Peter Belanger

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 the table.

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.

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 iPad—that 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 layout—including an impressive type treatment that interacts with the grass in the image—worth checking out.

Below are the photos used to make the final composite.

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 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

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. 

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:

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

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 fog—very 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.

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

I’ve posted the Macworld cover time lapse video on YouTube. It’s the same video just another avenue for viewing. The main difference is you can now watch the video from any mobile phone that supports YouTube, such as the iPhone.

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 4×5 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