iPhone Editing Academy Review – My Experience as a Student

This is an in-depth iPhone Editing Academy review as a student of the course.

The iPhone Editing Academy is one of nine courses Emil Pakarklis offers in his iPhone Photography School.  

I’m on a reviewing spree of all the courses on the iPhone Photography School, and now, it’s the turn of the editing course.

As a paid user, I have access to all the content and interactive features in the iPhone Editing Academy, and now, I want to share my findings with you. 

What can you expect in this review? I have prepared it to answer the following trending categories:

• What’s the iPhone Editing Academy all about?
• Who is the course for?
• What’s in the course (Course curriculum)
• What I like about iPhone Editing Academy (Pros)
• What I dislike about iPhone Editing Academy (Cons)
• Student Reviews
• Do I Recommend It?

With those seven categories in mind, let’s get started. 

What is The iPhone Editing Academy All About?

The iPhone Editing Academy does what its name suggests—teaching learners how to edit the photos and videos they shoot on their iPhones. 

Sometimes, when people hear the word editing, they think it’s all about tapping a few buttons, applying one or two makeup filters, and calling it a day.

But professional editing goes beyond that. An expert photographer teaches the iPhone Editing Academy, and he shows how the best 1% of photography experts edit their shots to express better whatever they want to communicate. 

As you complete each module in the course, you will identify the mistakes limiting your editing efforts and gradually close your knowledge gaps in photo editing.

Who Is The Course For?

The iPhone Editing Academy is for people who want to learn to edit their pictures better.

It is important to note that the course is not about video editing. It is only to help you edit pictures professionally on your iPhone to get amazing outputs.

iPhone Owners

Of course, the course targets iPhone users. iPhones are known to be among the best camera phones, but what good is a great camera when you don’t know how to leverage its potential?

Throughout the course, Emil uses an iPhone, and it is recommended that you own one (even an older model will do) so you can interact with every button or step. 

Smartphone Owners in General

Of course, you may not be able to implement every bit of the training if yours is not an iPhone, but 80% of the practicals can be reproduced on an Android phone.

All the concepts taught in the course, like light elements, composition, white balance, angles, et cetera, underpin every camera’s processes, whether iPhone or Android. 

And for every step mentioned or taken in the tutorials, you can almost always find the equivalent adjustment in your smartphone, whatever its operating system. 

You can also contact the support team for personalized assistance if you struggle applying a specific protocol on your non-iOS device. Many of them own Android devices too. 

Casual Photographers

As long as you take pictures with your phone, you are a photographer somehow.

The better your photos look, the happier you will be to preserve them for later when you want to travel down memory lane.

So whether you take random pics or build a family album, the iPhone Editing Academy will sharpen your photo editing skills. 

Content Creators

Nobody needs the iPhone Editing Academy more than content creators.

As a content creator, you will surely need visuals in the form of photos and videos for infographics, ads, and thumbnails; the list goes on.

Simplifying content creators further, you might be a small business owner, a YouTuber, an employee, or a freelance graphics designer. 

In any of these scenarios, you must adhere to strict editing guidelines depending on how your audience should interact with your work.

With the training and practice, you will get at the iPhone Editing Academy, you will be well-equipped to adapt to any assigned photo editing tasks and ultimately get more views and likes. 

What Is In The Course?

The ultimate goal of the iPhone Editing Academy is to equip you to make a great photo out of even an ordinary shot.

You will learn to use your phone’s native editing features for basic tasks.

Emil will also acquaint you with the best photo editing applications for mobile and desktop devices. They are the ones you will use for more complex editing tasks that your phone’s editor alone can’t handle. 

He then goes on to use some of these apps in his practicals, explaining what each one is for and diving into all the tools they offer. More than that, he takes you on tour, editing his photos and explaining how and why he takes each step. 

The most significant part of the course is the assignments. Every learner in the class must do their assignments using the editing tools recommended and submit their work to the community.

An instructor will vet each one’s work and email you feedback. Others can also comment on your assignment, and you can also comment on theirs. 

No doubt, you need a peek into the course contents. I’m in for that too. Let’s highlight each lesson.

Welcome Module

Module 1 Simple Techniques For Perfect Color And Exposure

This module is the introductory module where Emil briefs you about what’s to come next.

He then moves on to how to correct a photo that gets the color and exposure wrong using Snapseed.

In this module, you start getting editing assignments to be submitted using the private Facebook community.

The color and exposure lesson is succeeded by two classes on white balance and histogram, followed by editing images for clarity with Tune Image.

In those two lessons, Emil uses one defective photo as a walk-through. You will see how he applies a series of steps to get a picture that better represents what the eye sees. 

The module concludes with a lesson on highlighting sharp textures in your photos with an appropriate app. 

Module 2: Powerful Tools For Cleaning Up Your Photos

It is very common to have a photo with elements that don’t belong in it. It could even be that certain crucial elements in the picture aren’t well-processed.

Such details may be missing to the untrained eye, but from the first lesson in this module, you will learn how to identify those flaws in any photo.

The first two lessons treat such processes as cropping and straightening your photos.

The following two lessons will show you how to remove unwanted objects from your photo and educate you on how to uncrop an already-cropped image. 

The concluding module discusses how to correct perspective mistakes and rectify whatever faulty geometry might be lurking in the photo. 

Module 3: The Hidden Power Of Selective Photo Editing

You are well on your way to becoming an advanced photo editor if you’ve progressed to level three. You will even feel that way about yourself.

But I’ll recommend not to skip this part or rush through it because selective photo editing is a must-have skill.

As Emil explains, selective photo editing is crucial because your editing efforts on one photo section could ruin the other parts. How do you handle that?

The module will teach you that and more. 

In five lessons, you will learn to use vignettes, color brushes, selective adjustments, and masking. 

Module 4:  Complete Workflows For High-Quality Editing

This is the module where you take all the advanced editing skills you’ve acquired in previous modules and apply them to more common scenarios.

Emil discusses creating stunning landscapes, portraits, architecture photos, and sunsets.

The last lesson in the module (the sixth) explores techniques to transform color pictures into expressive black-and-white photos.

One significant highlight of the landscape lesson is to know which parts of the photo you want to emphasize. You will get that lesson as you watch Emil cropping in on a landscape photo and explaining why he picks the left side over the right. 

Module 5: Using Layers To Create Stunning Digital Art

This final module (at least for now) in the iPhone Editing Academy features Emil Pakarklis and Mark Hemmings as co-hosts.

The module dives into an alternate editing system to the one previous modules teach.

You will get to understand what is meant by natural editing and artistic editing and how they are used for different purposes.

The lessons here are:

• The Fundamentals Of Editing With Layers
• Use Smart Auto Masking To Quickly Cut Out Complex Shapes
• Rescue Overcast, Cloudy Skies
• How To Make Objects Appear To Sink Into The Water
• Use Blend Modes To Realistically Overlay Text

After the end of this module, you will have learned the skills to master iPhone photo editing, and what will be left to do is practice. 

Bonuses: 

Secrets For Managing A Huge Photo Library

How To Preserve The Quality Of Your Photos

What I like about iPhone Editing Academy (Pros)

After taking the iPhone Editing Academy, I got several good impressions. Emil and Mark do a great job of explaining the technical aspects of photo editing in simple, actionable terms.

I noticed, among other things, that the course teaches you to have a clear idea of what you need your photo to emphasize before you start editing

That aside, here are other areas in the iPhone Editing Academy that deserve a thumbs up:

Beginner-friendly 

The iPhone Editing Academy starts from the basics up to the more advanced concepts.

Every term in editing and every tool in the editing apps are well explained in a way that even a child can understand.

The modules don’t overwhelm you with excess information. A lesson is devoted to a particular topic, and you can follow along as a photo is edited using the skills being discussed. 

Hands-on Learning Through Assignments

An assignment is given after every tutorial, and the course instructor will explain how to do it.

If you don’t have a photo that has the specific weakness the lesson addresses, Emil provides a photo that you can work on and submit to the Facebook group.

It is advisable to do as many assignments as you can because that’s how best to learn. 

Interactive Features

The iPhone Editing Academy not only comes with a Facebook community but also allows you to interact with the learners in a particular lesson.

You will see comments under every lesson, including the ones from the staff members addressing a question someone has asked.

A beneficial feature is the notes under each lesson. They summarize the key points in that video lesson. Even if you don’t have 20 minutes to spare for a video, you can always glance at the notes for quick tips. 

Helpful Support

It is not uncommon to see a staff comment directly under a question someone has asked.

Here’s a snapshot that confirms that.

That shows that the help team is always looking out for the users to find out the questions they are asking. 

High-Quality Videos

I liked the sharpness of the videos, and I’m sure you will too.

Also, you won’t have to strain your ears to try and catch what is being said.

The course instructors speak at just the right pace, not so slow that you doze off, but not so fast that you will have to adjust the speed manually. 

Lifetime Access

Your subscription to the iPhone Editing Academy grants you access to the course forever.

If there are any updates, you will get them as well at no extra charge to you. 

Beautiful UI Layout 

The UI elements are well-placed. I never had to scramble for where to click to visit the next lesson or to see the comments.

And this might be subjective, but the UI does seem to borrow from iOS a little bit. 

What I Dislike about iPhone Editing Academy (Cons)

It’s hard to go wrong with the iPhone Editing Academy. Everything about the course is so well designed that I had to be intentional about spotting any flaws in the platform. 

But it was only after watching many videos and enjoying the content that one question began to form in my mind. 

“Why is the course only in English?”

I mean, Emil is from a non-English speaking country (Latvia), and he has spent years holding photography workshops in Mexico, yet the course doesn’t support those countries’ languages at least. 

That’s the major drawback of the course. Ironically, you can set your iPhone in any language, but you can’t enjoy the course that allows you to maximize its camera potential if you don’t understand English. 

I’ll update this review if the iPhone Editing Academy adds more languages to its courses. 

How Much Does iPhone Editing Academy Cost?

The iPhone Editing Academy costs a one-off $495 price. But iPhone Photography School is always running promos.

As of last year when I got mine, I got it for $149 at a discount. But interestingly, they are running their biggest discount ever (80%) which means you can get it for $99.

Reviews from Students

Trust me to find out what my colleagues in the course are thinking about it.

In the snapshots below, I have compiled the most recent reviews I could access from the course community. And hardly did anyone find something to complain about.

Do I Recommend it?

After spending much time with the course, I can confidently recommend it to anyone looking to up their iPhone photography skills.

The course is much better than other self-proclaimed editing tutorials online that simply leave you to figure out what they are talking about.

You will get a lot of value for $245 paid once (regular fee) or $49 (paid thrice) if you sign up before the deal ends.

You can return here after taking the course to comment about the course. I would love that!