You Don't Need an iPhone 17 to Use This iOS 26 Camera Feature

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Apple released iOS 26 on Monday, a few months after the company announced it at the June Worldwide Developers Conference. The update includes a Liquid Glass redesign, call screening and new ringtones for your iPhone. If you have a device from the iPhone 16 lineup, you'll also get a new Photographic Style in your Camera app.

Photographic Styles are visual effects you can add to your camera before you take a photo. They've been around since the release of the iPhone 13 in 2021. Apple improved the feature in 2024 in the iPhone 16 so it could better understand shadows, skintones and other photo elements.

Apple introduced a new Photographic Style called Bright at its "awe dropping" event on Sept. 9, showcased alongside the iPhone 17 lineup. Apple wrote online that the new style "brightens skin tones and applies a pop of vibrance across the image." Bright will come to both the iPhone 17 and iPhone 16 lineups, meaning it's not locked behind a brand-new iPhone.

Even if you know where the Photographic Styles are on your iPhone, iOS 26 revamps the Camera app, so they could be difficult to find. Here's where to find these features, including Bright, in iOS 26.

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Where to find Photographic Styles in your iPhone's Camera

Here's where to find Bright and other Photographic Styles in iOS 26.

1. Open your Camera.
2. Tap the six dots in the top right corner of your screen.

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3. Tap Styles.

A Camera app in iOS 26 showing the Styles option.

A dot grid will appear near the bottom of your screen, and a bar near the top will display numerical measurements for Tone and Color.

The Bright Photographic Style in iOS 26.

You can swipe the camera view left and right to see the different Photographic Styles. If you swipe right, you'll see styles like Vibrant and Luminous. If you swipe left, you'll see styles like Amber and Gold -- you'll see Bright here as well if you have iOS 26 and a compatible iPhone.

Here's the full list of iPhones that can access the Bright style in iOS 26.

For more Apple news, here's everything the company announced at its "awe dropping" event and our iOS 26 cheat sheet.

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