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

 

 

 

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.

The Dwell Smokin’ Pots spread is printed and on newsstands in this month’s issue. I’m really happy with how things turned out and as always the dwell team was awesome. You can read about how the photo was created here.

You can also read the article on Dwell’s website.

 

The Macworld GPS photo is printed and on newsstands in this month’s issue. You can read about how the photo was created here.

Spotted a new version of the HP ad that I shot (with hand model Stacy Lee) in the Cinequest Film Fesitival magazine. See the original here.

 

Very excited to see my photos of the iPad on Apple’s web site and the keynote video.

No matter how long I spend on an image it’s always a thrill to see it in the final layout. The images I shot with the dry ice a few months ago (http://www.peterbelanger.com/posts/42-dry-ice) were just published in Dwell Magazine. Something about seeing the photo with the final text layered on it, in print, is so satisfying.

 

 

A few months ago I worked on a project for an HP ad. Over the holidays I was excited to see the final product in the December 28 issues of Newsweek and Time magazines.

 

I had a nice surprise in my inbox Friday when i received an email from Apple full of familiar faces. I was hired to photograph my family’s vacation in Tahoe so that Apple could use the images on various materials and in demos, etc. Apple must have sent this to lots of people based on how many friends and family have written to me saying they’ve spotted us as well.