How to get your best shot photos on billboards around the world

Smartphone photography is the new trend. With technology improving each year and artificial intelligence pitching in to make them even better, smartphone photography has risen to a higher level. Today, smartphones can pull off professional-like shots that are many-a-times better than shots taken with DSLR cameras. While sensors from Sony can capture some serious pixels of your frame, background software, tweaks and post processing on the phone itself can make those images stand out.

Every flagship smartphone has one of the best cameras the brand can offer and they are soon taking the opportunity of reducing prices to offer the same experience on mainstream phones. Soon, we shall see budget smartphones sporting camera performance that will give DSLR cameras a run for their money. And that time is not too far away. However, for now, flagships are the only ones that can capture and produce you DSLR-like photos with either single or multiple sensors and intelligent software working in tandem.

To help promote their flagships, brands go out in full swing to create awareness and competitions. And Apple has been doing it since a while. They have begun their Shot on iPhone challenge for 2019, and are inviting iPhone users to send in their shots taken from their handsets and will need to mention details of the user and the handset model. The challenge has begun on January 22, 2019 and will run through February 7, 2019. During this period users have an opportunity to send in their best photos, with unlimited submissions allowed. A panel of judges will review the submissions from users around the world and select 10 winning photos. This winner will be announced in February itself. The winner gets the glory of his photos being showcased around the world. These images will be put out on billboards in select cities, on Apple retail stores and online.

Meet the Judges

Pete Souza (US)

Pete was the chief official White House photographer for President Obama. His book, “Obama: An Intimate Portrait,” debuted as the #1 New York Times bestseller and is one of the best-selling photography books of all time.

Austin Mann (US)

Austin is an iPhone photographer, filmmaker and creative who’s traveled around the world and has worked with numerous non-profit organizations to help better cast their vision worldwide. Austin has published iPhone photography reviews in outlets including National Geographic and CNN over the years.

Annet de Graaf (Netherlands)

Graaf is a travel photographer who uses iPhone exclusively for her craft. She’s the author of two iPhone photography books: “Morning Amsterdam” and the upcoming “GO d’Azur,” the latter of which was shot entirely on iPhone 8 Plus. She’s taken portraits of Syrian ballet dancer Ahmad Joudeh as well as the late mayor of Amsterdam, Eberhard van der Laan.

Luísa Dörr (Brazil)

Luísa is a photographer based in Brazil who rose to fame after she photographed TIME’s Firsts issue exclusively on iPhone. TIME won Documentary Project of the Year for the story in the prestigious Pictures of the Year International.

Chen Man (China)

Chen is a Chinese contemporary visual artist and entrepreneur who created a unique visual language that revolutionized fashion photography in China. Her work has been permanently collected at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. She also co-founded an Internet company called Vnision that developed photography-based social apps including Bigshot.

Phil Schiller

Phil has helped Apple reinvent mobile phones with iPhone. A keen photographer, Phil helps with efforts in developing breakthrough camera technology as senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.

Kaiann Drance

Kaiann works with talented teams at Apple to deliver products that put great photographic tools in the hands of many, including the first iPod touch with a camera and multiple generations of iPhone, in her role as senior director in Worldwide Product Marketing.

Brooks Kraft

Brooks is a professional photographer and worked in editorial and commercial photography prior to joining Apple. He was a contributing photographer at TIME magazine, where he covered the White House during the Bush and Obama administrations, as well as seven presidential campaigns.

Sebastien Marineau-Mes

Sebastien brings over 20 years of software development knowledge to iPhone in his role as vice president of Software at Apple. His focus on advanced photography features includes innovations like Smart HDR and Portrait mode with Depth Control.

Jon McCormack

Jon is an accomplished photographer who currently leads Apple’s camera software team. Jon’s images have been published by international organizations including TIME, The New York Times, UNESCO, The Nature Conservancy, Africa Geographic and others.

Arem Duplessis

Arem works closely with some of the most accomplished photographers in the world in his role as the director of photography in Apple’s marketing team. He previously served as design director of The New York Times Magazine for nearly a decade.   

How to send in your submissions

Post your best photo taken on iPhone to Instagram or Twitter with the #ShotOniPhone hashtag to participate in the the ‘Shot on iPhone Challenge’. Weibo users can participate as well using #ShotOniPhone#. In the image caption, note which model was used. Alternatively, you can also submit the photo in its highest resolution to shotoniphone@apple.com with the file format ‘firstname_lastname_iphonemodel.’ Photos can be straight from the camera, edited through Apple’s editing tools in the Photos app or with third-party software. Submissions for photos begins at 12:01 a.m. PST on January 22 and ends at 11:59 p.m. PST on February 7. Participants must be 18 years of age or older to participate, and this challenge is not open to Apple employees or their immediate families.

If you’re submitting your photo on social media, you must make your photos public. Ineligible submissions include photos that violate or infringe upon another person’s rights, including but not limited to copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity or any other intellectual property rights or civil rights; contain sexually explicit, nude, obscene, violent or other objectionable or inappropriate content; or in any way disparage Apple or any other person or party.

Users will retain their rights to their photograph; however, by submitting the photo, users grant Apple a royalty-free, world-wide, irrevocable, non-exclusive license for one year to use, modify, publish, display, distribute, create derivative works from and reproduce the photo on Apple Newsroom, apple.com, Apple Twitter accounts, Apple Instagram (@Apple), in Apple retail stores, Apple Weibo, Apple WeChat, on billboards and any Apple internal exhibitions. Any photograph reproduced will include a photographer credit. If the photo is selected to be featured on a billboard, the user will further agree to grant Apple exclusive commercial use of the photo for the life of the license.

Ten winning photos will be featured on Apple Newsroom, Apple’s Instagram channels, apple.com, in Apple retail stores, Apple WeChat, Apple Twitter accounts, Apple Weibo accounts and billboards around the world. Winners will be notified on or about February 26, 2019.