30 Incredible iPhone Portraits and Photos of People

Thank you all for participating in our weekly iPhone photography contest! Unfortunately there was a delay in publishing the winners due to my crazy travel schedule, but that doesn’t make this week’s winners any less inspiring. Since the contest was moved to EyeEm the submission quality has further improved, so if you’re on the fence about joining the contests on EyeEm you should definitely give it a try! With that said, here are the winners of this week’s contest.

@erikacbrothers

@adam__o

@Antooly

@Cachorro12

@carenzo96

@carlon_r

@Cdneh2zed

@christheblue

@DaveRothschild8

@DaveRothschild8

@djmon1que

@edsonroteia

@erikacbrothers

@fmcginley8

@goharadziszewska

@jjazz

@kateamberley

@kateamberley

@laurayehledemotte

@laurayehledemotte

@mattdao294

@michal_koralewski

@michal_koralewski

@myby_one

@myby_one

@PaulMoore

@PaulMoore

@sunflowerof21

@Syep

@zachantonich

Which one of these photos is your favorite? Please let everyone know in the comments.

Analysis of the Winning Photos

Every week I take a few of the winning photos and do a short analysis explaining what I like about each photo and what iPhone photography lessons we can learn from them.

@Cachorro12

This photo is a great example of how shadows can be used to enhance your photos. One of the common guidelines in photography is to make sure that your own shadow is not seen in the photo, but here the author had done exactly the opposite with great success.

The cool thing about shadows – especially if the actual subject is left out – is that the viewer can only guess who the person in the shadow is, which  adds mystery to the image and leaves a room for the viewer to come up with their own story about the photo. To me this shadow seems dramatic, almost scary, but it could very well have a different meaning in your version of the story.

Also notice how the author has selectively applied painterly post-processing only to the background of the image. You can use Image Blender or similar masking apps to selectively selectively apply effects to only some parts of the image.

@mattdao294

There are several things I like about this powerful portrait. First, the simple background helps the eye focus on what is really important in the photo, namely the subject. One of the most essential portrait photography tips is to use a simple background that doesn’t divert the attention from the subject.

Second, the bright-blue tone contrasts nicely with the skin-tones and the pink shirt that the girl is wearing. Those of you who are familiar with the color wheel will notice that these tones are opposite from each other, which leads to a dynamic and more contrasted image.

Finally, this image has a really interesting horizontal balance. If you look at the background, the separation of blue and white puts a strong emphasis on the left side of the photo. However, the subject itself is on the right, and she has covered one eye, which invariably draws our attention to the right. This creates a dynamic and unique composition which is pretty much guaranteed to attract the eyes of the viewer.

@sunflowerof21

This simple and beautiful portrait of a boy demonstrates an important principle when taking photos of children and other small subjects. You should always lower yourself to the level of your subject (or slightly lower) to make sure you don’t get a bird’s-eye view in which the subject is lost in the background. People often take photos from the height of a standing adult, but that is rarely the best angle for taking great photos of children.

This image is also a great example of the rule of thirds as it applies to portraits. In particular, it’s important to leave plenty of room in the direction in which the subject is looking as the human eye always follows the gaze of the subject. If our eyes are forced to go off the frame, the photo will rarely feel harmonious.

The New Contest Theme

It’s fair to say that the vast majority of IPS readers live in cities, which always provide an amazing variety of photography subjects and situations. I want you to go out and explore your own city as an iPhone photographer and then share the best photos that you take with the IPS community.

So the new contest theme is city, and the new contest hashtag is IPSCity (albums are now called hashtags after the latest EyeEm update).

To participate, simply tag your photos using IPSCity hashtag on EyeEm. You can tag photos in the description field which is shown when you upload photos or when you edit a photo that has already been uploaded. Please upload your photos to EyeEm in full resolution to make sure I can feature them on the website.

It’s OK to submit old photos as well as new ones, but please do not submit more than 10 photos. All photos must be shot and edited on iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. I do not feature photos with watermarks.

The submission deadline is Sunday, April 13.