‘Stellar’ magazine shoots spread on Samsung smartphone

In what is understood to be a first for an Irish fashion magazine, the December edition of Stellar will feature an editorial spread shot entirely on a smartphone camera.

Photographed by Lili Forberg on the new Samsung Galaxy Alpha and styled by Stellar fashion editor Linda Conway, the spread is designed to capture images that are as strong as any other fashion editorial in the magazine.

"We are really, really pleased with the result," says Kirstie McDermott, digital editor of the magazine. McDermott and Stellar editor Susan Vasquez were keen to do something innovative and approached Samsung Ireland with the idea.

The smartphone maker suggested waiting for the arrival of its Galaxy Alpha handset, which it launched in September.

“We were originally going to do the shoot in a studio, where we could control the light, but Lili suggested doing it outside,” says McDermott. “The sun shining round the model’s head in one of the photographs is a real ‘Lili’ characteristic.”

The shoot took place on a sunny October 10th on Dublin’s Mount Street and on the path by the Grand Canal. It was brought forward to earlier in the month to avoid a break in the weather.

The magazine spread is not Samsung-branded. “We wanted this to stand on its own as a fashion editorial. It is not an advertorial shoot for Samsung,” says McDermott. “In one of the shots, the model is holding a phone, but it’s in a very natural way, in the way that a young girl would.”

The December issue of Stellar, which is part of Michael O'Doherty's VIP Magazine Group, hits the shelves on November 17th and includes three fashion shoots: a Christmas spread, a Penneys advertorial and the smartphone shoot, which showcases party looks.

Only the standard level of adjustments – “a little bit of brightening and touching up” – were made to the pictures in post-production.

“It’s just as strong as anything we would do normally, but it’s shot with a smartphone,” says McDermott. “The idea is that you cannot tell the difference between this and any of our regular fashion shoots.”