Photographing Your Partner
Learn how to take effortlessly flattering, natural photos of your partner wherever you are. Turn awkward poses and harsh lighting into candid, beautiful portraits using simple adjustments in angle, light, and direction.
Like Duolingo, but for Photographing Your Partner. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
18 levels across 3 sections, about 36 minutes end to end, roughly 7 days at five minutes a day. It moves through The Flattering Angle; Natural Posing and Setting the Scene; and Evenings, Details, and Finishing. It starts from scratch.
Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in Photographing Your Partner
- Shooting close up with a phone's standard wide lens exaggerates features closest to the camera, like the nose
- Stepping back flattens perspective so facial features look naturally proportioned
- Switching to a 2x or telephoto mode tightens the frame from that further distance without distorting facial shapes
- Shooting from your own eye level points the lens downward at a standing subject, compressing their lower body
- Dropping the camera down to chest or waist level gives a balanced, natural view of full-body proportions
- A lower camera angle elongates the legs rather than foreshortening them
- Positioning the feet near the bottom edge of the frame removes distracting empty ground
- Filling the frame vertically from the bottom edge naturally elongates the subject's stance
- Centering a person vertically leaves dead ground space at the bottom and empty air overhead
- Tilting the top of the phone forward tilts the sensor plane, making whatever is nearest—the head and chest—appear exaggeratedly large
- Keeping the phone straight up and down, perpendicular to the ground, preserves parallel perspective and true body ratios
- Angle tilt distorts perspective far more aggressively on smartphone wide lenses than on dedicated portrait cameras
- Tapping the screen sets focus on that exact plane, and human viewers judge portrait sharpness primarily by the nearest eye
- Phone cameras automatically meter light based on the focus target, so tapping the eye ensures the face is properly exposed rather than washed out or shadowy
- Focal length is determined by the lens selected, not where you tap to focus
- A large patch of open sky or a large window acts as a broad light source that smooths out skin texture
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives Photographing Your Partner the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
What happens to a face when you take a few steps back?
Get it right to open this lesson and 17 more in the app.
Where Photographing Your Partner takes you
- 1
The Flattering Angle
- Camera Height and Lens Setup
- Finding Flattering Daylight
- 2
Natural Posing and Setting the Scene
- Directing Effortless Movement
- Composing Around the Environment
- 3
Evenings, Details, and Finishing
- Low-Light and Evening Outings
- Culling, Straightening, and Polishing
3 sections · 6 units · 18 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
Tomo is in ChatGPT
Tomo is also a ChatGPT plugin: the same playable courses, built and played inside your chat.
Add Tomo to ChatGPT- What to ask
- “Make me a Tomo course on black holes.” “Turn this chat into a Tomo course.”
- What you get
- Quick questions with instant feedback, hearts and stars, ready to play in about a minute.
- Where it goes
- No sign-up to start. Connect your Tomo account and your streak carries on in the app.
You pick the voice
Photographing Your Partner is taught in the Explain Like I'm 5 style: no big words. promise.. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
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Start Photographing Your Partner today.
Download Tomo, search Photographing Your Partner, and play your first lesson in under a minute.