Your Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra Can Take Better Photos by Changing a Few Settings

I Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra is one of the best phones you can buy in 2026, and if you already own one, I have good news for you: Your phone can take better pictures than it does now.

Samsung it added a larger aperture (to two sensors) and improved its camera processing for better performance compared to Apple. iPhone 17 Pro this year. However, if you’ve never played with the settings, you’re not taking full advantage of Samsung’s new development.

The Galaxy S26 Ultra has a flexible camera system, but the default settings may not work for everyone. They didn’t do it for me. So I delved deep into the buried menus and found ways to improve shutter speed, reduce compression and trigger the 24 megapixel processing pipeline, among other things. If you are not satisfied with the picture quality on your Samsung phone right now, I recommend that you look at these options in the Samsung Camera Assistant.

Find the Camera Assistant settings

Camera Assistant on Galaxy smartphones is a Good Lock module (actually a plugin). Add more settings to the default camera app. For a very long time, Samsung didn’t preload these settings on its flagship phones, but things have changed with One UI 8.5 on Samsung’s latest flagships. You can now find Camera Assistant settings within the Camera app.

To get these additional settings:

1. Open the Camera operating system.
2. Tap the four dots icon to get the menu.
3. Tap Settings.
4. Scroll to Camera Assistant. Tap on it.
5. It will take you to the Samsung Galaxy Store with a Camera Assistant pop-up. Tap Enter.

However, if it’s not here, you’ll need to install the Good Lock app via the Galaxy Store. Search for Camera Assistant and download the module from there.

Once found, you are now ready to control the processing and operation of the camera. Some of these options are not better than others, but here are the ones I recommend changing and which setting would fit in which situation.

Use all those megapixels

The Galaxy S26 Ultra has a 200-megapixel primary camera, but it switches to a 12-megapixel shooter out of the box. Although these images are smaller in size, you won’t get the same amount of detail and clarity as the higher resolution modes. I don’t recommend shooting everything in 200-megapixel mode, either – it’s slow and will eat up your storage faster than anything else.

I found the 24 megapixel mode to be the best of both worlds. It can take fast photos and get sharp results at the same time without having a large file size.

The best part is that Samsung has improved its processing to capture images with 24-megapixel resolution even at digital zoom.

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As a result, you get 24-megapixel capture from three camera sensors, including these zoom ranges: 0.6x to 0.9x for the ultrawide, 1x to 1.9x for the main and 5x to 9.9x for the periscope telephoto camera.

The phone’s 10-megapixel 3x sensor misses out on this feature due to its low resolution and the main camera shifts everything from 2x to 2.9x at 12 megapixels, despite using high resolution mode.

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I suggest you change the default resolution to 24 megapixel mode because it is enough for almost all situations. The only time I noticed a difference was when shooting neon lights in each mode. The former artificially illuminates the entire frame, while the 50-megapixel mode at 9.2x zoom exposes landmarks, resulting in more natural-looking images like the example below.

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In most cases, the 24 megapixel mode is always the sweet spot and here’s how you can make it the default resolution for your Galaxy S26 Ultra photos:

1. Go to Camera Assistant.
2. Scroll down to find the graphics settings.
3. Tap 24 MP resolution

4. You will see two settings: 24 MP in portrait mode and 24 MP resolution retention. Open both.

While you’re at it, these are the settings you can change under Camera Assistant settings if:

You want full control over the lenses

You need to disable Auto Lens Replacement. By default, the Galaxy S26 Ultra’s camera system automatically switches between the four rear cameras based on lighting, the phone’s distance from the subject and the zoom range.

It is not a very wise decision to rely on the intelligence of your phone. For example, if you move the phone closer to the subject to get a great shot, it takes a few seconds to settle on the usable lens based on your distance. During this time, time can be lost.

Instead you can decide on the lens you want to use, approach the subject and take the picture, without changing the default lens. All you need to do is close it Auto Lens Replacement convert under Lens and Zoom option.

You need more accurate skin tones

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Samsung phones can sharpen skin tones, especially under artificial lighting conditions. If you are not a fan of the processed look, you can choose softer skin tones by going to To soften the image option under the graphics menu and configure it In the middle or At the top.

In the two shots above, you can see that the image on the left (with image softening turned off) has a strong black point and shadow. In comparison, the shot on the right (converted to Image Softening At the top) has a more natural feel to it. My skin and beard still have the same detail in both shots, but I prefer the softer, less processed image on the right.

What else?

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By default, Samsung saves Distortion Correction it’s open again Adaptive Pixel and Upscale Digital Zoom turned off. But you should experiment with these settings according to your photos. Turning them on may result in a better looking image. For example, when I took a picture of my watch, the default settings couldn’t detect the glow of the world phase problem (on the left with Snoopy). However, when I turned on Adaptive Pixel and Upscale Digital Zoom, it was able to give me more detail with the dial.

On the other hand, Distortion Correction corrects the bending lines in the image, which may be caused by lens distortion. So turning it on results in better looking photos, especially those involving buildings.

Other than these two settings, I would usually recommend that you turn on Quick Tap Shutter until last year. However, I have yet to see a noticeable difference in images with this setting on or off on my Galaxy S26 Ultra. Samsung has improved the shutter speed on its flagship this year, but moving subjects can still get a halo effect on default settings. You can improve a bit on this by enabling the Prioritize Focus Over Speed toggle (found under Focus).

Figuring out these settings has helped me get the most out of my pocket camera. Hopefully they’ll improve your photography experience on the Galaxy S26 Ultra, too. And I suggest checking the filters available in the viewfinder as well trying to create your ownas you wish. It’s delicious!