While enjoying breakfast at Peach Cafe with Amy and my mother–in–law, Amy wanted a photo in front of the large heart artwork on the wall.

But, a few problems:

1. I was four feet away from the artwork. How could I get it and them in the frame?
2. The restaurant was full, so I wasn’t going to stand up and take a few steps back.
3. I only had my iPhone, not a DSLR with a wide angle lens.

Solution: Use the panorama feature in iOS 6!

If you haven’t used it in the default Camera app:

1. Tap Options at the top.
2. Tap Panorama.

With my iPhone in landscape mode, I tapped the arrow so I’d start taking the photo at the bottom, then asked them to sit still for a few seconds before I pressed the shutter button and panned up.

Note: You don’t need to get to the very end of the “route” when panning to capture the panorama. Just press the shutter after you’ve captured everything you need.

I started the panorama at the bottom of the frame to minimize any movement from them in the final image.

When I processed the photo in Lightroom, another bonus was that the aspect ratio was super close to 3:2. This means we can print a 4“ x 6” photo with minimal cropping.

Most importantly, they loved it!

P.S. Props to Ryan Brenizer for the idea, which he uses regularly with the Brenizer Method, who was just named American Photo’s Top 10 World’s Best Wedding Photographers for 2013. Congrats!