Photographic Styles is a feature on the iPhone 13 and later that lets you capture photos with presets, creating a unique tone and mood.
For a lot of us, Apple’s iPhone is one of the best digital cameras that we own. Each year, Apple always improves the camera capabilities of the iPhone through both hardware and software. Even though this year we got the iPhone 14 Pro with a 48MP main camera, I want to put the spotlight on one of the more underrated software features that you may not be aware of.
Photographic Styles was a feature that was introduced with the iPhone 13 lineup, and it’s a great addition to an iPhone photographer’s arsenal of tools. It’s probably one of the more underrated camera features, and there’s plenty of reason to use it.
Photographic Styles are not filters — they are basically preset levels for Tone and Warmth in the camera app that let you personalize what your iPhone camera captures in real time. The default Photographic Style is always set to Standard, which is an overall balanced look. But there are four others that you can choose from: Rich Contrast, Vibrant, Warm, and Cool.
You can change the default to a different preset in the Settings app so that it always starts out on that option, or you can switch between them all while shooting in the Camera app. On top of that, while each preset has its own default levels for Tone and Warmth, you can further customize them to your own liking if you prefer. Doing so lets you create your own “style” every time you take photos.
However, it’s important to note that Photographic Styles cannot be applied post-capture, so they’re not filters. They’re also considered destructive because you cannot change the Photographic Style of an image once it’s captured; if you want to change to a different style, you’ll have to take the photo again with that style applied in real time.
Though the Standard setting is usually fine for everyday photos, I notice that sometimes I’m not particularly happy with how iOS handles the color processing after capture. Because the Standard option is a “balanced” look, I feel some elements of a picture appear more washed out than I’d like.
