Hasselblad H3D-II 31

Ah the joys of new toys!

Have had this for a little over a week now and have done a couple of portraits for the family but today was the first chance to see how it handled against my usual 5dII.

I was shooting in a warehouse that has no power and is very dusty so I was not able to shoot tethered. As a consequence I had to use the rear screen rather more than I would have liked. Having read lots about how poor the screens on these digital backs are I can now confirm this to be true. Ok for composition but really shonky when coming to checking focus. I was ready for the narrow depth of field but would this manage with a moving/jumping dancer?

I shot mostly over f11 and as it was pretty cold and the warehouse is very close to home we all bundled back for lunch - a posh pee and coffee! Loading the images onto the laptop I could not have been happier with the results - all in focus - the continuous AF worked very well in addition to the focus and recompose. So do I feel I should have gone with the H4D - absolutely not. I picked this camera up at an absolute bargain price and am truly happy. The extra dynamic range is very noticeable and I did not miss the 5DII/85 f1.2 combo one bit.

All in all a happy man

DrF

Time waits for no-one

Time waits for no-one, originally uploaded by DrFireball.

Shot this one from the same shoot as the last - but this time used a paper roll and more of a conventional studio setup.

Lighting wise this was achieved with two El ranger quadras left and right through gridded strip soft boxes and a ranger through a 70cm gridded beauty dish as key light.

Post production in photoshop.

Grandfather clock is a family heirloom! Fun and games getting it on set but defiinitely worth it I hope you will agree.

Lauren was superb as usual - not often that I get the opportunity to shoot a X-factor contestant :-) - things are looking up for the rest of the year!

Enjoy

DrF

Not the way the evening was meant to end.......

Not the way the evening was meant to end......., originally uploaded by DrFireball.

Wow am I pleased with having finished the post production on this one!

Great shoot with Clare (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Clare-Neruda/233156630088846), Natalie and Sharon at the a boutique Hotel in Harrogate - used a truly plush suite and had a long day. The shoot was to create an editorial storyline based around a girl getting ready then increasingly bored/agitated waiting for her beau before finally coming to a sticky end. How this happened is up to you although there are a number of clues around the shot.

Lighting was with a 70cm beauty dish to light Clare on the bed with two quadras gridded to light selective areas - even a strobe hand held to light the bedside light. The composited shots were taken with a Damian McGillicuddy beauty dish hand held. The camera was locked down on a tripod to allow a lot of masking to be completed in photoshop. About 40 layers in PS in all. But hopefully you will agree that it was worth it.

Cheers

DrF

In a forest.

In a forest., originally uploaded by DrFireball.

Another shot from a prevous shoot with the lovely Fliss. HAd spent most of the time trying to recreate the Sun using a ranger only to suddenly have the real thing!

Learnt a lot about using smoke that day :-) The more foliage that the sun has to go through the more impressive the smoke then looks.

Hope you like

DrF

The Yorkshire Patient

The Yorkshire Patient, originally uploaded by DrFireball.

Why are all my photoshoots on location freezing cold? I look at the likes of Drewshoots shooting models on beaches at sunset and feel there must be something Karmic afoot.

That said Fliss did a wonderfull job (as usual). This one was the last shot of the day as it started to rain and we needed to pack up quickly. Taken at Brimham Rocks (with permission! :-)) and this time sufficiently out of the wind that I could use a softbox - oh for an assisstant.

Lighting-wise this was pretty straightforward with the ranger providing key via a 100cm deep octa with both baffles and a single quadra with a full CTO cut to act as the search light.

The whole aim of the story telling to relate to the film the English Patient with Fliss playing the part of the wounded wife waiting to be rescued by Ralph Fiennes. With a little fashion edge.

Hope you like - more on my Flickr stream - http://www.flickr.com/photos/drfireball/

Sophie-Anne

Sophie-Anne, originally uploaded by DrFireball.

Just one shot from the "Rhythm and Rags" fashion show held in Chester. More photos available on my website - www.drfireballphotography.co.uk

Once the models had been through hair (Tony and Guy) and makeup I had the opportunity to take a few shots. I set up in the corner of a busy bar and cracked on!

I had taken my ranger and using a gridded beauty dish I was able to separate the models from the otherwise busy decor!

Good night was had by all.

DrF

Nicci B silhouette

Nicci B silhouette, originally uploaded by DrFireball.

Something a little different from me for your consideration. Taken in a great little (and reasonably priced) studio here in Leeds.

But really the main reason for me posting today is to celebrate my successful submission to the Society of Wedding and Portrait Photographers. As of today I have some new letters after my name - LSWPP - "L" standing for Licentiate.

Need to keep up the work and aim for the next level - Associate.

Other news - I am shooting at Chester Fashion Festival next week so you can expect to see some run way stuff here soon.
Cheers

DrF

In the garden of delight.....

In the garden of delight....., originally uploaded by DrFireball.

Used the garden at home for the first time today - funny how somewhere so close tends to get overlooked....

What can't be seen here though is the steepness of the garden :-) Fortunately I was able to use the extending legs of the manfrotto mini combi boom to good effect.

While I tried to get some help with this one - I ended up running around trying to get the smoke right - good work out. Best thing though was using the power tracking feature of the pocket wizards. I used the tt1 on camera, the st4 on the ranger and a flextt5 on the quadra. I also used 2x 590exII to light the trees and provide a little fill. Using the AC3 meant that I could then alter all the lights from the top of the camera - fantastic.

This one really benefits from being viewed as large as possible and more will be posted to my Flickr as I get around to the PP.

Enjoy

DrF