Without being able to venture outside (like everyone else I guess), I decided a home photo shoot was in order. Shooting a medium format roll of Ilford Delta 100 here are some compositions I came up with.
From a photographic standpoint I actually quite enjoy being limited sometimes with what you can shoot, it really focuses the mind. I suppose being stuck at home takes that to a whole new level, but with a bit of imagination and some nice light, there are plenty of options. I find this type of slow and thoughtful photography lends itself well to medium format film. I decided to use my Hasselblad as I have a few different lenses and also the extension tubes, which come in handy for some crazy close-up shots.
A bit more about the shots
My initial thought was to take advantage of some nice light and interesting shadows first thing in the morning but when I loaded the film yesterday evening I realised I could get some really nice and contrasts shots at nighttime. I don’t have much in terms of medium format film so decided on Ilford Delta 100, although was looking forward to seeing some sharp shots. I had a tripod to hand for some of the shots, and I probably should have been more diligent and used it for all of them.
The shots were all taken on my Hasselblad 501c with either an 80mm or 150mm lens and sometimes with an extension tube (to allow for much closer focusing). I developed these at home and unfortunately, and to my horror, just before I was going to get the negatives to scan them I heard an almighty crash in the bathroom. The contraption I hand up the negatives from had collapsed and the negatives hit the bath at speed and got a bit crumpled, they also collected quite a bit of additional dust. How annoying. Thankfully I was able to digitally clean these up a bit after the scan. Anyways, enough technicalities - here are my best shots…
I really liked the triangular composition of the kitchen lighting above the coffee machine.
This was hard to shoot as I was actually cooking at the time! My intention was to somehow capture some of the steam, although my lens kept on fogging up! For some silly reason I used the extension ring, which made nailing the focus even harder. That being said, I quite like the shot!
This one didn’t really work, it was too hard to have the flame in focus and due to holding the camera handheld with ISO 100 film I had to shoot this wide open, which renders most of it looking like digital soup.
A full 30 second exposure at f8 (on a tripod of course). Look how sharp it is! Unfortunately this is one of the frames that ended up on the bottom of the bath so there is a bit of residue around the image.
This one came out completely different than I imagined. If you haven’t realised, it is a lightbulb (taken underneath it looking right up at it). Hard to spend a lot of time focusing on a lightbulb that was on, hence my surprise at how well it came out. As the Hasselblad uses a waist level viewfinder it is a very immersive experience when you focus looking through the magnifying eyepiece.
Taken this morning with some really lovely morning sunlight coming through the window.
The classic Rolleiflex.
A relatively long exposure looking down toward Hammersmith station. I really like how sharp this came out, also taken at f8 if I remember correctly. I think this was a 15second exposure.
Similar perspective shot this morning.
I found this shot hard to take as I couldn’t make my mind up over the composition, although I am quite happy with the result. I don’t think I had the right exposure so it is a bit more over exposed than I would have liked. That being said, nothing like a good set of strong shadows for a photographer!
Overall observations
I really enjoyed the challenge of looking for interesting subjects, so being at home is not all that bad I guess. I think I actually got some quite decent shots. It just goes to show you that if you work with what you’ve got you can end up with some pretty good creative outcomes. Although I am not sure I would have been able to take an entire roll of 35mm film, also because the minimum focusing distances on my 35mm lenses is not as convenient for “near macro” type shots on the Hasselblad with the extension rings.
Despite my after development mishap, I’m overall very happy with these results. The Ilford Detla 100 film performed very well, in particular in the long exposure shots.
Who knows, this may end up being a bit of a mini series, until I can go for a walk again.
That’s it for now, see you next time, and if you’re inside…pick up your camera and start taking some shots!
Keep safe everyone,
Neil
