Studio evening with Hasselblad and the H4D

I don’t usually blog about kit on here for me the images are the important message as is the style of our wedding photography, the portraits we can capture and the types of commercial work that we do.

That said the equipment you use can have a dramatic effect on that. We are pleased to be able to use high end professional cameras, and the quality of the images we can produce from small keepsake portraits through wall mounted canvas wraps, to large commercial installations of our images are exceptional. But we never stop still in looking at equipment.

I was well aware of the quality of the images produced by medium format cameras and lenses having used them at the studio where I learnt my initial wedding craft- but when the market shifted to digital capture I sold my film cameras before they lost all their value and moved entirely over to 35mm, and regularly upgrade that. Five years on and I now see that the cost, capability, and ease of use of the digital medium format cameras is now back to a position where they could once again be part of the capability I bring to a shoot.

So this evening I was pleased to be accepted to attend a Hasselblad “Studioday” session in Portsmouth where due to the restricted numbers I was able to spend over an hour shooting with the new Hasselblad H4D camera. After a brief period of instruction and some time reviewing the quality of results at a still life area I moved onto a white background studio where I was able to photograph Mia with a variety of lenses. Supported by the knowledgeable and friendly Hasselblad staff I was quickly up to speed with the camera and creating some lovely images which I was able to take away with a copy of the Phocus software to process them.

I have been given permission to use these images non-commercially and so here are a couple from the shoot. To say that this web-sized version isn’t representative of the quality of the images is a massive understatement and I’ll be printing at least one of them out at A2 to check the printed quality later on.

For any professional photographers reading this who are considering a move to medium format digital capture you really should take advantage of the Studiodays being run around the country at educational establishments if you have been invited. Having the camera in your hand and using it for real can’t be underestimated.

Now it is a simple business decision about what, how and when.