You learn photography by taking photos. That sounds obvious, and yet many good intentions fail right there: you decide to get better at photography, then stand in front of a subject and have no idea what to look for. 365 Lens starts at exactly that point. Since version 2.0, the app is a photography course for iPhone, built from 52 weekly lessons and a task for every day.
A year in four parts
The course follows a path that begins with light and ends with your own style. The 52 weekly themes are grouped into four parts of thirteen weeks each:
- Light: exposure, hard and soft light, backlight, golden and blue hour, window light, and finally low light by candle and lamp.
- Composition: thirds and the golden ratio, leading lines, symmetry, patterns, frame within a frame, negative space and the horizon in a landscape.
- Colour and tone: primary and complementary colours, warm and cool tones, black and white, high contrast, low-key and high-key, white balance.
- Motion, perspective and style: freezing motion, long exposure, panning, the decisive moment, low angle and bird's-eye view, depth through the foreground and, to close the year, a photo series.
Each weekly theme has a clear learning goal. The golden hour week is about the deep, warm, soft light after sunrise and before sunset; the leading lines week is about paths, rails and shadows that carry the eye to the subject.
A task every day
One theme a week alone would be too little practice. So every day pairs the weekly theme with one of seven techniques that alternate day by day, from minimalism to perspective. The result is a concrete task: not "photograph light", but, for example, a frame of branches, an arch or a doorway around the subject.
The weekly themes follow the calendar. If you start today, you join in the current week instead of catching up on a whole year. That has a second benefit: everyone using 365 Lens gets the same task on the same day. With the daily hashtag, you can find others on your favourite social network who are working on the same lesson. The app itself has no feed and no likes.
Read, shoot, check
Every lesson follows the same steps. First it explains how something works and why it matters, with an example photo. Then come concrete steps for the camera you already carry: tap the subject to set exposure, use Portrait mode, find the right distance for a macro shot. Then it is your turn.
After the shot comes the part that sets the course apart from a mere list of tasks: a short check. A few yes-or-no questions about your own photo show what worked and what to try next time. That does not replace a teacher, but it brings your attention back to what the lesson set out to teach. The Learn tab gathers every lesson you have practised together with your own photos.
The terms that go with it
Learning photography means running into words like aperture, shutter speed, ISO, bokeh or negative space. Each lesson explains a term in plain words, and the glossary gathers more than 80 of them. The aperture, for instance, is the adjustable opening in a lens that lets light through; a small f-number such as f/1.8 means more light and a shallow depth of field. These explanations sit where you need them, inside the lesson rather than in a separate textbook.
Built for the iPhone
The course starts from the camera most people already have in their pocket. The steps in the lessons refer to the iPhone. I enjoy photography myself, mostly with a Pentax.
Your photos stay on your device. There is no account and no advertising.
Try it, then decide
You can try 365 Lens for 14 days with the lesson of the current week. After that, a one-time purchase unlocks all 52 lessons, the Learn tab, the self-check and your learning progress. There is no subscription. The daily task, the camera, the gallery and sharing with the hashtag stay included either way.
More about the app, with pictures from the current version, is on the 365 Lens page.