Sandstone curved into a fist, and one clean shaft of light finding the floor. Everything else falls into shadow.
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.
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
Save the version you want to Photos.
Open Settings, then Wallpaper, then Add New Wallpaper.
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 PromptCopied
A canyon photograph looking straight up a narrow slot canyon: smooth water-carved sandstone walls sweeping and flaring in warm orange and rust tones, a single narrow shaft of direct midday sun falling the full height of the frame and landing as a bright pool on the sandy floor, fine wind-scoured texture and faint horizontal sediment lines in the rock, every other surface falling away into soft reflected glow. One hard sun source from directly above, deep warm shadow everywhere else, no flare, no lens dust, no footsteps or tracks in the sand. Compressed vertical perspective with the walls nearly filling the sides. Still and enclosed. 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 PromptCopied
A canyon photograph looking straight up a narrow slot canyon: smooth water-carved sandstone walls sweeping and flaring in warm orange and rust tones, a single narrow shaft of direct midday sun falling the full height of the frame and landing as a bright pool on the sandy floor, fine wind-scoured texture and faint horizontal sediment lines in the rock, every other surface falling away into soft reflected glow. One hard sun source from directly above, deep warm shadow everywhere else, no flare, no lens dust, no footsteps or tracks in the sand. Compressed vertical perspective with the walls nearly filling the sides. Still and enclosed. 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. Night adjustment, 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.
Proud Husband. Cat Dad. Tech Enthusiast. Player of Video Games. Writer of Words. Listener of Music. Reader of News. Picture Taker. I've been playing video games since the early 70's and haven't run out of lives yet!
Light Version
Lock and home screen · ZIP
Download Light
Dark Version
Lock and home screen · ZIP
Download Dark