Nicole
Most people flock to LF because they haven't learned how to extract more than 20% of the native quality of a 35mm negative and believe there is magic inherent to film size that will open some magic doorway. The reality is that there is no magic in film size, and most diversions from one format to another, one camera to another, one film to another, is simply a lateral move that wastes time and expense and does not progress to the goal of making great pictures.
This, from an 8x10 shooter of 33 years standing.
Today, the greatest obstacle to making good pictures of people is the lack of time most people have. And time is the single most important ingredient for making a good picture.
In 1916, Edward Weston said, "If I am thinking about my camera, it is not a portrait." Nothing has changed. The self-conciousness of using LF to photograph people takes years of practise to erase. In the meantime, the pictures are inevitably about a photographer messing about with a big camera or a new lens, and is never about the subject.
Acknowledging that people have too little time to give to a photographer, and that LF creates barriers between a photographer and the subject that take a great deal of practise to surmount, the effect of turning away from a comfortable mastery of 120 and 35 has to be seen in terms of what can possibly be gained.
From one natural light portraitist to another, "Large Format cameras for Portraiture" are why the Hasselblad and the Leica were invented. LF can be rewarding in a very formal natural light setting, or in a studio, but you will be wasting time and money dissipating your energy taking on something new,and of dubious merit, when you could be concentrating your considerable talent and skill on your portrait business.
If raw magnification was the key ( see, it ISN'T film size, but magnification that is the key to pure technical goodness ) then Cartier Bresson would be unknown today.
Empathy with the subject is everything, technique is almost nothing. With a simple and sound 35 and 120 technique, you can make transcendent images every day of your life. Magnificent portraits can be made on 35 TMY, consistently and reliably, in light levels that require an exposure of 1/30 @ f/1.4. They are IMPOSSIBLE to make with 120, let alone 4x5. In higher levels, you can use the Hasselblad and be free from a tripod when it might be possible to make an exposure on 4x5. Any natural light condition that allows 4x5, will be done with more life and vitality with 120.
With no loss of 'technical quality'.
That said, LF can be an enjoyable hobby, and at some point shooting 8x10 contact prints could become fun. Or, you could pack the camera and family and go on cool vacations instead.
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