This is a review of iPhone Photography School courses, an academy focused on providing knowledge on how to take better pictures and videos with your iPhone.
For this review, I enrolled for the courses offered by iPhone Photography School to evaluate the content of the courses.
This review will cover the pros and cons of the courses and a link to grab them at a discounted price.
Seat belts, please, in case of any bumps.
TLDR;
The courses are all comprehensive and the knowledge was well documented. What is most captivating is how the courses were shot in different locations to help students get familiar with techniques for shooting under certain conditions.
iPhone Photography School are currently running a discount. Use the below links to save up to 86% off the courses.
- iPhone Photo Academy — $39
- iPhone Editing Academy — $69
- iPhone Landscape Mastery — $69
- (NEW 🔥)iPhone Video Academy — $69
- Capture It All — $69
- iPhone Food Photography — $69
What is iPhone Photography School All About?
The iPhone Photography School aims to teach you everything about producing high-quality still shots with your iPhone’s camera.
Their latest addition is the iPhone Video Academy. But that’s a full-fledged course for another review post.
In the iPhone Photography School, you will get familiar with the tools and settings in your iPhone camera and learn the basics of capturing good photos.
You will then move on to the more advanced (technical) tactics that set good photos apart.
The goal is to be able to shoot photos that highlight the critical parts of the scene and radiate the feel of that moment.
Everything happens online. You don’t need to travel anywhere for the training. All you need is a smartphone or PC and a steady internet connection.
The iPhone Photography School is not a single course. Instead, it is a bundle of up to 11 courses that specialize in a certain niche of photography. (No, wedding photography isn’t included)
Later on, we will examine 5 out of the 11 courses and see what each one contains. Right now, I guess we’d rather make acquaintances with the course creator, Emil Parkaklis,
Course Instructors — Who is Emil Parkarklis?
Emil Parkaklis, the founder of iPhone Photography School, hails from Latvia and is a popular content creator in the mobile photography space.
Emil is the sole instructor in the two flagship courses in the iPhone Photography School. I’m talking about the iPhone Photo Academy and the iPhone Editing Academy.
The rest nine courses on iPhone Photography School (let’s call it IPS from now on) are distributed between:
- Clifford Pickett (4 courses)
- Andrew Scrivani (1 course)
- Mark Hemmings (3 courses)
- Simone Ferretti (1 course)
Clifford Pickett is a seasoned photographer who loves the outdoors and has an eye for the artistic appeal in even the ordinary moments. He is based in New York City but loves traveling around the world to capture beautiful scenery.
Andrew Scrivani is the one and only foodie star in the iPS. Some of Andrew’s clients include Apple, Adobe, and Disney, amongst many others. He has helped these companies execute some of their most complex visual media projects.
Mark Hemmings is an internationally famed travel and street photographer whose career started way before iPhone Photography School came on board.
Simone Ferretti is the newest addition to the IPS team, and he is no less accomplished than his colleagues on IPS.
iPhone Video Academy is Ferretti’s contribution to IPS, and from what I’ve seen on Ferretti’s YouTube channel, I’m willing to bet the course is just as good as the rest. The videography course is an all-new addition, the missing half of a course platform that, before, only focused on photography.
How Does iPhone Photography School Help You?
Although the iPhone Photography School is not accredited by any regulatory body, it can help you in more ways than one.
The most obvious one, of course, is that you get to skip the trial and error process since someone has already made all those mistakes and discovered a better way. Why use precious once-in-lifetime moments as experiments if there is a better alternative?
But the IPS doesn’t stop at teaching you the technical and practical aspects of mobile photography.
It also gives you the added benefit of learning by feedback and correction.
To that end, a Facebook community is part of the program. It is where students of all skill levels submit their work for vetting by the team of experts in IPS.
What is inside the iPhone Photography School?
As a reminder, the IPS has about 11 courses on different niches in mobile photography. All of them are hosted by highly recognized experts.
Here is a review of the popular courses.
1. iPhone Photo Academy
The founding course of the IPS, iPhone Photo Academy, is the first course on the platform and one of only two taken by Emil Pakarlis himself.
With over 230,000 students who have taken this course, it is by far the most popular iPhone course in the market.
In the iPhone Photo Academy, Emil explains, in straightforward terms, the rudiments of beautiful photos. Early in the course, he explains the basic things every photographer needs to excel at the art.
Moving on, Emil takes you on a picture-snapping fest, and he uses that to show how to be flexible and be willing to try different perspectives, modes, and angles to get a specific effect in your snaps.
Leaving module one, Emil dives deep into the technical aspects of taking photos with iPhones. He acquaints you with the iPhone camera lens, the various settings in the camera app, and more.
I especially love the fact that Emil gets very practical and actually shoots photos in a diverse range of scenarios so that you can relate the technical training to real-life scenarios.
Price — $49 (but there is an ongoing discount to get it for the least price of $39)
Use This Discount Link to Grab iPhone Photo Academy
2. iPhone Editing Academy
The iPhone Photo Academy touches on some aspects of photo editing, but the iPhone Editing Academy takes it several levels further.
The iPhone Editing Academy is also taught by Emil himself, and it is the only other course apart from the iPhone Photo Academy starring Emil.
I would recommend purchasing the iPhone Editing Academy along with the iPhone Photo Academy because, really, no matter how good the initial shot is, it can always be better when properly edited.
The initial shot is, at best, only half of the game, but editing can salvage, to some extent, even a poor shot.
The iPhone Editing Academy contains about five modules with several lessons each. Each module talks about a specific aspect of photo editing. For instance, module one is dedicated to fine-tuning the color and exposure of your photos.
Module two discusses ways of cleaning up your photos. It teaches how to crop, straighten your photos, remove unwanted objects, and more.
But the iPhone Editing Academy has gotten a new version. This updated version adds more advanced photo editing tricks that integrate the latest features in your iPhone’s photo editor, as well as tactics that are peculiar to Lightroom Mobile.
Price : $99 (an ongoing discount to get it for $69)
Use This Discount Link to Grab iPhone Editing Academy
3. iPhone Landscape Mastery
If you love the outdoors, this course is for you as it was shot entirely in natural settings. This course features Clifford Pickett in the scenic landscape of the Alpe di Siusi in Italy, amongst others.
Clifford does a good job isolating the key elements of capturing lovely views of landscapes without sounding academic. He also takes his time snapping a lot of photos and explaining in each of them how to balance the factors at play.
The whole course is a detailed walkthrough of the special techniques peculiar to snapping photos of various natural settings.
The seven or nine (if you add the bonuses) modules discuss in detail specific niches of landscape photography. Here are the settings each module discusses:
- Fields
- Villages
- Mountains
- Rivers & Waterfalls
- Lakes
- Forests
- Sunsets
- Rocky Beach (bonus module)
- Waterfalls (bonus module)
Price : $99 (an ongoing discount to get it for $69)
Use This Discount Link to Grab iPhone Landscape Mastery
4. Capture It All
The Capture It All course by Clifford Pickett aims to equip you with the skills to capture everything about a scene so that your viewers will feel what you saw in real life.
Straightaway, Clifford highlights the three pillars of excellent photography and explains, throughout the course, how they affect the final shot.
As you would expect, this is not an indoor tutorial but an in-the-field masterclass. Clifford takes you through the streets, the alleys, and the city squares to meet the locals and take all sorts of great pictures.
Clifford covers a bit of video in his explanations, which is perfectly understandable. Buckle up for the ride, though, as you will be introduced to such terms as pano mode, hyperlapse, timelapse, and so on.
The whole course is so lively and really makes you want to get a piece of the action at the next opportunity.
Price : $99 (an ongoing discount to get it for $69)
Use This Discount Link to Grab Capture It ALL
5. iPhone Food Photography
Food photography is a niche in mobile photography that is highly expressive and rewarding.
The iPhone Food Photography course is an excellent resource for anyone whose interests or hobbies involve food.
The social media food lovers.
A restaurant that needs to advertise its tasty dishes online.
A food blog or channel.
Really, anyone. Food photography can be fun but can also be underrated.
For instance, I didn’t really think that food would require any special techniques to look nice in pictures. I mean, just point and shoot, right?
Turns out much work goes into those gorgeous food posters on billboards or the screen.
When Andrew Scrivani started explaining how things like angles, composition, texture, et cetera, can be manipulated to bring out the perfect shot, I was blown away.
And that’s it for the five courses I took in the iPhone Photography School. I must say, I was really impressed with the quality of the content delivered.
However, I’m sure you are eager to know if students are getting results from the course. What do their comments say?
Price : $99 (an ongoing discount to get it for $69)
Use This Discount Link to Grab iPhone Food Photography
Are students getting results?
So, initial impressions aside, here are students’ comments about the course, as shown in the following screenshots.
What I Like About the iPhone Photography School
Good Customer Support Team
Good customer support is not a possession of all online platforms, so you’d be grateful when you see it.
The IPS has top-notch customer service that you can reach through the group chat with every module in any course.
It doesn’t take long before a support member reaches out to answer your questions. The good thing is they also possess technical knowledge in photography and connection-related issues.
That’s to say, your problems will be solved once you share them.
Lifetime Access to the Course
Few perks can compare with the luxury of buying a course and having the contents at your fingertips anytime.
If your schedule tightens after you buy the course and you have to leave it for a long time, you can take solace in the fact that your access to the course has no expiry date.
When you buy the IPS, you retain the contents and the benefits for as long as the program exists.
Consistent Updates
Apple releases new iPhones every year like clockwork, and unsurprisingly, the improved camera experience is always a focal point.
The IPS was updated to include the iPhone 14’s photography chops, and I am sure the course will soon incorporate the photography advancements the latest iPhone 15 brings.
Beautiful Course Portal
The IPS is unlike many other course sites in that it uses its own hosting platform. The website is very responsive and easy to load on any device.
The layout is intuitive, and the various lessons are neatly laid out. All other tabs are positioned in an easily accessible manner.
My course dashboard
But I only started scratching the surface of what lies hidden in the IPS treasure trove. It’s time to take a deep dive into the courses themselves.
Available Discounts
Yes, there is a current deal from the iPhone Photography School team that applies an 80% discount to each of the courses. So until the deal expires,
- iPhone Photo Academy and Digital Camera Mastery cost $49 each. You can pay the whole bill once or opt for three monthly payments of $19
- The rest courses charge $99 each. You can pay the whole bill once or opt for three monthly payments of $39
PS: I already added the discount links at the top.
Refund Policy
Any iPhone Photography School course you buy comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee. During this time, you can apply for a full refund. No questions asked.
Cons of iPhone Photography School
As much as I like nitpicking the tiniest flaws in the courses, products, and services I personally use, it’s amazing how the iPhone Photography School manages to scale through my checkpoints with hardly a dent.
At this point, the only true flaw — and it’s hardly a deal breaker if you are comfortable with the English language — the iPhone Photography School has is the lack of multilingual support.
Who is it for? (Hint: Photo Enthusiast, Travelers, Creators)
The IPS is solely meant for content creators and anyone who wants to make a living with photography. Or so I thought.
I was wrong.
To start with, I gave the IPS a shot because I want to make do with my iPhone camera for my content creation needs rather than dole out hard-earned cash for expensive camera gear.
I had not gone very far in the course before it dawned on me: a sizeable number of my peers weren’t even in the course for the business part.
These were ordinary people who just wanted to take great shots of everyday life situations and moments.
Everybody wants to preserve their happy moments — exciting trips, joyful reunions, gorgeous dresses, etc — in ways that allow them to reminisce after the occasion has passed.
And what better way to tell a riveting story to your friends than with pictures? You see, even the very thought that you are capturing the moment with the expertise of a trained photographer can make the occasion feel more complete.
So, my dear friend, the IPS and all the expert knowledge it contains is not only for the business of making content.
Money-making aside, personal expression and preservation of life’s fleeting moments are more than enough reasons to want to be a better photographer.
Even an Android user will benefit from the insights contained in the course because the core concepts taught in the course (light, composition, angles, and all that) apply to any camera device.
Many of the major features of the camera app in iPhones are also present on Android devices. Only the settings will differ.
Should you buy their courses?
At the end of the day, I would recommend the IPS to anyone looking to up their photography game with their iPhone.
One interesting thing about the school is that the courses don’t stop at general photography. There are courses for a wide range of niches in photography — from landscape to lifestyle to editing, et cetera. You will easily find your interest.
The courses are also very practical and realistic. You will see the instructors going outdoors, acting out everything they teach, and sharing it with you in real-time.
Use This Discount Link to Grab iPhone Photo Academy
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(To support my writing, I may use affiliate links in this post. Rest assured, they don’t affect my reviews.)
