This hidden setting turned my iPhone 16 Professional into an expert picture studio

Certain, I would’ve been emotionally connected to my iPhone 12 Pro (though it was hanging on by a thread), however I used to be by no means so blissful to see the digicam go. After I first received it again in 2020, like all new telephones, I felt like I had the most recent, baddest digicam on the block. I do not know if it was age, being left within the solar too lengthy (just a few occasions) or the conspiracy that Apple deliberately degrades older iPhone fashions, however now in 2025, the digicam high quality had change into borderline embarrassing.

I am not kidding — my buddies would seize my cellphone to take an image and instantly ask what was fallacious with it. However then different occasions, so long as the lighting was completely good, it will gaslight me into pondering it was the perfect digicam round once more. I used to be achieved questioning whether or not or not a photograph would prove just a few weeks in the past after I lastly upgraded to an iPhone 16 Pro.

Now that I have been capturing my photographs with the for the final two weeks, here is what I discovered stark (and never so insane) concerning the bounce up 4 generations.

Associated

5 unexpected things I wish I knew before upgrading to the iPhone 16 Pro

I traded in my iPhone 12 Professional and walked right into a tech id disaster.

The starkest distinction

Lighting did not must be on its greatest conduct

First, let’s discuss specs. The iPhone 12 Professional has a 12-megapixel digicam whereas the 16 Professional has a 48-megapixel digicam — that is actually 4 occasions the megapixels 4 generations later. I’ve already observed the distinction after I’m zooming in or cropping my pictures from my new digicam, and it brings me nice pleasure as a social media supervisor who’s at all times reducing, cropping, and pasting all whereas my fingers are crossed on the standard aspect of issues.

Now, let’s transfer to aperture, which is how a lot gentle a lens permits right into a digicam. The 12 Professional has ƒ/1.6 aperture on its principal digicam whereas the 16 Professional has ƒ/1.78. On the floor, aperture going up is not at all times the perfect factor — it does let in additional gentle. Nonetheless, that was the primary problem I used to be working into with my dusty 12 Professional — the whole lot was simply approach too darkish. Mix that barely “worse” aperture on the 16 Professional with 4 occasions the megapixels and the opposite improved processing powers it possesses? I am going to take the 16 Professional successful the specs struggle on daily basis of the week.

Hear, I used to be anticipating to be blown away by the iPhone 16 Professional’s digicam high quality in comparison with the dinosaur I used to be taking photos on the 5 years prior. However after tooling round for a short while, I noticed that even after 4 generations, Apple did such a great job with the iPhone 12 Professional’s lenses that each one the upgrades that got here after have been really simply fine-tuning tweaks to optimize an already good digicam. I wasn’t as overwhelmed with image high quality as I assumed I’d be.

Granted, my Snapchats have been noticeably larger high quality — I even had a pal ask me what I had achieved in a different way within the final week. I am not saying I regarded higher. Quite the opposite, you can really see each single pore on my face (which I did not love, clearly). However what I did discover proper off the bat was that below any lighting, good or pitch black, my new iPhone 16 Professional received a great shot in it. My iPhone 12 Professional would fully freak out in any type of lighting — and I could not even take into consideration taking a selfie outdoors for the sake of sunshine stripes that fully dominated any facial options, not to mention posting any photos I took to my Instagram.

Associated

I’ve got beef with Apple’s frustrating hardware transition

Spare {hardware}, good sir?

I suppose my 12 Professional gave me a bit of picture PTSD, as a result of I discovered myself hesitating to take photos I knew it could not take even after I already upgraded to the 16 Professional. Nonetheless, I overcame that feature-fear and was delighted to search out that I had image freedom as soon as extra with the brand new cellphone. Lighting certain helps any image, however it did not make or break my image high quality within the slightest.

New images options

Good day Photographic Kinds

Bear in mind how Portrait Mode took the world by storm again in 2016? Properly, I used to be not impressed. I thought-about myself a Lightroom Cellular skilled on the ripe age of 17, and I most well-liked to edit my photos after I took them — not throughout — thanks very a lot. Through the years, increasingly more modes got here out, however I wasn’t one to leap on that bandwagon. It was at all times the worst after I would ask a stranger to take an image on my cellphone out in public solely to undergo my digicam later and see that they selected to make use of Portrait Mode. They nearly at all times did it to be thoughtful, so I’d scream into the theoretical pillow after I received dwelling so they would not assume I used to be ungrateful.

However a brand new function has lastly had the gall to strike my fancy this time: Photographic Kinds. Granted, it helps to work at a tech web site — Patrick O’Rourke, Pocket-lint’s Editor-in-Chief, put me onto this specific setting. Principally, it makes use of scene understanding to regulate specific colours in numerous components of your pictures. Folks usually use it to personalize how they need their pores and skin tones to look all the way down to the pixel. I used to be intrigued by how nuanced it might get.

Associated

How I escaped the HEIC nightmare and found a JPEG dream

Get that “Excessive Effectivity” out of my face.

To begin, you need to select 4 of your favourite photos — the catch is that they needed to be taken on the brand new cellphone. After you select them, they will act as mediums to match totally different Kinds. You possibly can choose between:

• Commonplace
• Amber
• Gold
• Rose Gold
• Impartial
• Cool Rose

Since I’ve hotter undertones, the latter three made me look completely insane and straight out of a 2014 Tumblr selfie captioned: Listening to Sweater Climate #theneighbourhood. So, I opted for Amber, after which received to enjoying round with the depth of the tone and colour. Like all Apple options, it was extremely intuitive — so long as you have used any type of primary picture editor ever in your life.

You possibly can return and edit this setting any time, however from there on out, the photographs you are taking will routinely be edited in that fashion. I prefer it as a result of it is extremely delicate — not in your face just like the notorious Portrait Mode. Now, my photos are simply ever-so-slightly hotter in the best way I’d often edit them anyway.

Digicam Management

I actually could not care much less about it

Sure, we all know — there is a enjoyable new button on the iPhone 16 fashions that successfully flip your iPhone right into a digicam. Nonetheless, I fairly actually have not used it since I arrange the cellphone, thought, “Oh yeah, there’s this new factor,” tried it as soon as, and mentioned out loud, “I’m by no means going to make use of this factor.”

Nonetheless, I do must acknowledge it, because it’s the most recent piece of {hardware} on the iPhone because the Motion Button, and I’m neck-deep into the images division right here. In trying to find a great use for the brand new button (and to throw Apple a bone right here), I tweaked a fast setting to create an precise use for Digicam Management: clicking it as I choose up my locked iPhone to instantly open the digicam app with out having to unlock or get up the display screen within the first place.

The iPhone 16 Professional’s default is to require the display screen to be on to launch digicam management. To alter this:

1. Open Settings.
2. Choose Digicam Management.
3. Scroll to the underside and toggle off “Require Display screen On.”

And there you might have it — now you’ll be able to deal with your iPhone just like the point-and-shoot Apple needs you to. Tremendous-computer capabilities tagged on, after all.