Portrait in medium format 6×6

Twelve frames to portrait a person

Portrait in medium format isn’t a technique — it’s an attitude. When you have twelve frames on a 120 roll and a waist-level Hasselblad in your hands, you don’t shoot by default. You shoot when you see it.

The square format isn’t neutral either. It centres, balances, forces you to compose differently from a rectangular frame. And the waist-level finder — camera at chest height, looking down — establishes a relationship with the subject unlike anything else. There’s nothing between you and them except the camera.

In this workshop we work with a model. First part: we go over technique and the body-light-format relationship. Second part: a real portrait session, with all the decisions that entails. At the end, we develop and digitise what we made.

Contents

• The square format: composition, balance and difference from rectangular
• The waist-level finder: how it changes the physical and psychological relationship with the subject
• Light for medium-format portraiture: natural, reflectors and studio situations
• Working rhythm with twelve frames: selection and decision
• Basic direction: communication, posture and moment
• Directed portrait session with a real model
• Roll development and digitisation of the frames

What’s included

• One 120 B&W roll (12 frames 6×6)
• Development of the roll on the same day
• Digitisation of the frames
• Hasselblad 500 camera available if you don’t own one

What to bring

• A Hasselblad 500 or any 6×6 medium format camera if you have one (not required)

Not included

• Additional 120 roll (+€12)
• Paper prints of the frames (Darkroom Printing workshop)