Peter Belanger 3/15/12 Peter Belanger 3/15/12

Hanging with Bikes

I love bikes, especially well designed and functional urban bikes and accessories. Naturally, I was excited when Dwell approached me to photograph some beautiful bike gear. The idea was to photograph 3 bikes hanging on colored backgrounds. Normall...

I love bikes, especially well designed and functional urban bikes and accessories. Naturally, I was excited when Dwell approached me to photograph some beautiful bike gear.

The idea was to photograph 3 bikes hanging on colored backgrounds. Normally, we would paint the walls the day before the job but the client wanted the flexibility to change the colors once we had decided on what items would be in each shot. In order to achieve this, we hung paper on the wall instead of painting. I was worried that the strong side lighting would show all the wrinkles in the paper. We were really careful and it turned out extremely well. The side lighting gave the sets great depth.

It was great working with the stylist, Janis, and the talented team at Dwell. Now I just have to curb my bike envy!

Look for the magazine on newsstands or check out Dwell for more great info.

Peter Belanger 2/7/12 Peter Belanger 2/7/12

The Brokenmusicbox Full Album

The cover for the single, "We Will" was a teaser for the full album???which I'm excited to say is out in it's full glory. The music, design and photography have all come together in harmony to form an exciting album. How was it all done?? We met wit...

The cover for the single, "We Will" was a teaser for the full album—which I'm excited to say is out in it's full glory. The music, design and photography have all come together in harmony to form an exciting album.

How was it all done??

We met with Tony and Kim from The Brokenmusicbox in September of last year. In the meeting we talked about what the album meant to them and what they were trying to convey with it. During the meeting we came up with some basic ideas and then narrowed it down to one. After the meeting I gave them a final sketch of my idea which they approved before I started photographing.

The technical part:

The dirt was pilled up in front of a turquoise background. Once I was happy with the shape of the top dirt I placed the flower. I test photographed about 6 flowers but only one was used for the final image. The dirt was lit from above with a long strip box. This gave the dirt a nice edge light. The lighting also left the front of the dirt dark, making it easier to blend with the "underground" dirt photo. I had one light with a 7" reflector coming from the back to give the photo lens flare. The flower that I picked didn't have any leaves so I had to photograph them from a different flower. Once I was happy with the dirt and the flower I used a water spray bottle to add the rain.

The "underground" portion of the photo was taken separately and upside down. This way I had gravity working in my favor rather then against me. The root for the actual flower in the final image wasn't very photographic so I picked a different plant that had a nice root. I then used scissors to trim the root so it didn't look too busy. Once the bottom image was photographed I just rotated it 180 degrees and blended it with the top photo.

It was great working with The Brokenmusicbox and Amy Gregg from A1 Design.

Listen to the full Album here

http://thebrokenmusicbox.bandcamp.com

I love all the songs but my favorite is "California Year." Listen to the album and post which song is your favorite.

Peter Belanger 12/16/11 Peter Belanger 12/16/11

Macworld January Cover

The iPhone 4s has been unleashed all over Macworld Magazine, inside and out. The cover may look nice and clean but the set to light it was a mess. If you're traveling for the holidays, load your iPad up with the Zinio version or look for the analo...

The iPhone 4s has been unleashed all over Macworld Magazine, inside and out. The cover may look nice and clean but the set to light it was a mess.

If you're traveling for the holidays, load your iPad up with the Zinio version or look for the analog version at your airport news stand.

Peter Belanger 12/6/11 Peter Belanger 12/6/11

Red, Red, Red

San Francisco Magazine approached us with a fun idea for "The Trend" section of the December 2011 issue. They wanted to incorporate the color red in an over-the-top fashion. They provided a selection of red products to pick from to form the groups. Rather than washing the photos with a red overlay in Photoshop, we went old school and used red gels. Each grouping was giving it's own surface and gel treatment. This allowed the photos to have their own identity while relating to each other as a series.

Read it for free at

http://media.modernluxury.com/magazines_san_francisco.php

or download their free app for your iPad and iPhone at

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/san-francisco-magazine/id370424626?mt=8

Peter Belanger 11/29/11 Peter Belanger 11/29/11

city lights

It's always fun when we collaborate with clients and come up with bright ideas. This time we captured the luminance of lamps against a city background for the Dec/Jan 2011 issue of Dwell Magazine. It took a few extension cords to get all the lamps lit. We also got to roam the streets of downtown San Francisco pretending we were tourists and photographed various city backgrounds.

You can find it on newsstands or zinio.com

Peter Belanger 8/2/11 Peter Belanger 8/2/11

Dwell: Desks

For the September issue of Dwell magazine we photographed desks. We worked with a set builder to make custom pedestals, which looked great but moving things around was no easy task! When asked if we could move a pedestal "a little to the left" we had to really question if it was needed. When we did move things, it took considerable effort not to scratch the floor or anything. Even with all the heavy lifting it was a really fun job. After we assembled all the desks Jamie, the editor, tried them all out for her story.

Even with all the heavy lifting it was a really fun job. After we assembled all the desks Jamie, the editor, tried them all out for her story

Peter Belanger 7/14/11 Peter Belanger 7/14/11

DIY Macworld

Rob and Kate from Macworld were on set for the "Do It Yourself" feature of the magazine. Kate doubled as the hand model in two of the photos. In the spirit of "Do It Yourself" I ended up making a rig to support the iPad Kate was holding to help keep it in the same spot. It made lighting and focus a lot easier. In the photo of the audio system I created the wall with a sheet of foam core, which made it easy to cut a hole for the outlet which the Airport Express plugged into.

Peter Belanger 7/7/11 Peter Belanger 7/7/11

Dwell House Party

Who doesn't love a House Party? It's always great working with Dwell, this time it was especially cool because we got to work with their kids. We spent the morning organizing various playhouses and lighting. I decided to use a more spotted lighting arrangement to add some depth to the photo. In doing this I had to predict the areas where I thought the kids might play. Once the kids arrived we let them play as I snapped the photos. After that we had them each play in predetermined areas so that all the kids were evenly dispersed among the playhouses. Of course once we got a successful photo, all the adults jumped in to join the fun! You can find the issue on newsstands now.

Peter Belanger 7/5/11 Peter Belanger 7/5/11

Snakes with SF Magazine

When SF magazine approach us to photograph snakes and shoes I was very excited. Michael my assistant wasn't, he has an extreme fear of snakes. Luckily the snake handler (what a cool job title) from the Academy of Science took care of all the snake...

I knew that the snakes weren't going to be cooperative so I built a set to be modified on the fly. The light was also set up to be pretty forgiving. The one thing I didn't foresee was the snakes twitching every time the strobes when off. Because of how the snakes reacted to the lights, the snake handler limited our time with each snake. We were only able to photograph each snake 10-15 times, which meant I had to really think before taking the photo. The snakes moved fast exploring their new environment. Nothing was off limits. They curled around light and stands, slithered up the plexiglass, knocked down the shoes and two took bathroom breaks on set. One snake even got stuck through an open toe Alexander Wang sandal that we debated on cutting the $900 shoe. Luckily, he freed himself a couple minutes later. If we are to shoot snakes again in the future, we will photograph them using HMI or hot lights instead.

You can get the magazine on newsstandsor read free online at http://media.modernluxury.com/magazines_san_francisco.phpor orread free on your iPad at http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/san-francisco-magazine/id370424626?mt=8

Peter Belanger 5/5/11 Peter Belanger 5/5/11

Macworld Beyond Cable

For this feature, Macworld wanted to showcase each product from the review in their own setting. In order to keep the set budget down, we got furnishings from West Elm and Ikea in exchange for giving them credit in the magazine. For the opening photo, we didn't hang the TV on the wall because we didn't have a wall bracket. As a stand in, we used a foam core cut out. This allowed us to see how the TV would look in the photo as we worked on the crop. We also only had one chair so it was photographed in each position. Unfortunately, the nice floor didn't make the final layout because of the crop.

Check out the magazine on newsstands or at Zinio.com

Peter Belanger 4/4/11 Peter Belanger 4/4/11

Macworld iPad 2

The new cover of Macworld magazine is outfeaturing a photo that I took. Luckily it was Macworld's iPad, I wouldn't want to tape my iPad up like this. I've included some behind the scenes photos of the cover and one of the photos from the iPad 2 ar...

You can find the magazine on newsstands now or read the digital version on

zinio.com

Peter Belanger 2/4/11 Peter Belanger 2/4/11

iPad at work - Macworld

The new Macworld magazine is full of photos I've taken to help illustrate using an iPad at work instead of your laptop. It is refreshing that the art director, Rob, is always interested in trying new things with the images. The hanging notepads image was one such photo. I've included a behind-the-scenes photo of it's set belowwe really did hang the ipad by a clip!

You can find the magazine on newsstands now or read the digital version on zinio.com

Peter Belanger 11/16/10 Peter Belanger 11/16/10

Film Crew

Had a great photoshoot with Dwell and the Eames documentary crew. It will be for a future episode of American Masters on PBS about Ray and Charles Eames. Here are some photos from the photoshoot.

Peter Belanger 9/8/10 Peter Belanger 9/8/10

Dwell - Make It Yours

Here are some behind-the-scenes photos for the current cover of Dwell's "Make It Yours" magazine. It was like a puzzle figuring out how to fit all the pieces together. Good thing we had donuts to keep us focused.

Peter Belanger 8/11/10 Peter Belanger 8/11/10

Veins

I'm sharing even more behind-the-scenes images from the September issue of Macworld since people seem to really like seeing what goes into the shots. These images were taken during the shoot for the overhead image of two people playing Scrabble at...

You'll notice 3 interesting things about this shot: First, is that both people were photographed separately. This was done because the models were only available at different times. Second, you might be wondering why the models are holding their hands up in the air. That is one of the tricks to keep their veins on their hands and arms from showing. The blood flow is greatly reduced when raised above the heart, thereby keeping the hands much smoother. The models need to lift their arms up every couple of photos. The third interesting thing about the shot is that the camera was so high up I had to rely on auto focus! Unfortunately, auto focus doesn't work well with glossy surfaces (like the table or product). I added a paper with lines and numbers drawn on it to help the camera focus. The paper was then easily removed in post production.

For the final composited photo check out Macworld magazine on the newsstand or get a digital copy at Zinio.com.

Peter Belanger 8/2/10 Peter Belanger 8/2/10

Macworld "Living with your iPad"

Not only was it exciting to shoot the iPhone 4 with the iPhone for the cover of September's Macworld, but there were cool photo assignments for inside the issue as well. One of the shots is the opening spread for the article "Living with your iPad...

Not only was it exciting to shoot the iPhone 4 with the iPhone for the cover of September's Macworld, but there were cool photo assignments for inside the issue as well.

One of the shots is the opening spread for the article "Living with your iPad". The art director, Rob Schultz, wanted to have a female model at the park using her iPadthat was the simple part. First, we had to find a model and a stylist. We used Cassandra E. from Look who was perfect for the part. We worked with stylist Diane McGauley who was instrumental in finding all the props for the photos. She had a small budget to work with but was able to make it look like she didn't.

Due to time constraints and for total control we decided to photograph in the studio. First, I photographed Cassandra in the studio with lighting that I felt would work for any park situation. I took note of my camera height and lens and set off to find a park to place Cassandra into. Once I found the perfect spot, I photographed it with the camera at the same height I had used for the studio photo so the perspective would match. However, I didn't really like the grass or the lighting in the foreground of the park image, so I decided to find better grass. I found some green, healthy, new grass growing under the freeway (of all places!) and captured that to replace the foreground of the park photo.

Here you can see all the photos I used to put together the final image...along with some behind-the-scene shots. For the final composited photo you'll have to check out Macworld magazine on the newsstand or get a digital copy at Zinio.com. Rob did a great job with the layoutincluding an impressive type treatment that interacts with the grass in the imageworth checking out.

Below are the photos used to make the finalcomposite.

Peter Belanger 7/29/10 Peter Belanger 7/29/10

Macworld iPhone 4 cover

Ive 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...

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 hadnt seen one that would do exactly what I needed (even if I did I didnt 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 where Jason writes about me and my process for creating this month's cover or view online here.

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

Peter Belanger 6/3/10 Peter Belanger 6/3/10

July Macworld behind the scenes

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...

Peter Belanger 5/24/10 Peter Belanger 5/24/10

behind the scenes of "The Darkness"

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 photog...

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 photossaving 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 repurposingthe 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