Valentine’s Day photo ideas for everyone you love

Valentine’s photos are easy to plan because the props are everywhere in February: heart balloons, roses, chocolate, red and pink everything. Here are 20 ideas for couples, for friends, kids and yourself, plus how to add hearts that keep moving after you save the photo.

For couples

1. Heart hands frame Make a heart with your hands close to the lens and frame your partner’s face through it. Tap their face so the focus lands there, not on your fingers.
2. A bunch of heart balloons Hold red and pink heart balloons on a plain street or against a blue sky. Let the strings cross so the bunch looks full.
3. Behind the bouquet Hold the roses up in front of both your faces so only your eyes show over the petals.
4. Heart on a fogged window Draw a heart in the steam on a car or bathroom window and shoot your partner’s face through it from the other side.
5. Breakfast in bed Heart-shaped pancakes or a fried egg in a heart mold, on a tray on white sheets. Open the curtains and shoot from the foot of the bed.
6. Chocolate strawberries Feed each other one and catch the drip and the laugh. Shoot close, from the side, in Burst mode.
7. The tango rose One of you holds a rose in your teeth and leans into a dramatic dance pose. The more serious the faces, the better.
8. Lipstick kiss on a love note Press a lipstick kiss onto a handwritten note and shoot it on the pillow next to a single rose.

For friends, kids and yourself

1. Galentine’s brunch toast Pink drinks clinking over the middle of the table, shot from straight above. Everyone’s hands, nails and rings in one frame.
2. Conversation hearts Hold the candy with the best message on your fingertip or your tongue, right up to the lens.
3. Card-making table Kids with glitter, glue and red paper, hands covered in all three. Shoot from above to show the whole mess.
4. The valentine mailbox The decorated shoebox for the classroom card swap, held up proudly before it goes to school.
5. Flowers for yourself A selfie with the bouquet you bought yourself, by a window, eyes closed and smelling the flowers.
6. Lipstick heart on the mirror Draw a heart on the bathroom mirror with lipstick and take your mirror selfie inside it. It wipes off with a little soap.
7. Pet in a red bow A red bow tie or bandana on the dog, a heart-shaped treat on its nose, waiting for the word.
8. Heart-shaped pizza Shape the dough into a heart, add pepperoni hearts, and shoot it fresh out of the oven with the steam still rising.
9. Pink and red flat lay Candy, cards, a few rose petals and a ribbon on a white sheet. Stand on a chair and shoot straight down.
10. Fairy lights behind you Hang red or pink string lights a few feet behind you and use Portrait mode so they blur into soft round dots.
11. Photo string of the year Clip prints of your best photos from the year onto a string of lights, and shoot one picture in focus with the rest glowing behind.
12. The card delivery A kid running to hand over a valentine, or a friend sliding a card under a door. Catch it mid-motion.

Make it move

Valentine’s photos are made for hearts, and in Tada the hearts move:

• Crayon Hearts, an AI look in Add effects, for the breakfast in bed or the flowers-for-yourself selfie: puffy pastel-crayon hearts, two tiny love letters and heartbeat squiggles appear around you, and the hearts pulse. Your photo stays as it is underneath.
• The free Classic sticker pack for a quick one: it has heart glasses, hearts and blush, and a set lands on the person in about a second. Tap Shuffle until you get the hearts.
• The Things to hold pack when the flowers didn’t arrive in time: tap Shuffle until a rose or a bouquet is in the hand, then drag it into place.

Crayon Hearts uses 1 AI tada and takes about a minute; 3 are free. Tada asks before the first, since the photo goes to OpenAI and xAI (privacy). For more sticker ideas, see cute photo edits.

iPhone tips for Valentine’s photos

• Turn the ceiling lights off and use a window. Warm overhead bulbs push pink and red toward orange; daylight keeps them closer to true.
• In Portrait mode, drag the Depth Control slider to make string lights blur more or less behind you.
• Shooting yourselves? If you have an Apple Watch, use its Camera Remote app to see the frame and take the photo from your wrist.
• For heart hands, tap the screen on the face you want sharp. Touch and hold until you see AE/AF Lock so the focus stays put.

Questions

Sources: iPhone User Guide: Take portraits with your iPhone camera · iPhone User Guide: Use iPhone camera tools to set up your shot · iPhone User Guide: iPhone camera basics

More you can do

• Sweet 16 photo ideas
• Easter photo ideas
• Animate a photo
• Add stickers that move
• All guides