Mobile Photography Showcase: 10 iPhone Photos That Use Lines and Curves

This weeks showcase of iPhone photography from the Mobiography Flickr Group looks at a series of images that use lines and curves within their compositions. From the curves of staircase railings shown in the photos by Remi, David DeNagel, Tomasz Olszewski and Alan kastner, to the use of lines created by high contrast shadows in the photos by Lee Atwell and Carlos Marques. All photos this week illustrate how effective lines and curves can be in drawing the viewers eye into a scene.

Featured photographers this week include Remi, Carlos Marques, David DeNagel, Tomaso Belloni, Laurence Bouchard, Mandolina Moon, Lee Atwell, Alan kastner and Tomasz Olszewski.

Do you have a favourite photo from this week’s showcase? Let us know which in the comments section at the bottom of the page.

Untitled

‘Untitled‘ by Remi – “We were doing the job in Dublin Temple Bar Gallery and Studios. It’s an interesting building with an interesting staircase. The moment I saw the stairs I knew I had to get the photo of them. I put the iPhone on the floor and snapped few shots with a remote shutter, then checked if the framing was ok and did it few more times, changing positions until I was happy. Post processing was simple as I knew what I wanted, so I used Snapseed, converted to black and white, decreased shadows and increased contrast.”

Steps into the light

‘Steps into the light‘ by Carlos Marques – “I was walking through the deserted outer areas of the Vila Flor Cultural Center in the city of Guimarães, Portugal, on New Year’s Eve when I noticed this stairway that stood out in the darkness. I grabbed my iPhone 5c and selected the app ‘VINT B&W MII’ because I thought it would look good in black and white due to the almost total absence of color in the area. I composed the photo by placing the edge of the illuminated area in the lower left corner of the screen, suggesting a path up the steps toward the light on the upper right side. Before making the simultaneous upload to Instagram and Flickr, I processed the picture with the Instagram editing features, increasing the contrast, darkening the shadows slightly and applying a bit of sharpening. As always, I kept things as simple as possible, with minimal editing on my iPhone 5c.”

The Iron Staircase

‘The Iron Staircase‘ by David DeNagel – “This image is based on a spiraling iron staircase located in the Old Courthouse, in St.Louis. The photo portrays the downward view from the top of the spiral.
The image resonates on several levels. For me, the staircase became an organic structure, with a sort of serpentine life and sculptural presence of its own, as it twisted downward into a black hole. It is a very moody composition with the dramatic play of shadow and light providing rich symbolic associations, even while still reveling in the tactile stolidity and tangible form of all that iron and wood. I wanted to portray the staircase as an inevitable, dark descent into a seemingly bottomless unknown, brightened only by the relatively small, comforting light of a window, hidden from view,

I shot the image on an iPhone 6s Plus and processed it only in the app, BLACK, using, I believe the Tri-X preset, with manual adjustments within the app itself.”

Along the usual lines

‘Along the usual lines‘ by Tomaso Belloni – “Arriving to Frankfurt Airport from India, I missed my connection by mere minutes. The next flight was more than four hours later, so I walked around to keep myself awake. The airport is a complicated structure, which seems to be the result of the merging of several different airports. This area had a skylight reflecting on glasses and it was impossible to resist. I took a few shots and this came out clearly as the best. Nothing seems to be usual about these lines, hence the title. I shot with the iPhone 6 default camera. Not much processing was necessary, just some adjusting in Snapseed. The only color is in the spotlights and I decided to leave it there.”

Never stop

‘Never stop‘ by Tomaso Belloni – “An evening shot in Mumbai, near Nariman Point. A friend managed to find an ATM in this building and we were waiting outside. There was little light, but I looked around anyway and sawthe composition. The combination of the round lower level and the square balconies above gives the impression of seeing a Chinese sampan from below. Shot with the iPhone 6 default camera, enhanced in Snapseed and then into Hipstamatic (Akira lens, Rasputin film).”

The wrong side of the matrix

‘The wrong side of the matrix‘ by Laurence Bouchard – “The photo ‘The wrong side of the Matrix’ was taken in Ikebukuro, Tokyo. I’d just come out of the station when I was drawn in by these cool white lines on a temporary black wall outside the station. I only had about 5 mins to take some pics before heading to work.

Fortunately Ikebukuro is a very busy station (apparently the 3rd busiest station in the world) and, after a while, this old guy stepped into frame. He was talking on his phone looking kind of lost.. and against the backdrop it looked like he’d been locked out of the matrix or something.. Later, I made a few minor tweaks in Snapseed.”

Frank Gehry’s Iconic Walt Disney Concert Hall

‘Frank Gehry’s Iconic Walt Disney Concert Hall‘ by Mandolina Moon – “It was around two o’clock in the afternoon. My husband and I had just finished visiting L.A.’s newest art museum, the Broad, which is across the street. We were tired, hungry and heading for the parking lot, when the Disney Concert Hall glimmered at me. “Oh,” I commented to my husband “We can’t leave without getting a few shots of the Disney Concert Hall!” The building is really remarkable, it doesn’t matter the time of day or night, it always presents a fascinating image. I took several shots with my iPhone6 and though the color shots are lovely, I wondered what the high contrast would look like in black and white, so I put the images through the app Ansel and the preset Falco. I love the results! Now I can hardly wait to get back downtown and further explore Frank Gehry’s beautiful, iconic Disney Concert Hall!”

Winter hours

‘Winter hours‘ by Lee Atwell – “I have been challenged lately to be inspired to take black and white photos as the short daylight hours and the winter weather in the Pacific Northwest has been particularly cloudy and wet with record rainfall. When the sun did shine on this particular day, I headed to the city in hopes of finding sunlight and shadow in the streets.

This photo was taken with the ‘Hipstamatic’ app and then the contrast was adjusted with ‘Snapseed.”

With each step

‘With each step‘ by Alan kastner – “This photo offers a look up at the staircase in ‘The Crystal’, a fairly recent addition to Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum. My partner and I often shot together at museums and galleries while in that city. We went ostensibly to view the exhibitions, but our mutual passion for chasing light, lines and, above all, mood found us spending as much or more time playing in the staircases and halls of the respective venues.

I captured the photo using Lomora 2 (v2.2.4). The staircase is quite linear and rather tight, with not a lot of space in the opening at its centre. I therefore attached an Olloclip fisheye lens to gain a little curvature and a little greater feeling of ‘volume’.

Processing was quite simple. The frame itself remains as captured, without cropping. In Snapseed, I adjusted the tones and light a little and saved a few versions to review as I went. That done, I blended a couple of the different variations in Superimpose to get just the right amount of light I wanted across the frame; and I finished off back in Snapseed where I converted it to B&W and added a bit of grain.”

Spiral

‘Spiral‘ by Tomasz Olszewski

Which was your favourite?

Do you have a favourite from this weeks showcase? Let us know your thoughts on the featured photos in the comments below.

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