« Sur la photo » is probably the more common choice, but I am 100 percent sure that I have heard native and very fluent speakers here in North America say « dans la photo » —especially those of us who are French-English bilingual and use both languages a lot each day (as I do). I would be curious to see what North Americans who speak English less often than I do think to see if « dans la photo » is the result of language contact or simply a characteristic of North American French…

Hi There's no difference at all, though "Sur" is the correct way to say it. "Dans la photo" would work but the grammar is incorrect, and would focus on what's deeply in the picture. If you tell me "Dans la photo", I would understand, but would be a little bit surprised; make sure you say " sur" ;).

Both are correct .... it's just the point of view that is different. when you say "sur la photo" you mean the content of the picture etc... so you describe the picture. and when you say "dans la photo" it's more about the creative process of the picture. ^^ so you mean the composition of the picture / the light etc... :)

We say sur la photo because a picture is 2 dimensional and not 3 dimensional. I mean that you can't really have something in the picture it more on the picture , if that makes sense.

I think "dans la photo" doesn't exist. We just say "Sur la photo"