Mr. White (Sorry Another Hasselblad Post)
It doesn’t happen too often here in Belgium that we get a nice layer of snow that pretty much covers everything. And when it happens it usually doesn’t take more than a few days before it’s gone. So I did absolutely want to do a shoot in the snow. I had this image in my head of a guy in a suit in the snowy fields. (Don’t ask me why, that’s just the way my chaotic brain works.) My friend David offered to pose so a couple of days ago we went for a quick improvised 20 minute shoot in the fields behind my house.
I could have shot this digitally of course but I’ve been dying to shoot some posed portraits with the Hasselblad.
Loading film into the Hasselblad back is getting better and faster every time. Only this time … ok it’s the second time it happened, I forgot to advance the film after it was loaded. No harm done, just some lost frames but I really need to focus more when shooting film.
Except for the picture above, all the pics were shot with the sun behind David. The snow reacts as a giant Sunbounce giving fill light everywhere.
The vignetting in the picture below looks a bit too much. It looks ok at full size but I really have to watch out when resizing these kind of vignetted pictures.
It was pretty cold, certainly for David in his suit, so we only shot 3 rolls of film. It’s amazing how many kinds of films that exist and all of them have different characteristics. Until now I pretty much bought the films that were available in local stores but I really want to start trying out different films to see which ones suit me best. One of the films I really wanted to test out was Kodak Tri-X. It’s maybe not the technically best film but I discoverd with this shoot that it has a lot of character.
It seems more contrasty and has more grain (which doesn’t have to be a bad thing). When I saw these scans I just had to think about Reservoir Dogs and decided to call David, Mr. White from now on.
And I promise I will post some digital images sometimes soon 
Merry Christmas to you all!
J’avoue que je ne comprends pas cette passion pour ton Hasselbad… Nostalgie?
Sinon, très jolies photos!!!
These are soooo beautiful! Very creative with the snow and the man in the suit. There’s something very nice about it. Great job!
I just recently started shooting film again as well, with a Mamiya RZ67. Reading your post – a few things came to mind:
Understanding all the different films – you may want to check-out AlienSkin Exposure 2. It’s a PS plug-in that emulates the look of many different print and slide films. That’s an easy way of getting an understanding of what effect various films have. Then get a few rolls of it and shoot with it.
The other aspect is being more deliberate about shooting. I’m now shooting a combination of digital and film. But the other day I had an opportunity to work with a model in studio in a less controlled environment. I took the opportunity to test myself. I only took my film body, and only 3 rolls of 120 film. So I only had 30 exposures for the entire shoot. And it being a studio shoot without any ambient light, and no way to preview the exposure, I had to rely on previsualization of the lighting setup and knowing my meter. 3 light setups, one roll each, and just my meter. And then 3 days of waiting until the film came back from the lab before I knew whether they worked. To my satisfaction they all came out fine. But it’s a good way of forcing you to be a lot more deliberate about shooting. I mentioned this to a few friends, and the consensus was that digital has made them very sloppy as photographers.
On a shoot where I’m on the hook to deliver images of course I will create safety margin by having my digital body with me. But I’m glad I did this experiment.
Cheers,
Jan
Looks really nice to me but I would skip the vignetting. Doesn’t add anything here. First and last shots are nice ones.
Tri-x has a lot of good mojo – wait until you try it in Rodinal. Grainy but with fantastic sharpness. Have you already tried the new Kodak Ektar 100 (color)? I shot a few rolls in 135mm format and it looks promising. I think I will get some 120 rolls soon to feed my hassy/ pentax.
Cheers,
Wil
Really like the results Bert. Simplicity can be so pure and beautiful.
I think the last one and the one before (but without vignet) are my favorites.
Keep going,
Merry X-Mass to you too.
Thx all
@Bertrand: There’s a bit of a nostalgic part but that’s a very small part of why I love shooting the Hasselblad so much. It’s more about getting better results by slowing down and the unique look of film.
@Alexandra: Thx, do you shoot film too?
@Jan: Thx for the AlienSkin tip, that will save me some time. I also think that a hybrid workflow is still viable.
@Wilhelm: Those are my favorite shots too. And the vignetting is definitely a bit too much (although it looks way better. I’m looking forward to do some home developing and try other films.
@Jasper: Thx and good luck with your Mamiya
Hi Bert !
)
I love this session especial cos Hassel in your hands !!
great spontaneous idea and results..
my favs here is the 3 – wow ! amazing pose and framing so right !
and 4-th one really what you say – a lots from Tarantino’s movie !
can’t wait the next session
Happy Holidays
Vic
Hi Bert, really think you started photography too late (or not early enough)
The Tri-X was considered the workhorse. I been trying different developers but HC-110 suits best I think. I just love the bit of ‘muddy’ caracter of this film and the great thing about it is you can really abuse this film with pushing and pulling. You can pretty much control the grain in the development stage. E.G. setting the iso at 200 and pull it one stop with slow movements in the tank (damn can´t believe I still remember this after so many years of shootinh digital 
, supose good stuff dies hard)
I used to shoot kodak plusX pro (125 asa) for portraiture in the studio. Beautiful contrast and fine grain. For over a decade of shooting film I tried a lot in B/W from fuji neopan, to agfa, to ilford but ended up with kodak and HC110 dev. You end up really knowing those films
Color I used fuji velvia for landscapes setting it at 80 asa and provia (400 asa) I found that Fuji was always very rich in color, but of course thats my humble opinion
So cool to read and see your experiments!!
Gelukkig nieuwjaar alvast
Vincent
@Vic: Thx, I’m also looking forward to do another shoot with the Hassy
@Vincent: I was even born too late for the kind of music I like, I guess I should have been a hippie
But then again, the film stuff still exists, so it’s never too late to learn 
Hello Bert I just discovered your stuff by accident today thanks to a video on strobist….awesome stuff, and great helpful information, thank you.
Thx Dchino
Nice Bert! Looking forward for your results on different films exploration. Although I’m already settled, mostly Portra400VC, TMAX 400 and Provia100F, will be good to see what would be your choice.
Tri-X was the numero uno film for us older press snappers! Better than T Max IMO and great pushed to 3200ASA for shooting ice hockey and football under floodlights. I don’t miss it but I do really miss Agfa Scala B+W transparency film. Now that would look great through a ‘blad. It’s ironic that guys like NIK etc make filters that imitate film – like stepping backwards. Plus you don’t have to ’shop neg rebates on afterwards. I am digital shooter but if I want an image to look like film I shoot film. Bingo!
@Alvaro: I guess I have a lot of testing to do before I settle on my favorites
@Geoff: Looking forward to play around with pushing film and other processing tricks.