Customizing Your iPhone 16 Images With Photographic Styles

[fatTribble]

For those who know more than I do, on the 15PM you could select a default photographic style like Vibrant, Natural, etc in the Settings app under Camera. Now I just see Amber, Gold Rose Gold and Neutral. I realize before I take a photo I can choose one of the other styles, but am I correct that it’s no longer a saved camera setting?

They give you the box that you can play around with but I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do with that. Are they trying to expand the previous set of styles by giving you complete control by using that box? I liked the presets.

My only thought is to pick one and go into the Preserve Settings to “save” it.

 

[BJMRamage]

This article could have been so much better...it would have been nice to have comparison shots edited to show the different styles.

 

[citysnaps]

So what if it is money grabbing? The purpose of a corporation is to make as much money as it can.

Today, an iPhone 15 does everything it did when you bought it. Nobody is forcing you to buy a new phone and spend that money. Just don't do it! I generally wait 3 years between phones. I didn't this time only because I expect to be dead before the next one comes out.

A new device having more features than your current one hardly makes yours obsolete. The 15 will be a perfectly good and supported phone for MANY years. You could EASILY be just fine using it another 4 years, if you can resist the urge to feel unhappy because you don't have the latest and greatest.

Hell, my MacBook Pro is from 2012. Coming up on 13 years old! It works just great! My 2007 Jeep and 2009 Yamaha TMAX (motorcycle) are also old but just fine.

It's all about mental attitude. Choose to be unhappy with your current phone, or not. It's up to you, not Apple.

Very well said. Sadly, many people expect to be entitled to free stuff forever. Those who do should send Apple a strong message and purchase competitor phones. But they'll never do it.

 

[Rogifan]

What you say is ostensibly true, and a similar effect could be achieved using filters, but Apple’s implementation is more elegant than that based on where this happens in the image processing pipeline. I do concede that Apple is CHOOSING not to enable this on older phones. There might be a performance penalty, but give us the choice.

And then social media will be full of posts claiming Apple is intentionally slowing down older phones to get people to upgrade.

 

[ThailandToo]

The latter kind of makes sense. ProRAW is designed to give the most possible editing latitude at the expense of the image looking Apple-fied out of the box (whether you like Apple's processing or dislike it). The new Photographic Styles are kind of an in-between of a straight up HEIF and ProRAW, it allows for some expanded editing latitude but not to the degree ProRAW does.

Yes. The whole RAW experience is for people who want to change photos in post processing with their own edits or presets using an app like Lightroom. The Apple way is to bake it into the image for everyone to have a quick result that doesn’t look like an iPhone photo. I like Halide better than Apple’s camera App. I find Halide better to me use to take photos and adjust color temperature and get a clean photo that’s not over-processed. Really like the don’t process using Apple’s iPhone processing feature. And can use RAW and adjust.

What would be cool is if Apple would allow photographers to use Lightroom custom presets but not bake it into the photo. Just as a preview. I suppose Apple hates Adobe so that will not happen - but for real photographers (ie must take photos in landscape - not hold up like a TikTok wannabe) it would be nice.

 

[L92]

For those who know more than I do, on the 15PM you could select a default photographic style like Vibrant, Natural, etc in the Settings app under Camera. Now I just see Amber, Gold Rose Gold and Neutral. I realize before I take a photo I can choose one of the other styles, but am I correct that it’s no longer a saved camera setting?

They give you the box that you can play around with but I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do with that. Are they trying to expand the previous set of styles by giving you complete control by using that box? I liked the presets.

My only thought is to pick one and go into the Preserve Settings to “save” it.

You can choose a style in the camera app, and use that as your default. You need to enable "preserve settings" for photographic styles in the settings app (camera section). Otherwise it will default to standard every time you open the camera app.

The box if for tweaking the style settings. It's really good, try it. You can set it back to default on the top of the screen, there is a back arrow.

 

[PsykX]

Software that could be easily added to older phones… pass for greedys

Yes, but yes/no.

AFAIK it takes pictures in a different format, similar to taking a RAW format, and then you can apply the Photographic Style later, on any iPhone that supports iOS 18 - even older iPhones (as per the article).

Only the iPhone 16 Pro takes pictures in this format. Could Apple enable this photo format on older phones ? I have absolutely no idea, but I feel like they certainly could. Unless there's a technical limitation on older phones that I don't know of. Maybe the new sensor allows that ?

 

[citysnaps]

Yes, but yes/no.

AFAIK it takes pictures in a different format, similar to taking a RAW format, and then you can apply the Photographic Style later, on any iPhone that supports iOS 18 - even older iPhones (as per the article).

Only the iPhone 16 Pro takes pictures in this format. Could Apple enable this photo format on older phones ? I have absolutely no idea, but I feel like they certainly could. Unless there's a technical limitation on older phones that I don't know of. Maybe the new sensor allows that ?

I suspect Apple *could*, but with the slower cpu/gpu with fewer cores, the user experience wouldn't be as good (imagine the resulting forum whinefests), and that's something Apple would never compromise on. And hope they never do.

For example... the new search feature letting me find photos on my 16PM meeting certain *multiple* criteria in my very large iPhone photo library with images going back to 2010, is amazing, returning results in a fraction of a second.

 

[Mother Nature]

Dude they are just filtres

While I agree this might have been supported by the 14 and 15 Pros I DO not agree with the "those are just filters" part. They are NOT filters.

 

[Mother Nature]

Imagine being an iPhone 15 Pro user, 12 months ($1000) after buying it, with a chipset that runs at just under 7% of the iPhone 16 Pro or 3% of the iPhone 16 and being told that your phone isn't powerful enough to run some live filters. Imagine believing that. This is a massive kick in the teeth for iPhone 15 Pro users. Let's be frank, this is money grabbing/planned obsolescence at its worst.

If you don't have the 16 Pro, HOW do you know these are just filters? Because they're not, I have both 15PM and 16PM and already compared, but if you don't believe me it's fine, there are reviews pointing that out anyways.

I'm not a fan of the 16 Pro, I am dissapointed somehow, but not everything is bad and negative, PS are really good and not just plain filters like some people believe and want to convince others to believe as well.

 

[SebCohen]

This is unwise by Apple. They "couldn't" release a more updated iPhone, so they felt they had to lock out previous iPhones as an argument to buy the 16. And they are probably planning for this hit as a "preparing the ground" for the 17. Sort of "Planned animosity".

NOW, IMHO Apple was far worse before with these sort of things. But I don't think that effected AS many people as with the iPhone.

With the low refresh rate of the 16, which is extremely low tech for a phone in 2024 and the release of a the SE with 60Hz in 2025, this will just make it worse.

Yeah, perhaps MOST won't care and Apple was never first with anything. But this is different, this in maliciously withholding technology and making their phones worse than the competitors. And honestly, even if iOS is still great, it's not that much better. Now it's pure emotion separating which is better.

And Apple is falling behind...

 

[ijordano]

Two things I dont undestand

1. Why didn't they give the little d-pad haptic feedback? Its covered in dots so it just makes sense
2. Why didn't they open this up with an API for third party apps to add styles

 

[nlkccom]

The most important Vivid filter is gone. Why?!

 

[Kottu]

That means, it's better for me to pay few bucks a month for google drive and get really good editing tools than buying an iPhone 16.
Apple wants to make an impression that iPhone 16 is a major upgrade by restricting software functions in older devices.

 

[5aeid]

Something tells me that Apple will be adding the more enhanced version of Photographic Styles to iPhone 15 Pro (potentially iPhone 14 Pro's too) at some point... probably iOS 19. It's a matter of distributing resources/engineers. Attention usually goes to new hardware. Think 'Stage Manager' on iPadOS.

 

[macfacts]

So? You got everything that was promised on your old phone when you bought it. They never guarantee you get new features. You paid for what you got, not for what may be added later.

One of the "promises" was free updates, it wasn't a promise from apple but from apple fans gloating how android devices don't get updates. What's the point of updates with no features, just bugs?

 

[teh_hunterer]

Right. I didn't make a simple claim that people shouldn't voice their opinion. But nice try.

We both deal with it just fine (;

You said so what if it's money grubbing? If it's pure money grubbing with no defensible technological explanation, people will rightly complain about it - that's what.

 

[monstermash]

You said so what if it's money grubbing? If it's pure money grubbing with no defensible technological explanation, people will rightly complain about it - that's what.

Complain away!! See how much good it does.

 

[monstermash]

One of the "promises" was free updates, it wasn't a promise from apple but from apple fans gloating how android devices don't get updates. What's the point of updates with no features, just bugs?

So don't update.

I mean, honestly. Apple will do what is in its best interest.

It is EXTRAORDINARILY COMMON for manufacturers to engage in product segmentation and push customers to buy new products. Apple hardly has a monopoly on these practices.

Complain all you want, it won't change any of that.

For me, the biggest reason for updates is bug fixes.

 

[teh_hunterer]

So don't update.

I mean, honestly. Apple will do what is in its best interest.

And people will do what's in theirs, which in some cases is to vent about it.

It is EXTRAORDINARILY COMMON for manufacturers to engage in product segmentation and push customers to buy new products. Apple hardly has a monopoly on these practices.

Sure it is common, but Apple and co generally do so with at least some technically defensible explanation. Sometimes it's reasonable, sometimes it's right on the line, and in this case I think most agree it crosses that line. I don't see anyone trying to sue Apple here, I just see people rightly pointing out that Apple is taking the piss in this case.

As to what the impact of that is, who knows. Consumer sentiment does factor into future decisions. One person giving their opinion on MacRumors isn't going to cause Tim Cook to personally intervene and change everything, but I don't think anyone is expecting that. Sometimes Apple responds to backlash though. Probably not in this case, but that's OK.

Regardless, people give their opinion because it's natural to do so - not necessarily because it will achieve a particular outcome.

Complain all you want, it won't change any of that.

We will, thank you.

 

[cocky jeremy]

One of the "promises" was free updates, it wasn't a promise from apple but from apple fans gloating how android devices don't get updates. What's the point of updates with no features, just bugs?

They said updates. They didn't say what type of updates.

 

[monstermash]

They said updates. They didn't say what type of updates.

I can see the update readme file now:

In this update. There are 17 bug fixes and 53 more things for you to complain about. There are also 23 things you're not getting because we want you to buy a newer phone, so we can grub your money!

 

[cocky jeremy]

we want you to buy a newer phone

Yes. That's the entire point. They are a business. Their entire purpose is to generate as much money as possible.

 

[monstermash]

I can see the update readme file now:

In this update. There are 17 bug fixes and 53 more things for you to complain about. There are also 23 things you're not getting because we want you to buy a newer phone, so we can grub your money!

Yes. That's the entire point. They are a business. Their entire purpose is to generate as much money as possible.

A fact for which I am quite thankful.

Frankly, they could double their prices and I would still buy their stuff. I feel I get way more value from their phone than I actually pay for.

Unless you damage it, pretty much any device they make is good for at least five years. Divide that cost out monthly and it's practically nothing. Top end phone for $30/month. I mean, that's about $1/day.

 

[bluedoggiant]

Anyone else having an issue where some photos don’t show you the photographic styles tab to edit in Photos app, despite my photographic style clearly applied and listed in the photo metadata?