If you have had a look at my article on the Goldilocks of camera designs you will have realised that I am a bit of a fan of the Twin Lens Reflex (TLR), a type I have used for around half of my 60 or so years in photography. Unfortunately, in my declining years I […]

Author Archives: Tony Warren
I started using a camera around 1950 and the bug has never left me. Apart from a spell working semi-pro in connection with my work as an architect, I have always been a “keen amateur”. In the 1990s I gave up my darkroom and have worked in hybrid fashion since, shooting on film and then completing the following stages digitally.
Using filters with monochrome film
If you have been giving monochrome (aka black and white) film photography a go, you will have realised that film doesn’t quite see things the way your eye does. With modern, panchromatic film stocks that “see” the entire visible light spectrum, the difference isn’t great but can be significant in some areas. In this article, […]
Managing exposure: Using Sunny 16 and the Zone System at the same time
Linking a relatively simple and intuitive method for photographic exposure determination to a highly complicated and comprehensive system for analysing every step for making a high-quality photographic print may seem to be stretching things a bit. But the fact is there are a couple of features of the Zone System that are are very useful […]
What is exposure? How to use light meters in film photography
Getting your exposure right is the first priority in making a photograph and comes before almost any other decision after the initial idea for a shot. Nowadays though, it is hardly given a thought. With many cameras making the basic choice, the photographer only needs to decide if any adjustment should be made to achieve […]
The TLR, a Goldilocks camera design
The Twin Lens Reflex (TLR) is a camera design over 130 years old and it’s almost a hundred years since its now-familiar appearance first was brought to the mass market by Franke & Heidecke and subsequently, so widely and successfully copied. It is a “just right” Goldilocks camera if ever there was one. I am not […]
Comparing the Super Ikonta 532/16 and Ensign 12-20 folding cameras
British camera manufacturer Barnet Ross Ensign boldly advertised in the post-Second World War period that photographic development had now moved from Europe to Great Britain.
How to: Make a simple large format pinhole camera
In this article, I will be guiding you through the construction of a simple pinhole camera out of a cardboard box, which uses photographic paper to make photographs.