‘hand-held’, but in all low-light situations and in certain other circumstances where a slow shutter speed is unavoidable, I consider a tripod to be essential. When a filter is needed, I use the modular Lee filters system. Typically I employ a polarizing filter to enhance colour and reduce unwanted reflections in a scene.

I scan my film using a Nikon Coolscan V scanner at maximum resolution (4000ppi), to produce high resolution image files, typically 50Mb after cropping. Any subsequent tidying up and image manipulation (including conversion to monochrome) is done on the computer using Photoshop CS3.

For the present, I am content to continue using mainly film and feel no compulsion to ‘go-digital’, although I will doubtless do so in due course when my current kit needs replacing. As for the ‘film versus digital’ debate, I am very much aligned with those who believe that it is the final image that matters, not the camera or other means used to produce it!

I have, however, recently started using a digital compact camera (Canon Powershot G9) for some initial experimentation with infrared photography. In due course I hope to add more infrared work and some information concerning my methodology to this site.