The cover of every GQ magazine is the culmination of a carefully considered vision, borne from a reputation of being at the cutting-edge of the latest styles and trends. In their May/June issue, GQ South Africa was inspired to create a cover using the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G to shoot and edit everything from the cover, the fashion pages, video clips and the behind-the-scenes video.
Photographer, Austin Malema, was hired to shoot GQ’s South Africa first cover shot on a smartphone. He was excited to see how the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G could deliver on a professional photo shoot, with a legion of GQ stylists, editors, and crew behind him and the superstar Prince Kaybee in front of him.
“Even though I shoot with a smartphone all the time for personal use, it was the first time I had shot anything like a cover with a smartphone,” said Malema. I was a little anxious, to be honest. I knew that the quality of the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G Smartphone was great, but I only started to find out details like that it could shoot raw images in 12-bit raw files when I started exploring it. I however soon realised that the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G would be more than capable of producing images that effortlessly measured up to DSLR quality. From that point, I started to feel very much at home with the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G Smartphone onset.”
Professional photographers, who want the utmost control and quality from their images to capture a more dynamic range, meaning more detail in the highlights and shadows, normally use raw files. However, it was the unexpected array of options offered by the Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G that really captured the imagination of the GQ team. GQ Editor in Chief, Molife Kumona immediately noticed the sharpness of the images from the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G Smartphone.
“What caught my attention was the quality, the vivid detail and colours. Our covers are carefully curated to feel original, compelling and larger than life. I was so impressed by the image quality from shooting with the device, I knew I had to use it to create a dual cover for this edition”, said Molife.
Samsung’s greatest Galaxy smartphone yet took center stage at the selected locations, armed with its ground-breaking camera technology. Beyond the dimensions of this special project with Samsung, the Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G smartphone garnered a lot of praise from the Conde Nast team for the fastest processer in a Galaxy device, massive battery and the smartest and brightest screen in a Galaxy ever. The powerful quad camera, featuring a 108MP wide camera, two 10MP zoom lenses, and a 40MP front camera almost stole the spotlight. On the shoot days, cover photographer Austin Malema used the combination of these incredible features, along with the acclaimed state-of-the-art prograde camera features to great effect.
One of Molife’s favourite features onsite that he used to capture behind-the-scenes footage of the shoots, was Directors View: “I love how it lets you see, switch, and select the best shot to tell your best story. Capturing video with the front and rear cameras at once for real-time reactions with Vlogger View, and preview or change the angle, zoom or go wide without losing any action with Live Thumbnails”.
The combination of Prince Kaybee and a team of visionaries with the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G Smartphone that acts like it’s a photographer’s assistant, are what have made the dual cover for GQ so epic. So make sure you look out for GQ’s May/June Issue on shelves from 23rd April and see the Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G dazzle on GQ’s dynamic dual covers.
About Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
Samsung inspires the world and shapes the future with transformative ideas and technologies. The company is redefining the worlds of TVs, smartphones, wearable devices, tablets, digital appliances, network systems, and memory, system LSI, foundry and LED solutions. For the latest news, please visit the Samsung Newsroom at https://news.samsung.com/za/
