Medium Format - landscapes or people?

[dave.gt]

This may seem obvious to some, but I am curious to see how many on this forum actually shoot with people as their motif or included in their landscapes. The sheer beauty posted on this forum is amazing with the majority of the images being pure landscapes.

The only reason I am curious is my quest for something different and it has been almost a year since we have been involved with portraits. I need a challenge, a different direction, so maybe I can find that challenge in changing the "landscape" a bit and shooting the big Hassy like I would with a smaller format. Maybe not.

Anyway, how many folks are including the human experience and emotions in their Medium Format shooting?

 

[MGrayson]

Shooting in the city, it's very hard NOT to include people.

Sometimes the person is a major element


Sometimes people are important, but not central


Best,

Matt

 

[PeterA]

I think Matt uses his Leica S as illustarted above a great system to have with you on a walk - not much heavier than a Canon D series or Nikon F really....technology has shrunk teh body sizes required to 'hold' 50 + megapixel chips...

The XID made it infinitely easier to make casual snaps because of its form factor and size...I think Fuji ticks that box as well - it does for me..

However I have made Street shots with an Alpa SW with a Schneider 35XL and a digi back - again a very manageable if not optimal combo for snaps - no reason why any camera with the right technique cant be used for snaps anywhere - Hasselblad/Rollie - even Mamiya RZ have worled for me - it want until I started reading forums that I realised MF isnt for people or street or happy snaps...

I was staying at the the Inter Continental at the top of Nobb Hill in San Fran - when I took an afternnoon walk with my (then) XID wanting to make a few snaps of the local architecture as in below

on the way - I made this snap which works in colour and B&W as a decent street 'get'...

and around the corner looking through a construction overhang I made this snap

After switching from XID into GFX I was wandering through a local annual Jazz Festival and made a few snaps of a dance company performing on the street...

Pretty natural to include people in landscape ashots - when living on a Sydney beach...

 

[ErikKaffehr]

Hi,

Now days I am out of medium format, but I may have a comment.

I am mostly a landscape shooter. I often include a human element in my landscapes:

or even just shoot people shooting people:

But, checking my around 5500 MFD images, this is more like an exception:

This image may be more typical of my MFD work:

And so is this:

But I also shot the same subject on 24x36 mm:

I always thought that this was medium format, as it belongs to a series of images I mostly shot on MFD, but it is actually 24x36 mm:

This one actually made it to the wall, perhaps because it includes both my parents and my two best friends...

This one was essentially Landscape/Architecture, but young couple contributed a bit:

The way things worked for me, MFD was careful and slow work, while 24x36 mm was used for both slow work and fast work.

So, what I have found was that, for me MFD is more about slow work. Like using tripod, cable release, mirror lock up and very careful manual focusing. With 24x36 mm, I can work the same way, but I can always pull the camera, change a setting or two and start different shooting.

Best regards
Erik

This may seem obvious to some, but I am curious to see how many on this forum actually shoot with people as their motif or included in their landscapes. The sheer beauty posted on this forum is amazing with the majority of the images being pure landscapes.

The only reason I am curious is my quest for something different and it has been almost a year since we have been involved with portraits. I need a challenge, a different direction, so maybe I can find that challenge in changing the "landscape" a bit and shooting the big Hassy like I would with a smaller format. Maybe not.

Anyway, how many folks are including the human experience and emotions in their Medium Format shooting?

 

[Charles S]

This may seem obvious to some, but I am curious to see how many on this forum actually shoot with people as their motif or included in their landscapes. The sheer beauty posted on this forum is amazing with the majority of the images being pure landscapes.

The only reason I am curious is my quest for something different and it has been almost a year since we have been involved with portraits. I need a challenge, a different direction, so maybe I can find that challenge in changing the "landscape" a bit and shooting the big Hassy like I would with a smaller format. Maybe not.

Anyway, how many folks are including the human experience and emotions in their Medium Format shooting?

People, in particular in the studio.

For the skin colors and tonal transitions of Hasselblad (don't know P1 well enough to make a more general comment). I have not seen better from a DSLR, but it is probably just a matter of time. Resolution-wise, anything over 16MPix is not needed for my purposes.

In the studio, I shoot with an old H3D and on-occasion with a V-Blad with an H20 back. When I look at the files next to what comes out of recent DSLRs there is a difference most of the time. The extra pain involved is mostly financial.


I also have taken both the V Blad and the H Blad on trips, to shoot environmental portraiture in the streets in India. In both cases, the results were not worth the pain.
However, just to show it is possible: these images were shot with a V Blad and a V96C back

 

[dave.gt]

People, in particular in the studio.

For the skin colors and tonal transitions of Hasselblad (don't know P1 well enough to make a more general comment). I have not seen better from a DSLR, but it is probably just a matter of time. Resolution-wise, anything over 16MPix is not needed for my purposes.

In the studio, I shoot with an old H3D and on-occasion with a V-Blad with an H20 back. When I look at the files next to what comes out of recent DSLRs there is a difference most of the time. The extra pain involved is mostly financial.
View attachment 138202

I also have taken both the V Blad and the H Blad on trips, to shoot environmental portraiture in the streets in India. In both cases, the results were not worth the pain.
However, just to show it is possible: these images were shot with a V Blad and a V96C back
View attachment 138203View attachment 138204View attachment 138205

Ah-Hah!:thumbs: thanks, guys!

These are really very, very good examples of what I have suspected for some time!

All of last year, we were busy shooting environmental portraits of patients from the rehab hospital in outdoor scenes at a nearby lake on campus and one inside the hospital. They all turned out great. I was using the Studio's H5D-50c with the Broncolor portable flash system and soft box (could not afford to rent the Para), and all results were excellent.

With a freezer full of film, and a lot of black and white 120 film in my pack, I have been wanting to shoot "freely" (no tripod) and I have seen what both Ming Thein and Sails have done with the H cameras, so I am inspired to venture in that direction.

There are a lot more opportunities for that over the course of each week and it should be a lot of fun. No project in mind but I can at least use some of the results for stock images in future projects while shooting a little differently.

 

[dave.gt]

Charles, great image with the model and the clock and ladder. That H3D works well in your hands. I should buy one for myself.

If you can share a bit of shooting information, it would be most appreciated.

 

[ejpeiker]

People are for iPhones
Although I do have this humanoid shot taken with a medium format camera:

 

[k-hawinkler]

I am stunned by the detail the Fuji GFX 50S system can deliver.
Although fairly new to the 44x33mm MF, I have taken quite a few candid images of family members, including with Eye-AF. When it works, it works really well. :thumbs:

Here is an image of a fellow photographer who came out to capture the evening mood and didn’t mind when I asked him if I could take a picture of him.

Fuji GFX 50S * GF120

 

[citizin]

I primarily shoot people with mine.


Hasselblad H4D + HC150+13mm spacer

Hasselblad H4D + HC150

 

[Charles S]

Charles, great image with the model and the clock and ladder. That H3D works well in your hands. I should buy one for myself.

If you can share a bit of shooting information, it would be most appreciated.

David, thanks for the compliment, but there is still sooo much to learn and improve.
The model shot was actually with a V-Blad and the V96C back. It doesn't record EXIF other than ISO which was set at 50. From the perspective, I think I shot it with a 50mm lens. That's as much as I can say about it.
If you want to see more of the stuff shot with the H3D, you can see it on my IG; 90% of the images of the last 2 years have been shot with it: https://www.instagram.com/charlessphoto/?hl=en
Most of it is not postable here according to the forum admins. :-(

Cheers, Charles

 

[Charles S]

People are for iPhones

Or for photographers who are not scared of them

 

[Charles S]

Ah-Hah!:thumbs: thanks, guys!

These are really very, very good examples of what I have suspected for some time!

All of last year, we were busy shooting environmental portraits of patients from the rehab hospital in outdoor scenes at a nearby lake on campus and one inside the hospital. They all turned out great. I was using the Studio's H5D-50c with the Broncolor portable flash system and soft box (could not afford to rent the Para), and all results were excellent.

With a freezer full of film, and a lot of black and white 120 film in my pack, I have been wanting to shoot "freely" (no tripod) and I have seen what both Ming Thein and Sails have done with the H cameras, so I am inspired to venture in that direction.

There are a lot more opportunities for that over the course of each week and it should be a lot of fun. No project in mind but I can at least use some of the results for stock images in future projects while shooting a little differently.

The CMOS sensor gives you the ISO needed to shoot "freely".
With the CCD sensors, the >400 ISO performance kills it as a walkaround / natural light / no-tripod camera. It is fun up to point to turn this disadvantage into a style of some sort (B&W conversion, grain, subject motion blur, etc etc), but on the whole, it is too limiting. I tried multiple times and gave up.
.

However, the H3I (not the H3II) takes film backs, and even with high ISO, the results are lovely. On my last trip, I took only the film back with me

 

[citizin]

The CMOS sensor gives you the ISO needed to shoot "freely".
With the CCD sensors, the >400 ISO performance kills it as a walkaround / natural light / no-tripod camera. It is fun up to point to turn this disadvantage into a style of some sort (B&W conversion, grain, subject motion blur, etc etc), but on the whole, it is too limiting. I tried multiple times and gave up.
.

However, the H3I (not the H3II) takes film backs, and even with high ISO, the results are lovely. On my last trip, I took only the film back with me

One thing I've noticed with the CCD hasselblad, the H3DII-50 and the H4D-40. Shooting in 400-1600 iso range, the longer the exposure the more heat, and the more heat the more noise. Keeping the shutter a sixteenth thou or shorter, only a mild bit of luma noise is present. When shooting natural light portraits, that can have a pleasing look to it.

 

[georgecleansman]

..... this is absolutely right. My old H5D-60 CCD delivers excellent image quality - at 80 ASA and mostly with a tripod, this is the only problem at all. But the colors are amazing.

 

[The Smoking Camera]

As much as I enjoy shooting landscapes with the X1D, I also enjoy photographing people with this camera.
Most of my people shots are candid, performances or incorporating into landscapes.
As long as there is no fast action, I have to qualms using medium format for people.

 

[B L]

Joe, that lady in red ! I think she made this photo super complete.

 

[dave.gt]

Shooting in the city, it's very hard NOT to include people.

Sometimes the person is a major element


Sometimes people are important, but not central


Best,

Matt

Matt, that second one with tall buildings is really a neat photograph!

It has s distinctive look with the tones and contrasts.:thumbup:

 

[MGrayson]

Matt, that second one with tall buildings is really a neat photograph!

It has s distinctive look with the tones and contrasts.:thumbup:

Thanks, Dave. It’s one of my very favorites, and I repost it too often!

Matt

 

[michaelclark]

Both people and landscapes...and adventure sports. See attached images. As long as I can predict where they will be the AF is a non-issue.



*Note these are low res images. Hence the soft edges here on the forum.

This may seem obvious to some, but I am curious to see how many on this forum actually shoot with people as their motif or included in their landscapes. The sheer beauty posted on this forum is amazing with the majority of the images being pure landscapes.

The only reason I am curious is my quest for something different and it has been almost a year since we have been involved with portraits. I need a challenge, a different direction, so maybe I can find that challenge in changing the "landscape" a bit and shooting the big Hassy like I would with a smaller format. Maybe not.

Anyway, how many folks are including the human experience and emotions in their Medium Format shooting?