Photographer Austin Malema was hired to shoot GQ South Africa's first cover shot on a smartphone. Malema says he was excited to see how the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G could deliver on a professional photoshoot, with GQ stylists, editors and crew behind him, and 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," adds 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," Malema says.

GQ editor-in-chief, Molife Kumona, adds, "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."

According to the team at Samsung, the Galaxy smartphone took centre stage at the selected locations, armed with its ground-breaking camera technology. On the shoot days, Malema used the combination of the phone's features, along with the prograde camera features.

Molife says that one of his 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. You can capture a 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'."

GQ’s May/June Issue is currently on the shelves, and readers can view the Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G's effects on the magazine's dual covers.

For more information, visit www.gq.co.za or www.samsung.com.