Using The New Style Filters in Apple Photos
EVERYTHING LOOKS BETTER IN TECHNICOLOR
About a month ago we came back from an amazing road trip through the Southwest, from Las Vegas to Phoenix. We saw Bryce and Zion Canyons, sand surfed the Pink Coral Dunes, and hiked the hills around Sedona. If you haven’t visited this part of the American West, you have to go! Every turn seems more spectacular than the last.
A high point was the tour of upper Antelope Canyon with one of the Navajo tour guides. If you’ve seen any tourist material about Arizona, you’ve seen pictures of these water sculpted canyons in amber and orange hues. They are the pinnacle of geological beauty.
A nice bonus of the tour was our guide’s camera skills and he took pictures of everyone at key spots in the canyon. Gorgeous shots. Almost shockingly so; the curved rock faces lit in a fiery glow. We just had to share our photos with everyone we knew, and they all remarked on the beauty of the place. Who wouldn’t?
It wasn’t until later, editing my photos, that I discovered what made those pictures so outstanding. Our guide had used the new Camera App style filters to bring out the natural colors of the rock. By changing the Style from Standard to Vibrant the natural colors popped and the rock contours were emphasized. Shafts of light stood out. All in all the image honored the magical experience we all felt.
But was it true? And should it matter?
I once heard an interview with a famous author who said that writers describe how things should have been, not so much how they actually were. Photography is the same. In the end, photos and videos are an interpretive medium and digital technology has taken it to new heights.
The iPhone has spoiled us because it can capture images that are pretty faithful to what we actually see. But back in the day, photos were always affected by the type of film used, darkroom manipulation, and lens filters. Movies have used those to create mood and a sense of place throughout Hollywood’s history. Technicolor wasn’t about reality; it was about vivid, better-than-life color. And we loved it.
So on the iPhone, Styles represent the film type and lens filters used in traditional photography. Styles were first introduced in 2021 on the iPhone 13 as overall ‘looks’ you could apply when taking a picture. The image took on the characteristics of the Style. It was ‘baked in’ to the original photo.
Today, with iOS 18 and the newest iPhones, with more powerful processing, Styles are more fluid and non-destructive. You can change and adjust them after capture when using the HEIF (High-Efficiency) image format.
In addition, Styles now adapt to the lighting and subject matter in your scene. It applies the effect intelligently to different parts of the picture, keeping it as natural as possible.
So if you are looking for a way to enhance your photos but find the Adjustments panel too confusing, start by playing with Styles. In the Camera App settings, you should choose the High Efficiency format for most flexibility. Then when you open up a photo in Edit mode, you’ll see Styles offered as an option. Choose different versions to view the effects in your picture and pick one you like. If you find that you keep coming back to one particular Style, you can make that preferred in the Camera App for all your photos. If you change your mind later, you can always apply a different one.
In the end, what Styles do is let us go beyond the factual record of the scene we photograph and offer the chance to include some emotional spin. In the case of our Antelope Canyon photos, I remember the experience as richer and more colorful than it really was. By exaggerating the warm tones a bit, I can better share the experience as I felt it. In winter scenes I would likely lean towards blues to feel the cold.
Styles are a powerful way to spice up photos or create a signature style of your own, just as we used to choose Kodachrome or special filters. Play around with Styles on pictures of your own and let me know what you think.
Would you be interested in a micro-course that walked you through the steps of setting up and applying Styles in Apple Photos. If so, let me know in the comments.
Thanks for this post, Paul. I think you're spot on when you talk about interpretation. I tell my students that it's not about trying to convey what you saw, because really, who remembers exactly what it looked like anyway. But we do remember how it felt and trying to convey that feeling in the photo what it's all about. We experience situations usually with four of our five senses, then the trick is to distill all that into a two-dimensional frame. That's the challenge of good photography and we use what we have in order to do that.