Using borders with iPhone photographs #iphoneography #photography
Using the right border can really make your iPhone photos shine. The trick is to use the right kind of border for the image, it has to enhance it in some way.
For some purist photographers a border effect is there to show that the photographer has printed a full frame photograph and composed the shot 'in camera'. It's also supposed to visually communicate honesty and truth, that the negative hasn't been messed about with. Over time the use of border effects such as filing down the negative mask inside the enlarger to show the edge of the negative became stylistic devices done more for aesthetics than anything else.
Amateur photoediting software packages tend to be the biggest culprit in terms of tastelessly slapping on joke or novelty border effects onto snapshots. But there's a case for using borders to communicate something extra about an image. It's an additional means of expression.
Okay, let's take a look at some images I've produced and see what the borders add to the images.
1 - In photo 1 I photographed a nice enough self-portrait shadow. I liked it but I wasn't convinced it was strong enough on it's own. I used the Lo-Mob iPhone app to add a 21/4" Polaroid print effect. I think the border works because it adds to the image, making it more visually interesting and conveys that there's somehow more depth to what we're seeing. I think it does this by taking on the aesthetics of a unique-looking print.
2 - In photo 2a the border effect takes the focus away from the image. It doesn't work. Photo 2b (done with ShakeItPhoto) works much better in my view because it's more subtle and the square shape works with the image.
3 - I took this on a Nokia, it's a photograph of a shop dummy. The cross processing effect and border work well with the exotic content and compliment it well. The border was made on an iPhone using Lo-Mob.
4 - In the second shadow self-portrait (the black and white photo 4a) I desaturated the image to focus attention on the textures. But the image was still lacking something. I used Lo-Mob to lend it a retro feel - image 4b. When I went back to the same photo the next day I felt I'd been too hasty to use a border effect and thought I could frame the image better using TiltShiftGen to increase the contrast and darken the edges. I think this version works best for me, it's more punchy and atmospheric. It's a matter of taste though you might prefer the one with the border effect.
So there it is, four images that use border effects. Sometimes they really add something that makes an image look great and at other times they can get in the way or even confuse the creative expression. Hitting the right balance can take a bit of experimenting but it's worth it.
