For those who’re into astrophotography, you’ll know that readability is all the pieces. Excessive-altitude areas with restricted rainfall and minimal mild air pollution are excellent for stargazing due to the clear skies they supply, and Chile’s Atacama desert — famed for being the world’s driest (and highest) non-polar desert — is among the many greatest locations on Earth to arrange your telescope.
Alas, I didn’t have room for a telescope in my backpack throughout a current go to to South America, however I did have my trusty iPhone 16 Professional Max. And so once I arrived on the small city of San Pedro de Atacama for a spot of stargazing in January, I believed I’d put the astrophotography capabilities of Apple’s 2025 flagship to the take a look at.
I do know what you’re pondering: why did I take the iPhone 16 Professional Max, and never the shiny new iPhone 17 Professional Max? Properly, primarily as a result of I’m contractually obliged to share all telephone samples with my TechRadar colleagues (boo!), and it didn’t appear truthful to steal away our solely iPhone 17 Professional Max unit for a number of months. But additionally, the iPhone 16 Professional Max runs iOS 26 simply as comfortably as its successor, and Apple’s newest software program replace launched a hidden nightography function that I used to be desirous to strive on any appropriate iPhone.
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Evening Mode has been a function of all iPhones (excluding iPhone SE) because the iPhone 11 and iOS 13, however iOS 26 noticed Apple introduce Evening Mode Max, which raises the publicity ceiling from 10 seconds to 30 seconds. This basically permits the iPhone’s digital camera sensor to seize 3 times extra mild and ship sharper night time photographs because of this.
Evening Mode Max permits for as much as 30 seconds of publicity time (Picture credit score: Future)
Evening Mode’s default three-second publicity time is sufficient to seize a dimly lit road intimately, however it’s nowhere close to sufficient in case you’re hoping to seize the invisible intricacies of an evening sky scene (suppose galaxies, nebulae, star trails, et al.).
The caveat is that, to entry Evening Mode Max, your iPhone has to stay fully nonetheless or be positioned on a tripod. And fortuitously, throughout my go to to the Atacama Desert, an area Chilean astronomer kindly allowed me to borrow his tripod for a single picture.
I arrange my iPhone 16 Professional Max within the mount, chosen the Evening Mode Auto toggle — which robotically seems on the high of the viewfinder when in a darkish surroundings — and let the machine undergo the motions for 30 seconds.
The unedited results of Evening Mode Max
(Picture credit score: Future)
Et voilà! The picture above is the unedited model of the picture captured by my iPhone 16 Professional Max within the Atacama Desert.
The cloudy band on the left is the Milky Approach, and that fuzzy patch of sunshine on the precise is the Giant Magellanic Cloud — a dwarf galaxy solely seen from the Southern Hemisphere. The straight line on the backside of the body is, I hope, a taking pictures star, however it might effectively be a satellite tv for pc passing by the publicity.
In any case, I used to be fairly proud of what the iPhone 16 Professional Max was in a position to seize in Evening Mode Max. My colleague, Lance, ran a comparability between the nightography capabilities of the Samsung Galaxy S25 Extremely and iPhone 16 Professional Max final 12 months, and I believe the extra 20 seconds of publicity time granted to my shot by way of iOS 26 yielded visibly completely different outcomes.
What to learn subsequent
After all, virtually all night time photographs will be improved with a contact of enhancing, however I acknowledge that most individuals aren’t snug utilizing complicated enhancing apps like Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop. So right here’s what I managed to provide you with utilizing the built-in enhancing instruments within the iPhone’s Images app…
(Picture credit score: Future)
Now, I’m no skilled photographer or significantly adept picture editor, however that’s not a foul outcome for an iPhone. And never even the newest mannequin!
At this level, I ought to most likely admit that the aforementioned Chilean astronomer informed me which edits to implement on my picture, since he repeatedly makes use of his personal iPhone to seize the night time sky in San Pedro de Atacama. I sometimes mess around with Publicity, Brilliance, Highlights, and Distinction, however he went the entire hog and tweaked practically each possibility accessible within the Images app.
Listed below are the precise edits, in case you wish to replicate them your self:
- Publicity: -21
- Brilliance: +17
- Highlights: -25
- Shadows: -29
- Distinction: +25
- Brightness: +7
- Black Level: +7
- Saturation: +27
- Vibrancy: -16
- Heat: -55
- Tint: -61
- Sharpness: +49
- Definition: +68
- Noise discount: +49
So there you have got it — the easiest way, for my part (and within the opinion of a proficient Chilean astronomer, whose title I dearly want I might keep in mind), to seize the night time sky on an iOS 26-compatible iPhone: activate Evening Mode Max, and edit the bejesus out of the ensuing picture.
After all, devoted telescopes will yield even higher outcomes, and we’ve detailed find out how to step up your stargazing sport on a budget in a separate article. But it surely’s superb to see how far astrophotography has come on units as soon as thought-about incapable of capturing the night time sky in any significant element.
A daytime view of the Atacama Desert in Chile — proof that I used to be there! (Picture credit score: Future)
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