Hasselblad 500C/M

Fujifilm Neopan Acros II: Two In The Studio

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I’ve long been a fan of the black and white film stocks offered by Fujifilm. For many years my staple film stock was Fuji Neopan 400 and I worked with it in nearly every situation in every season of the year. Indoors, outdoors, I could push or pull Neopan 400 to meet any environment I found myself in. That film was discontinued back in 2013 and I still mourn the loss to this very day.

Right now the only black and white film Fujifilm still makes (not counting instax film) is Fuji Neoplan Across II, which is a lovely ISO 100 film that is still quite beautiful and I get excited every time I load it in the camera. Unfortunately at about $13 a roll in medium format at the time I’m writing this, I don’t work with it nearly as often as I’d like.

Photographed with a Hasselblad 500c/m and Fuji Neopan Acros II 120 film.

With the first image, you can see how the film renders using a very crude 500 watt flood light. This is why Fuji Neopan Acros II really shines in my book. Contrast if very heavy, but there is still a wide range of tones present. It’s dramatic with no details lost at all. On the full resolution scan of the image I can zoom in and still make out the details of the model’s skin and hair no problem. It feels as if the image was put on to paper using natural paints or inks as opposed to the silver gelatin of a camera negative.

Photographed with a Hasselblad 500c/m and Fuji Acros II 120 film.

Even with very subdued natural light Neopan Acros II still produces a wide range of tones. Perhaps even more so. Deep shadows slowly transition to bright highlights in the most magical of ways it honestly takes my breath away when I look at it. In short, I just love the results!

This is just one of those film stocks where a scan or even a computer screen will never do it complete justice. Physical prints are just far superior and I’m looking forward to taking both of these negatives into the darkroom to make prints in the very near future.

A Simple Session On My Roof

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Traveling great distances for the sake of a photograph isn’t always possible, nor is it even always necessary. Take this session for example. All I had to do is travel up a flight of stairs to the roof of my building to find a great backdrop to work with.

Photographed with a Hasselblad 500c/m and Ilford FP4 120 film.

Comparatively speaking to the buildings around my complex, my roof isn’t the tallest structure in the neighborhood. So I wanted to work quickly to keep too many prying eyes from nearby buildings from noticing what we were doing. All of these images were made when the COVID pandemic was in its early days though so most if not all of the office buildings that surrounded us were shuttered and closed. There wasn’t any traffic on the streets below us either at that time so quite frankly the entire scene and mood of that afternoon was a bit eerie. Nothing quite like existing out in a cityscape and being met with mostly silence.

Photographed with a Hasselblad 500c/m and Ilford FP4 120 film.

All of these images are from a single roll of Ilford FP4 film that I later souped up in Rodinal. Stand development was 1:100 for about 45 minutes with a few inversions at the very beginning and a few more at the 20 minute mark. Despite the heavy cloud cover there were some bright patches of sun peaking through the sky at strange angles to the model and I figured stand development would help me pull out details even though the scene is semi backlit.

Photographed with a Hasselblad 500c/m and Ilford FP4 120 film.

We probably could have gotten away with exposing more than one roll of film up on my roof, but I was feeling a little paranoid and wanted to get in and get out as quickly as possible. But hey, three images that I’m happy with on a single roll of medium format film isn’t bad!!

Facing The Storm - With Hasselblad In Hand

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I feel like every year as summer is coming to a close, and winter weather is on the horizon, I do at least one photo session where the model and I are rushing to outrun some incredibly foul weather. Such was the case a few weeks back when Floofie and I made a trip to Sauvie Island for some early morning photographs. The day started off warm with plenty of sunshine, but once we got out on location it was quickly turning for the worse with every passing minute.

With every challenge there is an opportunity however, so we made our way out to an open field and took advantage of the storm clouds heading our way, hoping to get through at least a few rolls of film before the rain started pouring down on our heads.

Photographed with a Hasselblad 500c/m and Ilford HP5 120 film.

For the black and white images I had quite a few rolls of the tried and true Ilford HP5 with me. I was expecting to do most of this particular session in a grove of thick trees that block out a lot of natural light. Had I known I’d be spending most of my time in a wide open field I probably would have brought a slower speed film with me. I could have easily gotten away with something like Rollei RPX 100 or even Ilford Pan F. ISO 400 film felt a bit overkill in this situation.

Photography has always been about running with what you have in your kit, so Ilford HP5 it was. In some ways it was a nice choice because I could just set my f/stop fairly small (I think these were exposed at f/11), turn the focus barrel to infinity, and let a long depth of field take care of most of the work while Floofie was free to move around and experiment with poses. Not a bad way to work at all.

Photographed with a Hasselblad 500c/m and Kodak Gold 200 medium format film.

It has been a while since I’ve done any “serious” photographed work with Kodak Gold 200 and this may actually be my first session with the film stock in medium format. I have to admit Kodak Gold really works in medium format for my tastes. Colors are bright and exaggerated in a way that reminds me of E-6 slide film while also retaining the grain that is typical of color negative C-41 film.

The grain isn’t too overpowering but it is definitely there. It gives the overall look a bit of a 1970’s cinematic quality which to me is quite pleasing. I need to make it a point to work with Kodak Gold more often. It may very well be my favorite color negative film at the moment.

Photographed with a Hasselblad 500c/m and Ilford HP5 120 film.

For most of these images I found myself down on my belly in the thick tall grass, stamping down the plants right in front of me with my left hand, so I wouldn’t get the grass blocking the frame, and operating the Hasselblad with my right. With an autofocus SLR this would be no big deal, but with the more manual nature of the Hasselblad it was a bit of a comical balancing act. I’m getting to be that age when my grunts and groans from rolling around int he dirt are a common sound during a photo session.

Photographed with a Hasselblad 500c/m and Kodak Gold 200 medium format film.

As we left the scene, packed up, and headed toward the parking lot where we left the car the rain was starting to come down. It was one of those strange sorts of late summer rainfalls, wet and sloppy in small spurts with patches of sun still visible in the sky. Anyone who has spent time in the Pacific Northwest will know exactly what I am talking about. There is a drama to this kind of weather, a kind of dance that takes place in the sky above us and the goal with these images was the mimic that a little bit on the ground.

I think we pulled it off.

Color Film With Morning Light

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Waking up incredibly early in the morning for the sake of a photo session always has its rewards. This is especially true when the plan is to rely completely on natural light. I was itching to work with some color film after a long stint of exposing only black and white film and I wanted to capture that subtle warm light that starts peaking up over the horizon at around six o’clock in the morning.

Photographed with a Hasselblad 500c/m and Kodak Portra 400 medium format film.

I scheduled a session with Devi while she was traveling through Portland and made it a point to find a space with east facing windows. We armed ourselves with coffee to go, my Hasselblad, and about five rolls of Kodak Portra 400. It wasn’t the first time we had worked together so getting into the groove of a photo session only took a few minutes and about two frames of film to break the ice a bit. Devi has always been one of those models that gets into “photo mode” very quickly, something I really appreciate when we work together.

Photographed with a Hasselblad 500c/m and Kodak Portra 400 medium format film.

Even though I was working with ISO 400 speed film, the light was subdued enough to make hand holding difficult. I had a tripod with me, but the space was quite small and generally speaking I’m not a big fan of of using a tripod. So instead I decided to risk it and photographed the scene at about 1/30th of a second and wide open at f/2.8. My hands are still steady enough that I can get away with handholding the Hasselblad at relatively slow shutter speeds. There are a few frames from this session that are a bit too fuzzy to get away with calling “artistic” but for the most part the gamble paid off just fine.

Photographed with a Hasselblad 500c/m and Kodak Portra 400 medium format film.

I’ve been really craving the experience of working with color film lately and posting these images just makes that desire even stronger. Working with Kodak Portra 400 was the right choice for these images (it was low light after all), Portra has never been my favorite color film stock. I much prefer the bold saturated look of Kodak Ektar and I’ve had some great experiences using the new Kodak Gold 200 in medium format. I’ve also seen rumors that Ilford/Harman is going to be releasing their Phoenix 200 stock in medium format soon. I hope so….

Getting Used To A Portrait Lens

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I wrote on this blog recently that I purchased a Hasselblad 150mm f/4 portrait lens in the past year or so. You can find that entry HERE. It was inevitable that I would eventually bring the lens outdoors and try working with it during one of my regular location sessions. I’m not going to deny I found the experience challenging, which is not necessarily a bad thing.

Photographed with a Hasselblad 500c/m and Ilford FP4 medium format film.

Most of my awkwardness when using this lens is just simple physics. As opposed to using my usual focal length of 55mm or 80mm, with the 150mm f/4 lens I have to stand further away from my subject. Walking backward fifteen or twenty steps from the model feels incredibly disconnected compared to the way I usually work.

I imagine if I was a seasoned sports photographer or even a more skilled photographer when it comes to street photography this wouldn’t seem so strange to me. But, since I am neither of those things, standing further back from the model takes a lot of getting used to. Part of the reason I’ve always loved waist level finders on cameras like a Hasselblad or a Mamiya TLR is because I feel more connected to my subject. The longer focal length of the 150mm negates that a little bit.

Photographed with a Hasselblad 500c/m and Ilford FP4 medium format film.

All of that being said, there is a quality to the images using a 150mm portrait lens that I very much enjoy. All of the images in this post were photographed between f/8 and f/11. Even with a relatively small aperture the bokeh is incredible. It is smooth and buttery and the central focus in the image (i.e. the model) really pops out against the background. This is especially true considering the model was standing in a thick grove of trees that would have made these images appear otherwise incredibly cluttered and chaotic from a compositional standpoint. I can definitely get a sense of the creative potential here which is thrilling to say the least.

Nude model Merrique photographed with a Hasselblad 500c/m and Ilford FP4 medium format film.

Photographed with a Hasselblad 500c/m and Ilford FP4 medium format film.

I’ll be bringing the 150mm lens with me from now on when I take my Hasselblad out for serious work. In fact, I’ll probably be leaving the standard 80mm lens at home and make the 55mm f/4.5 and the 150mm f/4 my go-to lens kit. It seems like it’ll be an interesting challenge to bring along the more extreme ends of the focal length range available to me instead of playing it safe with the 80mm “normal” lens. That is for now at least while there is plenty of sunshine and I don’t need the wider f/stop of f/2.5 that the standard 80mm lens provides.