Most people don’t seem to know what a “Hasselblad” is, but if you’re a photographer it’s something to get excited about. A Hasselblad is a Medium Format camera which produces exceptional quality photos. This quality unfortunately doesn’t come cheap with a list price having 5 figures in it. I’ve got a very generous friend who owns a Hasselblad H5D-50 who kindly let me borrow the camera for just over a month to use as if it’s my own and to take as many good photos with it as possible. Well I did my best and here’s a little insight into what I got up to! Here’s the camera, a bit of a (heavy!) beast:
One of the amazing things about the Hasselblad is how large the sensor is, in simple terms this leads to quality as each light receptor is larger per megapixel captured. Here’s a little comparison of roughly the difference in size between my Nikon D800 sensor and the ‘blad.
So first shoot with the camera was of this lovely Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera in London. This was my favourite shot from the shoot, although I was struggling to get my head round the camera in the dark!
The evening after I was shooting this Porsche 991 GTS. I love the feel and tones of this image and the movement in the image while keeping the car stationary.
Next shoot was this Mercedes Benz SLS AMG on Folkestone Pier, a slight sea gull theme!
A little image of the camera in use… Adding a bit of fill light using the Profoto B1 flash
Next up, a trip to North Yorkshire to do a shoot for Twisted. This is one of the vehicles I shot for them, a Defender equipped with an LS3 V8!
Back in London for a shoot of this 991 GT3, a fantastic colour car that really popped out.
I went out for an evening drive with the Speedster and Hasselblad. A nice evening out…
Now on to a very special trip away to the Dolomites to shoot a private collection of cars in some of the most spectacular scenery in the world. Starting with the LaFerrari!
His Mercedes Benz 300SL “Gullwing” fitted in perfectly with this scenery and the Hasselblad meant it had a beautiful natural feel to the photo with minimal editing
Last day of the trip in Italy and we decided to wake up for Sunrise and it was well worth it for these few photos…
Back in England, this time near Bristol and it was time to shoot this awesome Audi R8
Back from Bristol and in to London that same evening to shoot for PopBangColour of his new, very bold, Kia Soul,
The next evening I was shooting a few F40s…
This wasn’t a shoot, but I still shot it on the Hasselblad, a drive to Salon Prive
Followed the next day by some quick photos of the LFA
My last actual shoot using the ‘blad was of a selection of cars at Samual Laurence Ltd. These were two of my favourites…
Last shot with the Hasselblad before I returned it today was of this Alfa Romeo 4C, which my friend picked up yesterday. This shot was taken at the Top Gear Test Track, a beautiful car I think.
So I had a great time with the camera, it’s been a great month made only better by being able to learn the Hasselblad way. I’ll admit I got quite frustrated by it at times, the usability of the camera is pretty awful compared to my Nikon D800, but it’s all worth it for when the photos are on the computer and there’s so much data in the photos.
Big thank you to my friend who lent me the camera, although I’m going to miss it!