After spending 16 weeks with the iPhone 2, this is my favorite feature

Don't call it a filter. That's what I kept telling myself as I tried out the iPhone 16's new version of Photographic Style, which surprisingly became my favorite new feature on Apple's latest phone.

Photographic styles are visual effects that essentially change the color and tone of an image, and they've been around since the iPhone 13 generation. But Apple has improved this version on the iPhone 16 so that it better understands colors, highlights, skin undertones, and shadows. And the difference is clear; in fact, it makes the older version look basic by comparison.

At a time when the tech industry is buzzing about generative AI, or AI that can create content in response to cues, it's refreshing to see an upgrade that improves one of the most basic but essential uses of our phones: taking photos. A survey by CNET in collaboration with YouGov found that camera features are the third biggest motivation behind smartphone upgrades, further cementing the point that camera improvements matter.

Although phone makers improve camera hardware and image processing software every year — such as better low light performance on the iPhone 16's ultrawide camera — the new Photographic Styles feature feels more impressive in some ways. Year-over-year camera improvements can seem incremental and only apparent in very specific shooting situations, but Photographic Styles let you transform images in a way that's immediately clear and gratifying.

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Using the iPhone 16's photographic styles

Photographic Styles might sound like a filter, but the updated version of Apple's tool goes beyond simply applying a blanket effect to an image. Instead, it applies an aesthetic to a scene based on specific colors in the photo, making it much easier, in my experience, to dramatize a snapshot without any editing.

Photographic Styles, which are only available for the iPhone 16 lineup, including the Pro and Pro Max, are baked into the Camera app, and you can apply them before or after taking a photo. From the Photos option in the camera viewfinder, just tap the icon that looks like a square filled with dots. Or if you're using the camera control buttons, swipe through the miniature menu in the overlay until you see the Style option.

Apple offers several options depending on the experience you choose that either bring out certain skin undertones or provide a mood-based aesthetic. Some examples of skin undertones include Cool Rose, Neutral, Rose Gold, and Amber, while Vibrant, Luminous, Quiet, and Dramatic are examples of mood-based options. You can set a particular style as your default so that the iPhone's camera always applies that effect, without you having to turn it on manually.

Some of Apple's photographic styles are more subtle than others, particularly those focused on skin tones like Cool Rose and Amber, which primarily impact the subject of the photo.

But I prefer more glamorous mood-based photographic styles that accentuate colour or contrast, such as Vibrant, Dramatic and Stark Black and White. Others, such as Ethereal and Quiet, seem to play with the lighting of the image, making the photos look almost washed out which makes them look a little vintage, like an overexposed Polaroid.

Even more interesting is that you can change the tone and color for each style, making the styles quite customizable. You are creating your own custom color and tone profile for the camera, which makes it feel more personal than ever. This makes me feel like I have more creative control over my photos, despite the fact that I don’t have a background in photography or photo editing.

In the future, I'd like to see Apple offer additional skin undertone options with more variety; I found that many of the currently available options look very similar. It's also not immediately obvious that you can change the tone and color by tapping on the selected style.
Here are some of my favorite photographic style images.

lively

Stark Black and White

Calm

Comfortable

Sleep

Photographic styles are another sign that phone photos are getting more customizable

If one thing has become clear over the past two years, it's that smartphone giants want to give us more control over the photos we take on our phones — whether that's good or bad.

We now live in an age in which you can erase objects from images, add objects that aren't there, pick your favorite facial expression and add it to another image, or resize or change elements of a photo. I'm referring primarily to the AI-based photo editing tools that have appeared on Google's Pixel phones over the past two years, designed to help you capture the perfect moment, even if it hasn't happened yet. (As part of Apple Intelligence, Apple is also introducing a tool called Clean Up to remove parts of an image.)

Perhaps that's why Photographic Style impressed me so much. The feature also wants to help you create a great image, but in a very different way, one that feels more creative and less reality-bending. You could argue that changing tones and color profiles is also inauthentic and contributes to the search for the perfect photo, regardless of what the scene actually looks like.

But taking an existing photo and giving it darker colors or more contrast is more appealing to me than changing the scene, which is why I think Apple is on to something with Photographic Styles.

Is it worth buying a new iPhone for photographic style? No. But it's an underrated feature that, when combined with other upgrades, will make the iPhone 16's camera feel like a huge leap forward for people coming from older iPhones.