Home » Macro photos taken with the iPhone, Apple launches the contest

Macro photos taken with the iPhone, Apple launches the contest

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Apple has launched a new edition of the “Shot on iPhone” photo contest, this time focusing on macro photography. The competition is aimed at promoting the cameras of the iPhone 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max, which for the first time introduce the close-up shooting mode on Apple devices, with the possibility of focusing on subjects up to 2 centimeters away.

How to participate

The contest is therefore open to all owners of the two Apple smartphone models, as long as they are eighteen years old and (as always in these cases) are not employees of the company or their family members. To participate in the contest, just post your photos on Instagram or Twitter using the hashtags “#ShotoniPhone” and “#iPhonemacrochallenge”.
The model of the iPhone from which the photo was taken must also be inserted in the caption of the image.

For those who do not have Instagram or Twitter, there is another possibility, which is to send the images by email. In this case just send a message to [email protected] with the subject “Shot on iPhone Macro Challenge Submission”. The photos must be attached at maximum resolution and must be renamed with the format “name_surname_macro_modelloiPhone”, so for example “mario_rossi_macro_iPhone13Pro”.

Another important detail: Apple does not place excessive limits on retouching and explicitly says that photos without effects will be accepted, as well as photos processed with Apple’s editing tools or “retouched with third-party apps”.
Furthermore, the announcement does not indicate a maximum number of images that can be sent by email or tagged on social networks. In order to participate in the competition, the photos must be sent or published no later than 08.59 (Italian time) on February 16th next.

Jury and awards

The images will be judged by 10 experts. Five are Apple employees involved in photography and creative marketing, while the other five are professional photographers from around the world.
The winning photos will be published in April in a dedicated gallery on Apple’s website, and will also be presented on the company’s Instagram channel.

There is no prize in itself, apart from glory, but since the company will be able to use the photos also for commercial or promotional purposes, the 10 winners will be paid the license to use the image, which can end up on billboards, in campaigns. digital, or in a public exhibition. The license lasts one year and does not provide for the transfer of ownership of the photo, which remains with the person who took it and will always be correctly attributed in all cases of use.

Some advice

To get an original macro photo, you don’t need to choose extreme or unusual subjects. “Some of the most dramatic examples of macro photography are shots of common objects like a brush, food, or elements of nature such as ice, snow, flowers, insects or baby animals,” Apple explains in the contest presentation post. “The beauty of macro photography lies in its ability to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary.”

From a technical point of view it is advisable to get as close as possible, taking advantage of the very short focal length of the macro camera. However, depending on the subject, it may be worth moving forward or backward a few inches to find the perfect shot (as in the cat macro, above). The most important focal point of the subject – that is, the one you want to give the most drama to – should always remain close to the center of the frame. This is in fact the area where the focus is sharpest. However, the focal point can also be moved by touching the selected area on the screen.

Apple uses the ultra-wide angle lens (0.5X) for autofocus and shooting, but when in macro mode you can still select the 1x or 3x option to get even closer to the subject. In this case, however, you are not switching from one lens to another: the optics used are always the same (the ultra-wide angle, in fact), while the cropping of the image changes. For this reason, the best images will be obtained at 0.5x or 1x: the 3x mode introduces a more stringent crop, and the final image quality inevitably loses sharpness.

The other fundamental advice concerns the light. When shooting a macro the iPhone gets so close to the subject it is easy to produce an annoying shadow. It is therefore good to position yourself cut with respect to the subject-light direction, and generally avoid the iPhone getting in the way between the light source and the subject. With the iPhone, the best macros are usually achieved outdoors and in bright daylight. Alternatively, you can use small LED lamps to improve the lighting of the subject, or a small “ring light”, of those that are applied by spring and are usually used to improve selfies or illuminate the face during video calls. Just mount it so as not to obstruct the ultra-wide lens (the one in the middle) and that’s it.

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