iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro: 5 camera tips for stunning Diwali photos and videos

Diwali brings together colourful decorations, glowing diyas, fireworks and family celebrations. But capturing these moments on a smartphone can be challenging, particularly when dealing with low light, mixed lighting and fast-moving subjects. The iPhone 18 Pro introduces camera features such as variable aperture and expanded manual controls, while Apple's existing photography tools offer more ways to improve festive pictures and videos.

Here are five ways to capture better Diwali moments using your iPhone 18 Pro or iPhone 17 Pro.

1. Adjust aperture for diyas and family portraits

The iPhone 18 Pro's 48MP Fusion Main camera features a variable aperture with four settings: ƒ/1.48, ƒ/1.8, ƒ/2.8 and ƒ/4.0. For candlelit rooms and dimly lit celebrations, ƒ/1.48 allows more light into the camera. The ƒ/1.8 setting can help separate portrait subjects from their backgrounds, while ƒ/4.0 is useful for group photographs where more faces need to remain in focus.

2. Use shutter speed to capture sparklers

Sparklers and fireworks move quickly, making them difficult to photograph.

The iPhone 18 Pro's manual controls let users experiment with shutter speed. A slower shutter speed can turn moving sparklers into light trails, while a faster setting can freeze action.

For fireworks, try the telephoto camera to frame distant displays against rooftops and city skylines. Keep the phone steady when using higher zoom levels.

3. Try Photographic Styles and ProRAW

Diwali scenes often combine warm diya light, colourful LEDs and indoor lighting. This can make it difficult to capture natural colours. Photographic Styles 3 offers controls for colour, tone, texture and grain. ProRAW, meanwhile, provides greater flexibility when editing exposure, highlights, shadows and colour temperature.

These options can help when the lighting conditions are particularly challenging.

4. Use Portrait Mode and AE/AF Lock

For family photographs, Portrait Mode can help separate people from decorative backgrounds. The 2x optical-quality zoom can also be useful for individual portraits. When photographing rituals or children playing with sparklers, touch and hold the subject on the screen until AE/AF Lock appears. This locks focus and exposure, helping prevent unwanted changes while framing the shot.

5. Make festive videos with slow motion and time-lapse

The iPhone 18 Pro supports 4K recording at 120 frames per second in Dolby Vision, allowing users to capture slow-motion footage of sparklers and other fast-moving moments. For longer scenes, try time-lapse to record rangoli-making, home decorations or the lighting of diyas. A tripod or stable surface will help.

You can also explore Audio Mix when editing festive videos to adjust how dialogue, music and background sounds are heard. A little experimentation with camera settings can make a difference. Instead of relying on automatic mode for every shot, try different lighting, focus and recording options to capture the atmosphere of Diwali.