We Shot Our New Cover & A Real Wedding Feature With An iPhone!

Dress by Randy Fenoli. Jewellery by Maison Birks. Photo by Alvaro Goveia. Hair and makeup by Sheri Stroh for Clove and Hallow/Oribe/Plutino Group. Styling by Tara Williams. Bouquet and shoot location From The Potting Shed.

That's right, we shot our cover AND a real wedding inside our Spring & Summer 2018 issue with an iPhone! We love nothing more than getting creative, and as technology continues to evolve more photographers are mixing up the tools they use to capture impactful imagery. We thought it would be fun to get creative with some of the photos in our latest issue and used the iPhone 8 Plus to capture some pretty amazing images. Toronto photographer Alvaro Goveia captured our cover image beautifully using just an iPhone—the colour, clarity and boldness of the image blew us away!

We also worked with Toronto wedding photographer Barb Simkova from Tara McMullen Photography in this issue who photographed Kristen and Robert's romantic Toronto wedding day. “I feel that the most important part of creating high-quality wedding images is to try to get everything right at the moment the photo is being taken rather than relying on your ability to edit later," Simkova says.  Here she outlines some of her favourite features and tips for shooting with an iPhone 8 Plus (and below are some of our favourite photos she captured for us).

1. You can easily control your exposure. "Most people are unaware that you can control the exposure of an image on a phone but it is a feature that I use the most on the device," Simokova explains. "To access it you touch the part of the image you'd like to expose for and hold down until you see the small "sun" icon, then simply slide up to brighten the image or down the darken the image."

2. Learn about burst mode. "Burst mode is hugely helpful for important, high energy, fast moments. It is an ideal way to capture a great shot of the first kiss, when a couple walks down the aisle or other moments you only have one shot at."

3. Use the grid system. "For people who don't shoot very often, the camera screen grid can be hugely helpful in creating strong images. You can use it to take images that are more straight by aligning the grid with lines you see (corners of rooms, walls etc.) additionally it can help you to centre, practice the rule of thirds and creatively compose your images."

4. You can work in any light. "The HDR mode is very helpful when you have mixed lighting scenarios in an image or are shooting at sunset or sunrise and hoping to capture both the sky and the subject in front of you."

5. Portrait mode rules! "Portrait mode is certainly the best thing to happen to iPhone photography since Instagram. It is astonishing what kind of depth you can create without the use of a DSLR camera. I find that portrait mode works best in bright, evenly lit areas. One thing to be aware of is that in order to get the depth effect activated, you must get close to your subject and make sure the "Depth Effect" bar is highlighted in yellow."

All real wedding photos by Barb Simoka for Tara McMullen Photography