As you may be aware, I really can’t get enough of diptychs. So yes, I also shoot them on my iPhone. There are several apps that can diptych, triptych and collage your pictures. Here’s how I apply my “5 Secrets of a Diptych Addict” to making my diptychs on my iPhone. 1. Take your pictures with diptychs in mind. There are some scenes that beg to be diptyched. A detail and a wider shot together, for instance, can give you more of the essence of a portrait of a person. Or a sunrise and the shadows it creates. The great thing about my phone is that I take it everywhere. So when inspiration for a diptych strikes unexpectedly, I’m ready! Untitled-1v10

I took both a wider shot and a closer shot of Ella to try and capture her personality better.

2. Shoot straight. I shoot with the grid on, both with iPhone camera and when using the 6×6 app (my preferred camera on the iPhone). Of course it’s not always possible to shoot straight and in those instances I crop and straighten in Snapseed, my favourite app for doing the basics (available on iOS and Android). And I have to say that one of the things I have noticed from doing my diptych 365 is that very little in London is straight! But I digress. Untitled-1v11 copy

I love the windows on Aldeburgh High Street. I am sure they have interesting stories to tell. 

3. Find your recipe. Using different apps gives you lots of ways to define and refine your own personal diptych recipe. I usually adjust the borders to minimise them using my favourite diptych app, PicFrame. I also like PicFrame because it uses two squares as the diptych which I think works well, although it leaves a lot of white around the squares. (Note: For the purposes of this post, I have removed the excess white space around each image.) You could choose to have rounded borders or darker borders. And of course the images don’t have to be square. Frametastic and Diptic give you two rectangles to fill the square template. Diptic also lets you have non-square templates and you can buy extra frames too if you have a look at their store. (Diptic is available on iOS and Android.) Diptic

This diptych was made in Diptic. We stopped to have cupcakes in Primrose Hill, where there seemed to be yellow everywhere!

4. Mix and match. It’s so easy to play around with different combinations and arrangements using these apps. Try swapping the images around in your diptych. Do they work better the other way around? The apps make it easy for you crop the images too, so try playing with that until you are happy with the result. I’m obsessive about lining up horizon lines, for example. In many ways this kind of adjustment is actually easier on a phone than it is on a computer.

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 I went adventuring with my new 35mm camera, the Contax Aria. 

5. Build your narrative. I’ve been using triptychs recently to tell the story of my baking adventures with Miles. I share the individual pictures on Instagram as the story progresses and then finish up with a triptych to show the whole story. I’m generally trying to shoot more narrative photoessays in all photographic formats. And yes, I spend ages getting the three images to line up neatly! Untitled-1v2

Miles and I like to bake cakes. We choose the cake during breakfast and slowly make and bake the cake during the rest of the day. All props: model’s own. 

On Easter Sunday, I hid a cuddly rabbit in each picture I posted during the day; it was my own version of an Easter Egg Hunt. But it wasn’t until the last picture that I revealed the grand design. photo copy Kirstin