Many people look at photo websites and wonder why the prices can vary so wildly between artists. If someone is looking at two websites and sees Photographer A and Photographer B with similar pictures, but Photographer B charges much less, most people will believe Photographer B is the better deal based on price alone. Is it really that simple?

Photographers can shoot in a variety of formats. Let's assume that Photographer A shoots Large Format and Photographer B uses 35mm. A Large Format photographer uses a negative or transparency that is roughly 16 times more area for detail than one that shoots 35mm. Shown below are the rough relative sizes for these two formats. They are to scale, but reduced to display easily on a computer monitor:

What does this really mean to you, the viewer? In short: Details, details, details! The Large Format photograph simply has so many more fine, gorgeous, rich details in it, the result is a superior photograph, especially when you're trying to convey the vastness of a landscape. Let's compare one of mine, shot in both formats. First, let's look at the two images when shown scanned in at the same target resolutions, but then output to a file for 'web quality':

Aside from slightly different physical image sizes, there's not much noticeable difference when shown like that. And Photographer B is counting on that, because it makes Photographer A look overpriced. But let's dig deeper--what happens when I enlarge the photograph to 16"x20"?

Shown below here is a section of the photograph--the exact same section in each--enlarged and cut out, as if I had enlarged it to that size. Notice the substantial difference in detail.

And here is another section in the same pictures shown but for an even larger size--30"x40".

You can easily see that the Large Format picture holds much more information in it. And if that can be shown on a simple document, with only clips of the original images, you can imagine the difference if these two pictures sat side-by-side!

Even if Photographer B claims he/she sharpens the image using photo manipulation software, the result is only as good as the ORIGINAL information present the image, especially when the image is enlarged to larger print sizes. The software must GUESS at what should be filling in those blurry areas! For example, in the two images above-the white tree trunks and the yellow highlights of the trees on the left would STILL be absent from any sharpened photograph.

These are the reasons that I only sell 35mm enlarged to 11x14 and why my Large Format images are priced the way they are. Don't be fooled by a 35mm photographer who wants to sell you a large print of their work at a cheaper price! No matter how good their original, it just can't compete with Large Format.