5 iPhone Camera Features to Try This Holiday Season

Hartley Charlton

For many people, the holiday season is all about capturing and recording the holidays with family and friends. iPhone comes with a suite of camera features that can greatly enhance the quality and creativity of your holiday photos and videos.

It’s easy to forget about many of the individual camera features the iPhone has to offer, and many capabilities go untapped by most users, so the holidays are the perfect time to revisit them and try something new. For users of the latest Apple models, the iPhone 16 offers even more options with several improved camera features and a completely new camera control.

Spatial video shooting

For users of newer iPhone models, the holiday season presents the perfect opportunity to experiment with spatial video capture. Available on iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, as well as all iPhone 16 models, the feature allows users to record video in 3D, bringing a new level of depth and realism to their holiday memories.

While the best spatial video experience requires Apple’s Vision Pro or a device like the Meta Quest 3, that shouldn’t discourage users from exploring the feature. Spatial video capture is available to help users start building a library of immersive videos right away, whether or not they already have a headset. Spatial videos can also be played as regular 2D content on other devices.

How to record spatial video

Spatial video capture technology involves using the iPhone's main and Ultra Wide cameras. During recording, the iPhone seamlessly combines input from these cameras to create a single video file that encapsulates a three-dimensional perspective. This is achieved using sophisticated computational video techniques that intelligently scale the Ultra Wide camera's field of view to match the main camera's field of view.

The result is video that, while technically a 2D format, contains depth information that compatible devices can use to create a 3D viewing experience. The spatial dimension added to these videos creates a sense of immersion and presence that far exceeds traditional video, purportedly making the viewer feel as if they are actually part of the moment being captured. It's worth noting, however, that spatial video capture works best in good lighting conditions.

Ultra-wide lens for group shots

The holiday season presents a great opportunity to put the camera’s often underutilized ultra-wide-angle lens to good use. Available on most iPhone models starting with the iPhone 11, this lens offers unique benefits that are especially useful during the holidays.

The ultra-wide-angle lens is especially good for taking photos in tight spaces that would be difficult to fully capture with a standard wide-angle lens. One of the most significant benefits of the ultra-wide-angle lens is its ability to fit more into the frame without having to step back, and the iPhone displays the ultra-wide camera feed outside the wide-angle camera’s frame in the camera app by default. This is especially useful during family gatherings when you might want to capture a large group of people in one shot.

The Ultra Wide camera gets a major upgrade with the iPhone 16 Pro, moving up to 48 megapixels to match the main camera, resulting in significantly sharper, higher-resolution output and better low-light performance.

Cinematic Mode

The holiday season is a good time to get an iPhone. Users of the 13 and later models can try Cinematic mode, a feature that adds a depth-of-field effect to videos. Cinematic mode uses advanced computational algorithms to automatically focus on subjects and creatively blur the background, similar to what you see in high-quality cinematography.

Cinematic mode allows users to creatively focus on details by smoothly moving focus from one subject to another. Cinematic mode also makes it easier to capture those moments by automatically adjusting focus when people enter or leave the frame, or when the subject of the video is looking in a different direction.

How to Shoot Video in Cinematic Mode

Photographic Styles

Photo Styles, a feature introduced in the iPhone 13 series, offers a personalized photography experience that can help enhance your holiday photos. The feature allows users to choose and customize a photo style that is automatically applied to their photos, ensuring that each shot reflects their preferred aesthetic.

Photo Styles are not one-size-fits-all filters. Instead, they are intelligent adjustments that are selectively applied to different parts of a photo, such as skin tones and skies. Photo Styles intelligently adapt to the lighting conditions in each photo, adjusting to preserve natural skin tones and textures.

Customize iPhone 16 photos with Photo Styles
iPhone 16: Edit Photo Styles after shooting
How to use Photo Styles in the Camera app (iPhone 13, 14, and 15)

Users can choose from preset styles like Rich Contrast, Vibrant, Warm, and Cool, each offering a unique look. During the holidays, this means you can choose the style that best suits the holiday spirit and gives your images a distinctive look.

With the iPhone 16 lineup, Apple has completely redesigned its Photo Styles. These new Photo Styles adjust specific colors in select parts of your photos to customize the overall look for a more specialized, richer look than the previous version.

The first five Photo Styles are tuned to skin tones, including Cool Rose, Neutral, Amber, Rose Gold, and Gold. Cool Rose brings out cool, pinkish tones, while Neutral neutralizes warm tones. Amber, Rose Gold, and Gold highlight these specific tones. They can be quite subtle, depending on the settings you choose.

Other styles are closer to what you get with a filter, adding more dramatic effects that affect the mood of the image. On the iPhone 16, photo styles can also be added and edited retrospectively.

Improved Portrait Mode

The iPhone 15 series introduced some significant improvements to Portrait mode. Users can now adjust the focus of an image or add background blur after it’s been captured, even if Portrait mode isn’t initially selected.

Being able to edit after the shot lets you experiment with different focal points, ensuring that each portrait captures the subject in the most flattering and interesting way. This improvement is especially useful for quick, casual shots of family and pets during the holiday season. The iPhone 15's Portrait mode has also been improved to work better in low-light conditions.