Magazine Cover Photo: The ultimate “Shot on iPhone” poster

Leading fashion photographer Georges Antoni has used an iPhone to for the first time shoot an Australian magazine cover photo.

Taking a very meta approach, ELLE Australia asked Georges to photograph instagram influencer Margaret Zhang as the cover star of the June issue of their magazine.

The shot was taken at Bondi Beach using an iPhone 7 Plus in Portrait mode.

Talking about the shoot, Antoni was impressed with the simplicity of iPhone photography: “One thing that struck me was how liberating it was to shoot and not worry about lenses, tripods, tethering to the computer, etc. It’s also such an interesting dynamic to see how the public are so conditioned to seeing people shooting on their phones that they don’t really take notice, so the shoot could happen in a much more stealth way.”

Importantly, Georges talks about not using a few standard bits of gear, but they would have still likely used lighting assists like reflectors and such, but in the end, there’s no doubting the power of the iPhone 7 Plus looking at the result.

If you think you can shoot a cover photo – here are Georges Antoni’s iPhone photography tips:

1. Always have your phone super close by, and use the home screen shortcut to the camera setting. The best thing about the iPhone camera, is that it is always on you. It is every photographers dream to have a camera within milliseconds of seeing a shot. So knowing how to get into it quickly and capture that moment is AWESOME.
2. Use the exposure slider and focus lock when shooting: Truth be told the internal exposure meter of the iPhone is pretty blooming good, but you can craft a picture to your own taste more by changing the brightness of the photo by using slider on the image screen. I can’t live without that.
3. Use iPhone up close and personal: You can get in really close to a subject on an iPhone, so go macro and take some close up photos… its fun to see what you end up with.
4. Portrait mode on iPhone 7 Plus: You can look like a professional photographer when taking pictures by using portrait mode to blur out the world and focus your viewer on the subject of the picture. As a photographer, I choose some very very expensive lenses so I can do exactly what the Portrait Mode does. Get on board… the people you are shooting will LOVE you for it.
5. Keep your eyes open: There are many other iPhone tips, but this one is general photography tip: There are beautiful and interesting things everywhere in your life. You just need to notice them. Think of your iPhone as a recording device of all the beauty in your life. For me if I capture it, it somehow feels more real.