Peter Belanger 2/7/10 Peter Belanger 2/7/10

Weekly photos Feb #1

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

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

Macworld GPS opener

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 lotwhich 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.

All the necessary parts have been photographed. The next step will be assembling everything in Photoshop.

Peter Belanger 12/14/09 Peter Belanger 12/14/09

Dwell planters

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 ...

Peter Belanger 12/2/09 Peter Belanger 12/2/09

Macworld: Puttin' it all togehter

I've just completed the opening photo for Macworld's annual Editors Choice Awards. It was a huge puzzle, because I had to take so many different photos and piece them together. The process of assembling the images is the big moment where you find out if you've envisioned things correctly. As it turns out, just before I took the set of the red carpet down, I decided the photo needed more depth. I took another shot of the red carpet going into the photo rather than straight across the frame. Thankfully, I was able to make this change because when I photographed the people I had them stand to the left, right and center. This gave me the flexibility to move the people around and play with their final positioning.

Recognize that hand holding the award? It's mine. I don't normally use my hands in shots, but because of scheduling it just made things easier.

Rob at Macworld will be adding some words to the awning in the final design phase, but other than that the image is pretty much complete. Keep an eye on news stands for the magazine sometime in mid January.

Here's a link to the sketch that the photo was based on. http://www.peterbelanger.com/posts/46-the-sketch-that-started-it

Peter Belanger 11/20/09 Peter Belanger 11/20/09

The sketch that started it

Every year Macworld Magazine has an Editors Choice Awards issue. This year the concept for the article's photo is paparazzi and the red carpet. Below is the sketch that I made while I was on the phone with the art directorI realize the sketch doesn't convey my art school education. Today I photographed various parts that will be compiled for the photo. Here are some photos from the process:

Peter Belanger 10/26/09 Peter Belanger 10/26/09

Dry Ice

Recently I had a shoot that called for a dreamy, cloudy effect. I decided to use dry ice rather then a smoke machine because dry ice smoke stays lower to the ground, which would highlight the products better. It sure makes a project interesting when you have an uncontrollable, organic element in the photo. At several points most of the floor in my entire studio (not just the set!) was covered with the fogvery surreal.

On the technical side, the dry ice effect doesn't last very long and we had to come up with ways to prolong it. The dry ice becomes especially activated when placed in hot water. At first we used the hot water from the tap and it didn't fog up very high. We found that boiling hot water really made the fog go into overdrive. We rented 3 large coffee carafes and used them to make gallons of boiling hot water. Next time I might even use a 4th carafe. They are power hogs and kept blowing a fuse, so we had to put each one on it's own breaker.

Most of the time we placed the blocks of dry ice in bowls on the floor, which created a really nice, billowing, San Francisco fog look. I found that to give the fog some more shape it helped to pour it out of buckets. The fog looked great but it disappeared fast.

Overall, the dry ice and it's fog doesn't get things wet (hence the name dry ice). But because of the method of keeping it in hot water, sometimes when we poured the smoke from the buckets we also poured a little water on the floor. Luckily the fog covered the floor and the puddles were not visible.

Peter Belanger 8/26/09 Peter Belanger 8/26/09

8 ft. Reflector

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

Peter Belanger 8/7/09 Peter Belanger 8/7/09

cover creation

After working on the latest cover for Macworld Magazine I wanted to show what is involved in making a cover. I focused on the three main areas: the photography, photoshop and design. I chose a time lapse format to convey lots of information in a small amount of time. The only drawback of time lapse is that since half a day goes by in 30 seconds, the whole process seam so easy! Lots of details were left out of the design process (like the cover meetings and rounds of layout options). I began to photograph the design process after the layouts had already been narrowed down to just three cover designs. On the technical side, for the time lapse video, I used the Canon 5D Mark II with a 24mm-70mm zoom. I chose the 5D because of its great image quality with high ISO's. Canon's sRAW1 gave me the flexibility of a RAW file with the file size of a jpeg. The actual Macworld cover was taken with a Phase One P65+ digital back attached to a 4x5 Sinar X camera with a 65mm lens. Many thanks to Rob Schultz for allowing me to invade his office and literally shoot over his shoulder. The music was used with permission by The Brokenmusicbox.

After working on the latest cover for MacWorld Magazine I wanted to show what is involved in making a cover. I focused on the three main areas: the photography, photoshop and design. I chose a time lapse format to convey lots of information in a small amount of time. The only drawback of time lapse is that since half a day goes by in 30 seconds, the whole process seam so easy! Lots of details were left out of the design process (like the cover meetings and rounds of layout options). I began to photograph the design process after the layouts had already been narrowed down to just three cover designs.

On the technical side, for the time lapse video, I used the Canon 5D Mark II with a 24mm-70mm zoom. I chose the 5D because of its great image quality with high ISO's. Canon's sRAW1 gave me the flexibility of a RAW file with the file size of a jpeg. The actual Macworld cover was taken with a Phase One P65+ digital back attached to a 4x5 Sinar X camera with a 65mm lens.

Many thanks to Rob Schultz for allowing me to invade his office and literally shoot over his shoulder.

The music was used with permission by The Brokenmusicbox. You can see more of their music at

http://www.myspace.com/tbmb

Many thanks to Rob Schultz for allowing me to invade his office and literally shoot over his shoulder.

The music was used with permission by The Brokenmusicbox. You can see more of their music at http://www.myspace.com/tbmb