Smart Phones Can Take Unbelievable Portrait Photos Too

© VonWong2015 - www.vonwong.com

Photographer Benjamin Von Wong enjoys a challenge so when his agent, Suzy Johnston said: "You won’t believe the call that just came in." Naturally, he was rather intrigued. 

The call was from Huawei who wanted Benjamin to shoot their global launch campaign on the new Huawei P8 Smart Phone: "They want you to create the craziest photograph you possibly can... Oh, and it gets better. They want you to use fire!" said Suzy.

Despite liking challenges, Benjamin was a little worried about two things: number one, the camera type and two, fire! Fire's not only dangerous, it's tricky to photograph and when it came to camera choices, Benjamin's more accustomed to a high-end model such as a Mamiya Leaf Credo 80 for creating images, not a Smart Phone. However, after a test shoot one cold evening in Shanghai using stand-in models and some simple ND filters, Benjamin was ready for the actual shoot day. 

Above: Test shots using the Huawei P8 with flames from Starlight Alchemy.

"Lighting for the set was carefully designed to make the pillars and backdrop stand out without hitting our model. Light spills during a long exposure, would mean that our gorgeous model would come out looking blurry," said Benjamin. "To light the model without blur, a single tightly controlled Broncolor flash boomed overhead contained within barndoors were used which were manually triggered by hand." 

Photo by Sean Sim: Starlight Alchemy making Natalia’s wings.

A fire performance team added the fiery shapes to the scene, surrounding the model in fire as requested by the Executive Creative Director Sean Sim. 

"Once the lighting was set, creating these photos was almost like synchronizing a dance," said Benjamin.

Images © VonWong2015 - www.vonwong.com

The final images from the shoot are shown below and at the top of the article. You can also check out Benjamin's feature from the shoot on medium.com. 

© VonWong2015 - www.vonwong.com

For those wondering how the fiery shapes were captured, the P8 can take multiple images over an unlimited amount of time which it compares, stacks and blends to create one image, meaning a large amount of noise doesn't spoil the shot as it would usually when a camera with a smaller sensor is used to capture a long exposure. Benjamin captured the portraits with the phone's light painting function, as requested by Sean Sim. 

(Via F Stoppers)