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Behind the scenes of the Hasselblad H5D advertising campaign

Mar 20, 2013 at 16:58:40 GMT

OTHER NEWS HASSELBLAD UNDERWATER

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Photographer Henrik Sorensen has uploaded an interesting behind-the-scenes YouTube video of his recent 'submerged fairy' shoot for Hasselblad's advertising campaign for its new H5D medium-format digital camera. Taking inspiration from the Danish folklore and its royal history he opted to use a submerged castle interior as the backdrop. He first went on location to the 18th century Ledreborg Castle and captured a picture of the main hall, then printed the photo onto a 8 x 4.5m plastic backdrop and completed the rest of the shoot in a swimming pool.

Hasselblad's H5D digital medium format camera series started shipping in December 2012 in 40, 50 and 60 megapixel models, as well as 50 and 200 megapixel multi-shot versions. (via FStoppers)

Click here for more information about the shoot at Hasselblad's website

Behind the scenes video of the floating fairytale shoot

Comments

Total comments: 81

I particularly like the uncropped version with the reflection of the girl in the surface above. The 'architecture' works for me too. What incredable fun it must have been. And all professional photography should be fun ... well except the sort of photography that Don McCullin was involved with.

Photoshop et al is a great photographic development. However, there is nothing to substitute getting it right in the camera, albeit commercial revenue issues then come into play.

Love it.

0 upvotes

Beautiful work, i love the pictures!

Why so many nay-sayers!? A few scuba tanks and a rebreather might have made it easier.

0 upvotes

For all the critizes this, maybe you should see the final shots:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B65JVhlBZg4

Of course then you can argue if you could get the same results with any other full frame camera and that budget :-)

0 upvotes

Could have been done with a Cann EOS 5d Mk3, Nikon D800......get my point? I have saved myself over £50k plus KIT? - not that I ever had the money for it anyhow!

2 upvotes

The Hasselblad digital cameras are aimed at advertising photographers with a fat budget. I don't know that this photo would appeal to this market. Maybe. To my eye, the castle background doesn't read very well. So without the explanation... my point is that a photo shouldn't require an explanation. I don't think the model was comfortable in the water, and the pose isn't working for me. I think she needed to be weighted down. As an ad for photographers, I believe photos showcasing the Hasselblad's sharp images would have worked better. But the photographers who are going to buy or rent this camera, will anyway -- because as pros they know it's capabilities. There's a photographer in the US who specializes in underwater photos of models -- he has a special pool in his house that isn't clorinated so the models can keep their eyes open. And he knows how to make the clothes look good -- which they don't in the above sample. Bottom line -- it's not a good photo.

Comment edited 5 minutes after posting

0 upvotes

What can a GoPro Black do in such a situation ?

0 upvotes

I'm not impressed(((

0 upvotes

Geez, I thought they just threw someone in the pool.

0 upvotes

"captured a picture of the main hall, then printed the photo onto a 8 x 4.5m plastic backdrop and completed the rest of the shoot in a swimming pool."

What would you do not to learn Photoshop...

2 upvotes

they even did not know that they could make indistinguishable effect in the air (exactly the same actually according to physics).

maybe they know and all this is about wasting money (for more money?) and pollute our planet.

Comment edited 2 times, last edit 10 minutes after posting

0 upvotes

I agree, might have been cheaper to do CGI also. Then to reprint a giant canvas. A good photoshop person might get it right too, but the water physic is something a good render software can do, since this is a set up anyways.

0 upvotes

Seriously guys. Have you tried a scene this complex yourself?
This is a pretty complex shot with water caustics everywhere and not a simple lighting scene. To do this well in Photoshop would not have been simple and it rarely if ever looks as good as the real deal.
Another thing to consider is that maybe the creators actually liked shooting things in the real life and not to simulate. To push boundaries in the "real" world and not with CGI is a different skill set. If it was up to me I would shot things in the real world and then I would pump it up even more in Photoshop or with CGI if needed. Sonds like the most fun and will create the best result.
Just my 2 cents.
/Andreas

3 upvotes

@everyone saying CIG/photoshop it- what an ignorant thing to say. You would not get the same look, it would be incredibly difficult and you could also get accused of not really shooting with the camera you are saying you are shooting with and advertising!

2 upvotes

You don't need to go really far as that CG explanation.

Just take a look at the comments in this page, there are tons o jealous comments, from people that have never, ever been involved at any level in such a complex shooting themselves.

They just talk too much from their armchairs, spreading their comments as experts.
Yeah, they know better than Hasselblad, their advertising people, and the acclaimed photographer that shot this image.

0 upvotes

bs, they shoot a swimmer in a pool and the background is already fake. There has been ton of underwater shoots from good photographer with model in dresses. See flickr. They can do it in CGI , look how good cgi is in movies today. There are alot of skill in cgi too. Faking a background is faking a background.

0 upvotes

How would one go about reliably triggering strobes through the water? I've tried to do it with pocketwizards but had no luck.

0 upvotes

There is a curly cable between the camera and the yellow underwater strobe (camera left). That would be bright enough to trigger a photo cell outside the pool I'd guess)

I'm wondering what the voltage is supplying the strobe in the softbox clamped to the spring board? Hopefully not mains, although I am not entirely sure how 240 volts would affect a volume of water that size.

Comment edited 4 minutes after posting

0 upvotes

Great images and a nice idea.. Hasselblad's give beautiful image quality.. I love the color from them..

0 upvotes

yeah... like the color wasn't manipulated

1 upvote

But they sure are loud. The shutter sounds like a slide action shot gun being racked!

0 upvotes

it can hardly be called photography, almost never, if you do not manipulate, which means you put your work in someone else's hands, like some chemical or electronic engineers or the guy at the lab.

1 upvote

@oomomo... Color is always manipulated,raw files are almost always a little flat and need the Raw converter to bring out the best in colour,unless you shoot jpeg like Ken Rockwell... ;-)

0 upvotes

In case you don't understand, i'm pointing out that it's impossible to see how the system renders colors because of the manipulation applied.

0 upvotes

@oomomo,It's simply a promo video which showcases a photographer's use of the camera,demonstrating color accuracy would require a different approach to this,really the best way to do that is to provide downloads of raw's which hasselblad does on their website.
as a video it's a bit of fun and the shoot is interesting....

0 upvotes

I'm convinced I should buy a H5D, as soon as I have to shoot under water.

1 upvote

and during this sideral vacuity time, 800 millions of people on earth have no access to water !!

0 upvotes

point and shoot underwater is readily available at Walmart but I am still trying to figure out how to shoot kingfisher underwater with a 400mm telephoto.

Comment edited 3 times, last edit 8 minutes after posting

0 upvotes

Brilliant, the work that went into that shoot is just amazing.
What a job he's got, imagine having to get up every morning and enjoying the work that you do. Not many people can say that.

Comment edited 1 minute after posting

1 upvote

Please, what is the music?

0 upvotes

Dawn by Michael Brun

0 upvotes

Dawn is a house-techno track, while the one in the video is rather chill-out. I wouldn't say both are the same.

0 upvotes

Nice photo. Could have been with almost any DSLR. It's all in the lighting, location, and background

0 upvotes

Are you actually saying that almost any DSLR with say 10-18 megapixel resolution and probably a standard lens will compare to 60 megapixel with their own lenses?
It will not do that, yes if the resolution is low then you will not see much of a difference but if you are planning on printing it then the resolution and quality difference will be very big.

0 upvotes

I don't know.. printing 8x4.5m background from APS-C or even current FFs may be a little tricky.
Has anyone tried it? I'm curios to know how good such prints will be.

0 upvotes

an underwater case would cost as much as the camera. Most underwater case are the same price of a camera. For a dynamic scene you can't photo stetch 3-4 shots together. I do that of my D600 stitching 2-3 images together if need be for portrait for group of people.

0 upvotes

sometimes more than half of the faces may have to be stitched?pasted from a dozen of shots among over a hundred.

0 upvotes

the most I done is 4. don't overlap them 3x since it might confuse photoshop during stitching.

0 upvotes

I don't shoot underwater scenes so am not sure of the answer, but I am wondering if he would have been better off placing all the strobes underwater to avoid the diffraction/ reflections from the surface on the backdrop and model. I find it distracting at best.

That said, I do like the concept and I'm sure the full rez images are breathtaking. And I certainly appreciate the effort to pull off a shoot like this.

0 upvotes

Peter, those reflections you mention are exactly what they were looking for.

It´s 100% part of the concept.

Take away these reflections, and all you get is an "ordinary" shot, of course, far from ordinary... but you get my point.

The beauty of underwater shots like these are exactly that water effect.

5 upvotes

Marcio - thanks for your reply. Let me ask: would strobes placed under the water "bounce" off the underside of the surface of the water and create a similar but subtler effect? You probably have a lot more knowledge/experience with this but I can't help but wonder if the desired surreal effect could have been obtained without all the wave interference patterns/ highlights caused by placing the lights above the water line.

0 upvotes

The water surface acts pretty much like a mirror. Much of the refletion is not the light, coming from the top, but the reflection of the white floor of the pool. If you wanted to make the surface darker you would have to darken the floor and the remaining walls. Submerging the light could have helped in the sense that it could be directed away from the floor, but then it would be difficult to see the surface. I am pretty sure that those ripples on the surface is exactly what the photographer wanted to get.

Comment edited 1 minute after posting

0 upvotes

Hi Peter!
I may be wrong, but I imagine that if they placed the strobes under water, we would loose part of (or maybe totally) that wave effect on the background.

It would be so much more subtle to the point the image would look bland, like just a model floating in the middle of the frame, without much context and nothing special to look at.

The water effect on the background acts as a "special effect", that holds our attention.

A side effect that maybe would happen if they positioned strobes underwater, is that the image would present a very pronounced glow coming from the strobes, just like using a bad lens (without special coatings or ED glass) and pointing it to a light source.

That milky, low contrast rendering we get from cheapo glass, would happen here too, maybe?

Regarless of technique, the hard work these guys have is beyond amazing!

0 upvotes

So the Mega Pixel war continues...I think the Nikon D800 deserves all the credits for raising the bar for medium format cameras. I wonder what kind of computer would one need to process a 200MP raw file? It would be more interesting to see what Canon's next gen DSLRs would be like...This is exciting stuff!

0 upvotes

D800 Raising the bar? More specifically, it merely came close in terms of finally matching what MF has been doing for years. (See also 40MP Phase I, FLI, Kodak, etc) It's only that kind of resolution and detail retention caliber were finally made possible to afford for the pro-semi-pro market.

Now that advancements in manufacturing and technology have furthered what can be produced. MF will advance and make that will eventually make the D800 look like a normal mid-level resolution camera. The D800, although nice, is not the be-all, end-all camera. Rumor has it, that Canon had been working on a 100MP digital sensor years ago but it was far too expensive to mass produce. Also, keep in mind, Sony still handled production on the D800 sensor (albeit "to Nikon Spec",) so it's only a matter of time before they,themselves, produce some thing in the same line. As well as Pentax. All companies that use Sony sensor technology.

Also, since Kodak is back in the game, keep an eye on them.

3 upvotes

I have quite a few issues with Hasselblad's promotion:

1. I do not see the value in this video. It does not show how the scene was lit, and what settings on the camera were used.

2. HB comments how important the color fidelity is and tout their 16 bit files. I do not see anything in this image that implies color fidelity. Especially when they then talk about tweaking colors in postproduction.

3. They talk about shadow areas - but the hair has lost all detail above and to the right of her head. We are not talking about capture with a high dynamic range, it's simply an image exposed for shadows. Even the current 4/3 sensors have enough sensitivity to expose like this in shallow water, and possibly even smaller sensors. So what exactly are they advertising in this case?

2 upvotes

It's a promo video not an instructional video,and it would would be very difficult to see the benefit of 16Bit MF color in a highly compressed mpeg you tube video...

1 upvote

Interesting shoot. Before watching the vid and text I would have thought the back drop was all digital, and the model was in a tank! Guess they wanna make a statement the Hassy can go underwater?

0 upvotes

What about their disco campaign? This is really old. Hasselbald went nuts when digital came out, they've still not recovered. Peddling red Ferrari cameras to arabs is still a bad sign.

0 upvotes

(chuckle) The first time I saw their "Ferrari Edition" bodies, I thought it was a cheesy product. Even if offered at the same price point of the other models, I'd feel weird (actually embarrassed) toting around a camera that's loud red with Ferrari's prancing horse depicted on the side. Yuk. :)

I'd like to see Hasselblad breathe new life into the old 500 series which hasn't been updated since the 90's I was told. A refined mirror action, basic AF or at least in-camera metering would be a great start. I think Hasselblad should've made the 500 series into something like a "lite" version of the Hy6.

Offerings from Mamiya and Phase in my mind make Hasselblad (generally) a bad purchase decision today.

Comment edited 42 seconds after posting

0 upvotes

I think some of these comments are about 10 degrees off,, intentional yes, but good grief,, its a good shot taken by a respected photographer,, stop being so anal

3 upvotes

Fantastic! Very imaginative setting for a photo shoot. Too bad some photographers have to show their jealous side on here. If you don't like it, give it a fair critique, don't just blast it for no good reason.

6 upvotes

Naturally... lots of folks here (not all, of course) only shoot mundane, boring subjects, or brick walls, with pro caliber DSLRs.

But what you have here is a gorgeous Hasselblad, used to the higher standards we expect to see a Hasselblad being used.

When jealous folks see such campaign, beautifully conceived, organized and executed, all in a really challeging situation, the jealous folks can´t help to bash it.

4 upvotes

The camera is about 10 degrees off level. (sure it was intentional... but still)

0 upvotes

"But still" what? The shot creates a nice isosceles triangle (almost) at the top. Convention is great, but sheesh, I'm not the only one tired of seeing perfectly straight horizons, etc.. I find it refreshing to see a scene as my eyes might see it in the context of angles.

Stanchung mentions "blown highlights".... let me guess... the lens the photographer's using doesn't have perfect edge sharpness either right? Sure, layers could easily make the cloth perfectly exposed, etc., but good grief- all this "10 degrees off", "blown highlights" and other sanitization photography stuff has reached a unreasonable level of ridiculousness. ;)

0 upvotes

I am surprised that did not get Howard Schatz to shoot it.

1 upvote

my thoughts too.
nothing special about the picture. overexposed, blown highlights, asking myself if it really is great.
100MP of BS even if I'm jealous of not getting the chance to play with one.

0 upvotes

Was the pool filled with Perrier? Otherwise, IQ would be compromised.

8 upvotes

It is totally OK to copy - or invent - same ideas again. Perhaps it is interesting to all of us to check these images from 2009 ( young Susanna Majuri , then a student in "Helsinki School" )
Link to her interesting portfolio:

http://www.helsinkischool.fi/helsinkischool/artist.php?id=9029&type=portfolio

Hmmm - familiar ? The idea of canvas under water and submerged ladies is circulated in 2012 on a very high and classy level.

1 upvote

Nice!

0 upvotes

Art evolves mainly by copying and improving.

0 upvotes

Not so familiar to me. All I see are people drowning. Quite disturbing, IMO.

0 upvotes

Interesting. However, I don't think it shows the best of what this camera can produce.

0 upvotes

You are right. It don't. This shot could have been taken with a smaller camera. But ... its a nice shot anyhow.

0 upvotes

about three decades ago now on a pool fashion shoot a model and photographer were killed when one of the strobes hit the surface of the water. I am very surprised that the equipment was secured in that way. They were very lucky!

2 upvotes

three decades.... time to move on. I'm supprise that it even happen in the first place. And the video only show little of how he secured it.... so cheer up and enjoy the picture cause apparently you ain't going to create one like that.

Cheers from France

1 upvote

Yeah, totally agree. She should have worn a helmet.

1 upvote

Yeah dude..she should have worn a life jacket..

0 upvotes

I can't really tell these images from computer graphics.

0 upvotes

That was really cool, thanks for sharing DPR!
I'm suprised by the negative comments from 'fellow photographers'. Smh.

1 upvote

Not blown away by the final image... maybe I need to see the actual campaign. Would have been cool to put some "replica" funiture in the pool to make the background 3D. But bravo for the effort to create a sales campaign that is above and beyond the average.

0 upvotes

They can't all be as good as you Paul Farace. I'm sure you could've shown him how it's done.

1 upvote

Samhain I liked it... too bad you're obviously a constipated, friendless Hassy fanboy. I feel so sorry for fanboys of any type. They live lives devoid of real relationships...

0 upvotes

Hassy lost me at the Lunar....

2 upvotes

A lot of $ and production for pointless images.

7 upvotes

Money well spent imo. But then again, i'd guess your not in their demographic.

1 upvote

@apiza: Because photography is a very serious affair. I suppose your photos are never "pointless" and of course, devoid of any artistic pursuit, which is pointless by definition...

Comment edited 16 seconds after posting

1 upvote

indeed. it climbed a low hill instead of attaining a pinnacle and the guys here are lapping it up. meh

Comment edited 15 seconds after posting

0 upvotes

Wel thats just your opinion dude...

0 upvotes

Some thirthy years ago the 500C was one of my dreams. Now I cannot name a single Hasselblad product with such a character. Maybe they really should focus on swimming pool services.

Comment edited 2 times, last edit 5 minutes after posting

2 upvotes

Always nice to see photography-related materials on Digital Camera Review

10 upvotes

No need to go "out of frame" for Hassy advertising since this Hasselblad Camera instrument is amazing.
To me it is very much from what we have available in nowadays the only replacement for Sinar F2 which I used to use ...

3 upvotes

Total comments: 81


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