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Terraced rice terraces under a full moon, dark version Terraced rice terraces at sunrise, light version
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Plate 2 · Aurora Over A Frozen Lake

Drag across the screen, or press L and D

An aurora is the only landscape where the sky is the event and the ground is just the frame. The ice fissures are there so your eye has somewhere to land.

Then the same scene again after dark, for the people who run their phone in dark mode and want a wallpaper that stops glowing at them.

Each download is a pair. You get the scene for your lock screen, and the same scene blurred and dimmed for your home screen, so your icons and their labels stay readable instead of fighting the picture. Every file is 1320 × 2868 pixels, the exact resolution of the iPhone 18 Pro Max display.

Light version preview Light Version Lock and home screen · ZIP Download Light
Dark version preview Dark Version Lock and home screen · ZIP Download Dark
Both Versions All four files · ZIP Download Both

Turn Perspective Zoom off before you tap Set. These are sized exactly to the display, so the parallax effect crops a little off the top and bottom.

All four files are free, there is no signup, and they fit any recent iPhone. Use the dark version if you keep your phone in dark mode.

How To Set It

  1. Save the version you want to Photos.
  2. Open Settings, then Wallpaper, then Add New Wallpaper.
  3. Pick the image, pinch to frame it, and tap Set as Wallpaper Pair.

The Prompt

The light version came out of ChatGPT, and the dark version is that same frame graded down. Both recipes are below, so you can run the prompt yourself or grade your own frame the same way.

Light Version Prompt Copied
A photograph of the sky above a frozen lake: a pale green and violet aurora arcing high, wind-scoured snow and thin ice fissures in the foreground catching the faint glow, a low band of dark pine silhouettes along the far shore, pinpoint stars showing through the curtains of light. The aurora is the only light source, deep navy shadows, no artificial light, long-exposure calm, crisp detail in the ice, subtle fine grain. vertical 19.5:9 smartphone wallpaper composition, subject centered with wide empty margins left and right, clear calm space at the very top and bottom, no text, no letters, no watermark, no logo.
Dark Version Prompt Copied
A photograph of the sky above a frozen lake: a pale green and violet aurora arcing high, wind-scoured snow and thin ice fissures in the foreground catching the faint glow, a low band of dark pine silhouettes along the far shore, pinpoint stars showing through the curtains of light. The aurora is the only light source, deep navy shadows, no artificial light, long-exposure calm, crisp detail in the ice, subtle fine grain. vertical 19.5:9 smartphone wallpaper composition, subject centered with wide empty margins left and right, clear calm space at the very top and bottom, no text, no letters, no watermark, no logo. same scene and same framing: relight this exact composition after dark. Moonlight or ambient night glow becomes the only light source, the sky drops to deep indigo or black, the shadows deepen so most of the frame sits near black, and the brightest highlight stays only where the light touches water, mist, ice or metal. Keep every element in its original position. No text, no letters, no watermark, no logo.

Our own dark file is not a second render. It is exactly this frame graded down to night, which is why the two line up pixel for pixel when you drag the divider above. The dark prompt is what to run instead if you would rather make your own dark version from scratch.

Every Wallpaper So Far

One new iPhone wallpaper most mornings, in a light and a dark version, all free, all sized 1320 × 2868 for the iPhone 18 Pro Max.

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