Peter Belanger

 

 

I’ve always thought it would be cool to photograph the cover of Macworld magazine using an iPhone as my camera. When the new iPhone 4 was released with the 5MP camera, the editors at Macworld were excited to see if it could be done. What better way to showcase the phone’s new camera than to have an iPhone take the photo of the iPhone on the cover?

Normally when I shoot the cover of Macworld Magazine, I use a Phase One P65+ which is a 60 MP digital camera. It has twelve times the megapixel count of an iPhone 4. This was going to be a very challenging task for the iPhone. My goal was to photograph the cover using only the iPhone and any available app for the iPhone (I couldn’t use Photoshop on my Mac!)

For the most part, my strategy for photographing the cover didn’t change from how I normally would photograph with the Phase One digital camera. I still had my normal set with lots of lights, flags and stands. I did have to change my light source from strobes to tungsten lights because the iPhone can’t sync with studio strobes. I did end up making my own camera mount for the phone to go on my tripod (monopod). I hadn’t seen one that would do exactly what I needed (even if I did I didn’t think it would  ship to me in time) so I picked up some parts from the hardware store and rigged one myself.

Normally when I photograph the cover I use my Mac to add the iPhone’s screen, clean up dust, scratches and any other imperfections. I wasn’t going to have that same control on my iPhone so I had to ensure the photo looked good and close as possible to final in-camera. During the shoot I would send the image files over to the art director at his computer so he could drop the image into layout. We needed to be sure the scale and crop was perfect.

The iPhone’s Retina display was truly awesome. I was really able to see the detail in the photo as I was shooting. It made me wish Apple produced all their desktop monitors this way. The final photo was dust-free and looked great. I was extremely impressed with the detail that the iPhone was able to capture. For post production I used two iPhone apps: PhotoForge and Resize-Photo. PhotoForge was used to remove a slight green cast from the photo. Resize-Photo was used to increase the photo from 216 dpi to 290 dpi in order to meet printing requirements. One app that I wish had been available when I was photographing the cover was Camera+ 1.2 with separate touch exposure and touch focus.

Also check out the Editor’s Desk inside the magazine were Jason writes about me and my process for creating this months cover.

The digital version of the magazine is out now on Zinio. The printed version should be on newsstands soon. See what you think:

http://www.zinio.com/browse/publications/index.jsp?productId=6564920

 

Here are some behind the scenes photos from the July issue of Macworld Magazine. Because of time restraints we used Rob Schultz, the art director at Macworld, as our model. He was photographed in the studio then composited with a photo I took on a platform of a street car stop in front of my studio.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are some behind the scenes photos form the making of my video, “The Darkness.”

One of my goals with this project was to see if I could make the video without using any of my hot lights or renting any additional equipment. Could a still photographer rely on “still” lighting equipment and not need to rent “video lights”?

I used the Canon 5D MK II to make the video. All my lighting was created using my Profoto strobes, but using only their modeling lights. Modeling lights aren’t made to light complete sets but rather to give you an idea of what the stobe light is going to look like when if fires off. Because of this they are low powered lights, I compensated by shooting at ISO 800.

For the motion I used either the zoom and focus on my lens or a Steadicam Merlin. While I was filming the section with the chrome lamp (with the steadicam) my reflection was very prominent. I had to cover my face and hands with black fabric to minimize my reflection!

Both the opening shot with the two white desk lamps and the closing shot of the group of lamps were captured using stop motion. I used Capture One to shoot tethered with the Canon 5D. The photos were then brought into Aperture to resize and touch up. Dust was really obvious on the black surfaces, yet with Aperture I was able to clean the dust off one photo and then apply it to all the other photos—saving my hours of work.

In order to turn the wire lamp so smoothly I used an old VR turn table. It was nice to be able to repurpose equipment I had on hand in the studio. And speaking of repurposing—the long plugs of the hanging lamps originally had lots of kinks in them. A good trick to straighten them out is to use a hot hair dryer. Finally, I used Final Cut Pro to assemble all the stop motion photos and video.

It was a fun process. If you haven’t already you can see the video here. http://www.peterbelanger.com/posts/69-video-the-darkness

 

 

 

The iPad is gracing the cover of the new Macworld magazine. I’m excited about the new cover layout. This is one of the first times that the product hasn’t been in the bottom right area of the layout. In fact, the photo is so big that it even covers the Macworld name. I can only imagine the meetings about that! It seems fitting to have the screen of the iPad represent the cover, seeing how the iPad is going to be such a great device for viewing magazines.

The cover was photographed in 3 parts. First, the hands where photographed while holding an iPad—but with lighting for the hands only. Then I photographed a straight-on view of the iPad with no hands, which enabled me to have more control over the product lighting. Shooting the hands separately also gave me the flexibility to move them around to fit the layout. The third shot was the 3/4 view of the iPad on the table. The gradated background on which the iPad sits was created in post production.

The accompanying article also has some images of the iPad in different environments. We were on a really tight deadline for the project, so I didn’t take as many behind-the-scenes photos as I would have liked. The environment photos were taken in my studio with hand model, Stacey Lee. Stacey had jury duty so we had one day to pull everything together and photograph it. At one point we weren’t happy with the chair in the photo and we didn’t have time to get a new one, so we drove over to my house and quickly grabbed one of my living room chairs. 

See my previous post for more photos. http://www.peterbelanger.com/posts/65-weekly-photos-april-1

The digital version is out now via Zinio.com and should be on newsstands shortly.

I’m working on the opening photo for a Macworld article about iPhone GPS software. Unlike last month’s red carpet shot, we didn’t start with a sketch. This time we discussed in length what they were looking for. The concept is to show an iPhone mounted on the front windshield of a car. We started by contacting Mercedes-Benz of San Francisco to see if they would let us photograph one of their cars. They were extremely helpful and gracious. The only stipulation was we couldn’t drive it or take it off the lot—which wasn’t a problem since we were planning to composite the street view later. We were even lucky enough to have a break in all the rainy weather so we could shoot outside.

 

 

 

To photograph the view out the car window I rented some suction cups and mounted a camera to the hood of my car. We scouted possible locations by previewing the street view in Google Maps. The camera was tethered to my MacBook Pro, which I was manning from the passenger seat. I used the Canon capture utility to adjust exposure remotely and take the photos. Then I used Adobe Bridge to view the images after they were taken. 

 

Here are some more photos from my “Weekly photos”series.

You can read more about the series here. http://www.peterbelanger.com/posts/45-weekly-photos

Here are some more photos from my “Weekly photos” series

I just finished working on a shot for Dwell magazine showcasing modern planters. It was a fun and refreshing set because the “plants” were all made from hand-cut paper by a designer (who turned out to be a fellow RISD alumni). Here are some shots from behind the scenes:

 

Here are some photos from a recent editorial photo shoot. I’m always happy when I get to incorporate my Profoto 8 ft. reflector.