online 07.2011
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editorial
Content
We’ve just passed the halfway mark for 2011 and it has already been a very exciting year for Hasselblad with the introduction of new and updated products and services, as well as the continued success of existing programs. As always, the Masters program is going strong with exceptional candidates for this year’s awards. We invite you to visit the Masters Finalists online galleries to view the current entries and vote for your favorite image at www.hasselblad.com/masters-finalists. Photographer support has always been important to Hasselblad and we’ve further extended that support with a new Special Applications Department to accommodate the needs of photographers working in specialized fields. Initially concentrating on the H4D Aerial System, this new department will branch out to address other specialized fields as well. But the services and programs we provide would be nothing without the consistently excellent products that Hasselblad is known for and this year our engineers and technical experts have, yet again, made some impressive additions to our product line. Earlier this year, we updated and expanded the Phocus family to keep pace with the ever-changing workflow challenges faced by today’s photographers. Phocus 2.6 offers increased speed and enhanced capabilities, including a Dust Removal Tool, Star Rating and Filtering, and Windows support for TIFF and JPEG files. A new family member, Phocus Quick, provides a semiautomated method of importing and processing RAW files for a more streamlined workflow. And, for the ultimate in convenience, we also introduced Phocus Mobile – an imaging app for iPads and iPhones that allows photographers and clients to remotely browse and rate images. With many thousands of downloads across the board, and direct reports from individual photographers, it’s easy to see that the new Phocus family has been warmly welcomed by photographers all over the world. One of our most exciting new products of 2011 is the H4D-200MS. Combining Hasselblad’s technological expertise and attention to detail (and image quality), the H4D-200MS uses a unique process of capturing and combining six shots to create a 200 megapixel image – the perfect solution for studio photographers who need the ultimate in resolution and fine detail. Just when you thought that technology has reached its peak, we’ve proved that there’s always room to grow. And we’ll continue to push the boundaries to keep our photographers equipped with leading edge solutions. There’s no doubt that the future is bright and we look forward to working with our partners and the world’s best photographers to continue the creation of groundbreaking products. And you can see some of the world’s best photographers right here on the pages of VICTOR magazine. We’re proud to feature Christopher Thomas’ stunning car photography along with a sampling of Hasselblad Master Claudio Napolitano’s heart-felt “Emotion” images and Denise and Ulf Krentz's beauty shots. I hope you enjoy reading this issue of VICTOR online!
Christopher Thomas’ expertise in car photography is as finely honed as the cars that he photographs.
4 >> News Hasselblad to distribute broncolor in the UK: As the sole distributor of broncolor lighting products in the UK, Hasselblad plans new programs and customer support. Bonus Check Program: Receive a 10% Bonus Check on Hasselblad purchases through July 31
6 >> Christopher Thomas Munich-based advertising photographer Christopher Thomas combines artistry and technology to produce stunning automobile campaigns. Fresh from a secret shoot for BMW, Thomas shares some of his perfectly crafted images with us in this issue.
26 >> Denise & ULF KRENTZ Members of the Hasselblad Owners' Club have chosen an image by German beauty and fashion photographers Denise and Ulf Krentz for the winning photograph. At VICTOR online, you’ll see some of their work and learn why the duo makes a perfect team.
30 >> Claudio napolitano Hasselblad Master Claudio Napolitano brings us a selection from the extraordinary portraits he created for the Masters “Emotion” project. These images come from his heart and are so moving that they speak volumes to everyone who sees them.
44 >> preview Using special lighting techniques and non-standard equipment, New York photographer Timothy Hogan’s images are visually stunning but often beg the question: How did he do that? We’ll find out more about his approach to photography in our next issue.
Yours, Dr. Larry Hansen, Chairman and CEO of Hasselblad
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victornEWS Hasselblad Hasselblad and broncolor team up in the UK
Hasselblad Buy a Hasselblad and get a 10% bonus check
There’s good news for UK photographers. Beginning July 1st, Hasselblad will become the sole distributor of broncolor lighting products in the UK. Lighting expert Chris Burfoot has been appointed the new broncolor UK manager and promises an exciting array of programs and customer support in the coming months.
If you’re thinking of updating your Hasselblad gear – or want to step up to a Hasselblad camera or digital back – now is the perfect time to go shopping. As an extra added incentive, Hasselblad is offering customers who purchase a new Hasselblad H4D camera or CFV back a Bonus Check that equals 10% of the Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP, excl. VAT) of the purchased product. Bonus Checks can be redeemed to buy additional gear at the Hasselblad dealer, where the product has been purchased. “Hasselblad has always sought to support photographers and to promote the field of photography in general,” says Chris Russell-Fish, Hasselblad’s Global Sales and Marketing Director. Russell-Fish goes on to say, “What better way to do this than to give new camera customers a Bonus Check that they can use to purchase lenses, filters, camera bags or other photo-related accessories – including nonHasselblad products – to complement their new camera or digital back.” This special bonus offer applies to the H4D-40, H4D-50, H4D-60, the new H4D-200MS, H4D-50MS, as well as CFV39 and CFV-50 digital backs. Online registration is simple and Bonus Checks can be printed immediately after the product is registered. Act quickly, though! Cameras and digital backs must be purchased between June 15, 2011 and July 31, 2011 in order to qualify for this special bonus incentive. For more information about the Bonus Check Program and to find a participating dealer near you, please go to: www.hasselblad.com/bonuscheck ■
Whether you’re a current bron user or someone who is simply curious about this award-winning line of lighting gear, you’ll be able to take advantage of a new “Beauty of broncolor” open days program with broncolor partners, much like the popular “Hasselblad Studio Days.” Burfoot also plans to focus on customer service and support for existing users. For example, in the near future bron users will benefit from a separate customer care system and a dedicated bron maintenance team so bron users will benefit from the same type of support as provided by the “Hasselbuddy” customer care program. Of course, Hasselblad UK’s London-based Pro Centre will continue to rent a variety of equipment brands to meet the needs of pro photographers, including broncolor. But keep your eyes open for additional exciting news since Hasselblad is currently in talks with broncolor about new product launches, too. The future looks bright in the UK! Be sure to check out the new website soon at: www.ukbroncolor.com ■
No need to find a treasure chest to upgrade your toolbox. Simply participate in Hasselblad's Bonus Check program.
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Hasselblad users all over the world exchange news on the Hasselblad Owners’ Club (HOC) site. At the end of June, registered users chose a new Photo of the Month, taken by Christian Hough. With this picture, the British photographer prevailed over the strong competition. We will fully introduce him in the August issue of VICTOR online. ■
Car photography has changed over the past 30 years. Rather than a single shot image, car photographers like Christopher Thomas now combine multiple images to create the final photograph.
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Christopher Thomas German advertising photographer Christopher Thomas can be found jetting from one city to another to capture the components he needs to create images of the latest and greatest new automobiles. It’s exacting work, with lots of attention to detail, but Thomas makes it look easy with his amazing photographs.
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For driving shots, including this one in the Mojave Desert of California, Thomas will use a dolly for the location shoot to create a sense of motion. Other images are captured to show the spin of the car wheels and the reflections of the "moving" car.
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Plaster City, California, with thousands of acres of open area and varied terrain was the perfect setting for this action shot of the agile BMW X1 kicking up clouds of dust.
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When creating his car shots, Thomas tries to keep it as simple as possible in order to create a realistic look and feel. When you put together too many components, he explains, there's a danger that the shot will look artificial and more like an illustration than a photograph.
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Thomas recently traveled to Melbourne, Australia for a BMW shoot. Because the BMW 1 Series car had not yet been announced, Thomas shot the location using an older model car for position and lighting. The new model, pictured here, was shot separately and added later.
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After he finished the location shoot in Melbourne, Thomas flew to a secure location in Cape Town, South Africa where he photographed the BMW Series 1 cars.
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When shooting the various components for a car shoot, Thomas stresses the importance of matching angles and reflections of the car with those at the location site so the final image looks realistic.
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Using a tripod is critical to car photography, especially when the background and automobile are shot separately. Everything from the lighting, reflections, and shadows has to match perfectly to maintain a realistic look.
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"For car photography, you have to have the highest resolution possible," says Thomas. Before the launch of Hasselblad's H-system, that meant large format film cameras. An early H-system user, Thomas currently shoots with the H4D-60.
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Portfolio Christopher Thomas
“It never occurred to me to be a professional photographer,” says Christopher Thomas, “I always did photography because I loved it.” But when his family moved to Brazil, Thomas, who remained in Germany to finish high school, had to find a way to support himself. As fate would have it, a friend’s father offered Thomas a job helping out in his photography studio. It was during this time that Thomas not only learned about photography but also shot professionally at the studio and for outside clients. It wasn’t long before the friend’s father offered to help Thomas get into the Bayerische Staatslehranstalt für Photographie. The young photographer opened a small studio after graduating from photography school and, with the assistance of an agent, began shooting professionally full-time. Thomas had learned still-life photography from working during high school and photo school and had shot a couple of small car assignments but quickly evolved into an automobile photographer when a major German advertising agency asked him to shoot a job for Audi. Thomas, who was born in Munich in 1961, notes that “Car photography has developed a lot within the last 30 years. It’s gone from a oneshot image to a compilation of huge numbers of images.” With car shoots, he says, “You create your own reality. On location, you rarely have a background that people are happy with so you put it together out of several components.” For example, the sun may not be in the right position so you have to position a light to create a shadow that you want or, perhaps, even shoot the sun separately and add it to the photograph later. But, he warns, “The danger is that it becomes artificial looking. The car may not have the right reflections or the perspectives don’t work. There are a lot of mistakes that can be made.”
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By the time a client approaches Thomas about an assignment, a concept has already been developed. These images (above and right) were created for the BMW xDrive campaign to spotlight the automobiles' four-wheel drive capabilities.
When it's not possible to photograph the car on location, Thomas will shoot a 360 degree HDR sphere to ensure that highlights and shadows are accurately reproduced in CGI.
Adding to the complexities of car photography is that sometimes the manufacturer, as was the case with Thomas’ recent BMW shoot, doesn’t want to reveal the car in public and the car must be shot separately or, occasionally, created entirely with CGI. “This [BMW] shoot was one of the most complicated I ever had,” Thomas reports. “The car is supposed to drive through a lively city at night with people coming out of clubs, etc. The location was in Melbourne, Australia but BMW didn’t want the car on the street so I shot the scene with the old model of the car.” To ensure the perfect match of lights, reflections, shadows and other components matched perfectly in when the final image was produced with CGI, Thomas shot a 360 degree HDR “sphere”. He then flew to South Africa to shoot the new model BMW in a secure location, again making sure that angles and reflections would fit with the scene he shot in Melbourne. Post production on a 5-6 week shoot can take up to three months and while Thomas sometimes will be asked for his input, more often than not, the client and post-production companies take over after the shoot is complete. Because car photography requires the highest resolution possible, Thomas started out shooting large format but then moved to the Hasselblad H-system when it was first announced. Today, he shoots with the H4D-60 and the H4D-50 and used both for the latest BWM campaign. When he isn’t shooting cars, Thomas can be found capturing beautiful and moody city images such as those found in his exhibition and book, New York Sleeps. For Thomas, splitting his time between advertising and fine art is the perfect balance. ■ www.christopher-thomas.de
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Denise & ulf krentz Members of the Hasselblad Owners’ Club have chosen a picture by Denise and Ulf Krentz as Photo of the Month. Introducing the German beauty and fashion photographers and their aesthetic world
Whether they’re creating bright and bold beauty shots or more subtle, mysterious editorial images, teamwork is key for German beauty and fashion photographers Denise and Ulf Krentz. Working together since 1996, their talents complement each other perfectly. As Denise explains, “One of the benefits we have is that the creative part and the technical expertise is divided and shared between us. We understand each other without great explanation.” They also understand the important role of make-up artists and stylists, acknowledging that “working together with an exceptional team [of stylists] is essential for this kind of photography.” The winning HOC image (p. 28, lower left) is an example of the brightly colored images often produced by the Krentz’s and was lit with broncolor Scoro packs to get the stroboscopic motion effect on the model’s hair. For the more subtle “China” images, a simple lighting set-up was used with color casted background and fill lights, along with a single neutral colored main light. While their images are the results of a team effort, for Ulf, “it’s the lighting methods” that keep him “addicted” to his work. Denise and Ulf Krentz strive to exceed their clients’ expectations and always want to create images that are “fresh” and “surprising.” Looking through their portfolio, it’s easy to see that they have expertly achieved those goals. Vita: Denise Krentz, born in Aachen, 1966; Ulf Krentz, born in Berlin, 1963. Based in Aachen, Germany. Continuing work on colorful make-up and hair images for Oliver Szilagyi’s new magazine, 74Mag.com www.shoots.de www.hasselblad.com
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Hasselblad Master portfolio
Portrait
Claudio Napolitano U.S.-based Hasselblad Master Claudio Napolitano discovered the narrative power of photography as a teenager. “I’m not a big writer,” says Napolitano, “so I wanted to tell stories without saying a word.” And, as you can see, Napolitano doesn’t need words to evoke emotions from his viewers. These images, some of which appeared in the book Hasselblad Masters Vol. 2 – Emotion, not only speak volumes but they come from the heart as well. As a young child growing up in Caracas, Venezuela, Napolitano remembers going to the circus and seeing firsthand, the stark contrast between rich and poor. It was this juxtaposition, among others, that inspires many of his photographs. One of the reasons he chose children for his Emotion project was that they “display the most vivid emotion in its purest essence.” But, he cautions, “working with children, especially with such a strong concept, there is a thin line between triumph and failure.” Shot in and around Caracas, the children were a mix of local youngsters and models from a talent agency. His niece, whose mother passed away from cancer that was diagnosed too late, posed as a nurse. Because she was wearing shoes that were too tight, Napolitano was able to get the facial expression he wanted to tell his story – the story of life’s unexpected events. “In reality,” explains Napolitano, “her story was about tight shoes, but my story was something completely different.” When he’s not creating evocative portraits, this award-winning photographer uses his talents to shoot equally impressive advertising campaigns.
www.claudionapolitanophoto.com www.hasselblad.com
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Please find this movie at www.victorbyhasselblad.com
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Next victor online: 1 August 2011 Be surprised by inspiring portfolios, keep up-to-date with the most significant photographic trends and read leading news for the photography community. On August 1st, 2011, check your monitor for the next issue of VICTOR online.
Timothy Hogan >> dynamic still life images with a unique point of view
Nina Berman >> insightful black and white commentary
>> Discover the aesthetic world of the photographer who took the Hasselblad Owners’ Club photo of the month: Christian Hough
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Hasselblad Owners’ Club 7/2011
Items and topics in the next issue of VICTOR online may be changed or post-poned due to editorial or other reasons.
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Imprint VICTOR online | 7/2011 www.victorbyhasselblad.com info@victorbyhasselblad.com
Project Management: Christine Heinrichs heinrichs@centerofservice.com
Publishing House /Advertising: Center of Service GmbH Hammerbrookstr. 93 20097 Hamburg, Germany Tel.: + 49.40.25 40 48-69 (Fax: - 40) E-mail: info@centerofservice.com
All articles and illustrations contained in the online magazine are subject to the laws of copyright. Any form of utilisation beyond the narrow limits imposed by the laws of copyright and without the expressed permission of the publisher is forbidden and will be prosecuted. We accept no responsibility for unsolicited material and this will only be returned if appropriate postage is included.
Global Photographer Relations Manager Hasselblad: Paul Waterworth Paul.Waterworth@Hasselblad.com
Hasselblad is a registered trademark of Victor Hasselblad A/S, Denmark. Place of jurisdiction and execution: Hamburg, Germany
Publisher: Stephan Bittner
photo: august bradley
We’ll pay you to upgrade your toolbox. get a 10% bonus Check at participating dealers!
the hasselblad bonus Check program. So here’s the deal. Purchase a new Hasselblad camera or digital back and we’ll give you a Bonus Check worth 10% of its list price (excl VAT) that you can use to fill your photo toolbox anyway you want. Lenses, filters, camera bags, tripods, whatever. You could even buy a 35mm camera to use on the side, if that’s what floats your boat. Sound too good to be true? Well, it’s not. What’s the catch? There isn’t one. Simply purchase one of the qualifying products listed below* between June 15, 2011 and July 31, 2011, register your product, and we’ll give you a Bonus Check
for store credit – for a full 10% of the camera’s list price (excl VAT) – that you can redeem at your participating dealer. How you spend it is up to you.
www.hasselblad.com/bonuscheck
*Offer good on purchases of new Hasselblad H4D-40, H4D-50, H4D-60, H4D-50MS, H4D-200MS, CFV-39, or CFV-50 cameras and backs. Store credit can only be applied to subsequent purchases, not to the qualifying product. Voucher valid until August 31, 2011 at participating dealers only. Contact your local Hasselblad dealer or log on to www.hasselblad.com/bonuscheck to find a participating dealer and to get full campaign details.
©C orey
Rich
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