How do you do a photo challenge with friends?

Updated November 8, 2026

In short A photo challenge with friends is a shared theme that everyone photographs on their own, before you all discover the photos together. What makes it work: a simple theme, a time limit, and nobody seeing the others’ photos before posting their own. Here are 40 theme ideas, the rules and ways to play, together or long distance.

What is a photo challenge with friends?

A photo challenge brings a small group together around one theme: “something red”, “your view at 6 pm”, “the most useless thing in your home”. Everyone has a set time to take their photo, then you discover them all together, compare, laugh, and sometimes vote for the best one. No talent or gear needed: a phone is enough, and the fun comes from how differently everyone reads the same theme.

It’s different from a challenge you send one friend (“send me a voice note”): here, everyone plays at the same time, on the same subject. For challenges to send each other, see 30 challenges to do with friends.

How do you run a photo challenge, step by step?

1. Get the group together: 3 to 10 people is ideal. Any more, and you’re always waiting for someone.
2. Pick the theme: choose from the ideas below, or let the last winner pick the next one.
3. Set the time: an hour for a “right here, right now” theme, a day for one that needs you to go out, a week for one that takes planning.
4. Everyone takes their photo without showing it: that’s the rule that changes everything. If the first photos are visible, the next people copy them, or stop daring to post.
5. Reveal them all at once, then vote: the funniest, the most beautiful, the most unexpected.

Easy photo challenge ideas to start with

1. Something red (or a color picked at random).
2. Your view, right here, right now.
3. What you had for lunch.
4. Today’s shoes.
5. The sky above you.
6. The oldest thing you have on you.
7. Your favorite corner of your home.
8. Something that made you smile today.

Funny photo challenge ideas

9. Your best funny face, in close-up.
10. An object with a face: a power outlet, a car, a cloud.
11. Your pet (or your plant) judging someone.
12. The most useless thing in your home.
13. A childhood photo of you, recreated today.
14. Your worst selfie, owned proudly.
15. Everything in your bag, emptied on the table.
16. A movie scene, acted out with whatever you have on hand.

Creative photo challenge ideas

17. An everyday object shot so close it becomes unrecognizable. The others guess.
18. A shadow that tells a story.
19. A reflection: a puddle, a shop window, a spoon.
20. A photo in one single color, edge to edge.
21. A letter of the alphabet found in the street: the group spells a word.
22. A circle, a triangle or a square hidden in the scenery.
23. A photo that tells a story, with nobody in it.
24. An ordinary object, from the most unexpected angle.

Long-distance photo challenge ideas

25. Your sky at exactly 6 pm: compare the colors from one city to another.
26. Your window when you wake up.
27. Your open fridge, without tidying it first.
28. Today’s commute, in a single photo.
29. The book, movie or show you’re into right now.
30. Your morning mug.
31. A detail of your town nobody notices.
32. What you see when you look up, wherever you are.

Photo challenge ideas for parties, weekends and trips

33. The most unlikely group photo of the night.
34. Someone in a fit of laughter (and fine with being shown).
35. The most photogenic dish of the meal.
36. A sign that makes no sense.
37. Today’s landscape, with nobody in it.
38. The postcard shot: the best possible framing of the place.
39. The same pose, in the same spot, for everyone.
40. The moment you’d love to live again.

How do you do a photo challenge over several days?

A photo challenge can also last: one theme a day for a week, or a whole month for the most motivated, like a 30-day photo challenge. To make it go the distance:

• Set the schedule in advance: the week’s themes in one message, or a theme a day picked from the ideas on this page.
• Keep the same time: a theme announced at 6 pm, and until the next day to post.
• Count the days: a counter that keeps growing makes nobody want to be the one who breaks it.
• Allow a joker: one missed day shouldn’t make the whole group give up.

How do you stop everyone from copying?

In a regular group chat, the first photo posted sets the tone: the next people copy it, try to top it, or stop daring to post. For a real challenge, photos need to stay hidden until everyone has posted. A few ways to do it:

• In a messaging app (WhatsApp, Messenger, Signal…): everyone sends their photo privately to a “game master”, who posts them all at once in the group. It works, but someone has to sit out.
• In a shared album (iCloud Photos, Google Photos): handy for keeping the photos, but everyone sees the others’ as soon as they’re added.
• With BeReal: everyone posts at the same time, and you have to post yours to see your friends’; but the app picks the time, and there’s no theme.
• With waited: in a group, everyone posts their photo for the moment whenever they like, and nobody sees it until everyone has posted. Then they all open at once, for everyone.

What makes a good photo challenge?

• A short, open theme: “something blue” leaves more room for imagination than “a blue car parked outside a bakery”.
• A time limit: without a deadline, the challenge fizzles out.
• Nothing risky: no photos taken while driving, from a height or somewhere off-limits. No photo is worth a risk.
• People’s consent: don’t photograph a stranger without asking, and don’t show a friend who doesn’t want to appear.
• Nothing intimate: a theme must never push anyone to send a nude photo. That’s pressure, not a game, and it’s banned on waited.
• Laugh with, never at: the vote rewards an idea, not someone’s embarrassment.

Doing a photo challenge with waited

On waited, a group brings together 3 to 10 friends, and every challenge becomes a moment: everyone posts one photo, and nobody sees anything until everyone has posted. A moment lasts 24 hours by default, or 48 hours, or 7 days, as any member chooses. When the last one is in, all the photos open together.

The group counts its completed moments, and that counter never goes down. Only one person left? They get a reminder, and anyone can nudge those who haven’t posted yet. If time runs out before every photo is in, the moment still opens for those who posted, without counting for the group: only those who didn’t post see nothing. Like every photo on waited, they’re end-to-end encrypted; once open, they can be seen again as often as anyone likes, long enough to compare and vote, then they disappear after 7 days (or 1 or 30 days, as the group chooses).

For two, the challenge becomes a streak: each day you both send each other a photo makes it grow, and it earns credits at 3 days, then at every milestone. For a photo that makes your friend wait instead, see how to send a photo that unlocks later.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• BeReal Help Center: How does BeReal work?