simarock Medium format photography
Gear and

Process

Two things decide what a frame becomes: what the sensor caught on the spot, and everything done to it afterwards. This page is both, in order.
First
The Negative
On location we use a commercially available digital sensor to acquire the highest resolution and colour fidelity digital negative possible — a 102-megapixel file that holds far more than any screen can show at once.
See for yourself — scroll to zoom, drag to wander. In the full negative of Tbilisi from the ridge you can count people in the streets.
Click to zoom

Fujifilm GFX 100 II full size image demo: the complete 102-megapixel medium format negative of Tbilisi seen from the ridge, served as a deep-zoom tile pyramid so it can be inspected at 100% — at full magnification individual people are visible in the streets.

Then
The Treatment
Grading here is not about idealising the frame or making it look like a magazine page. Imperfections are kept, not polished away — the work is in deciding what the eye meets first, and what stays in the dark.
Pull the slider all the way, four times over — this is the order every frame goes through.
00Untouched
Straight off the sensor — full range, flat colour, nothing decided yet. Everything that follows is a choice about what stays loud and what goes quiet.
Balancing
Split toning
Cleanup
Texturing
Pull through all four passes — or back again