Capturing Constellations Like Never Before: How Pixel's New Astrophotography Mode Changes Night Sky Photography

Capturing Constellations Like Never Before: How Pixel’s New Astrophotography Mode Changes Night Sky Photography

Kerry Wan/ZDNET

Pixel phone owners who enjoy taking photos in the great outdoors will appreciate a new Google Camera app upgrade rolling out now that enables manual control for Astrophotography mode within Night Sight .

The new options will first appear with the Google Camera 9.5.118 update, so until the app updates, you won’t see the features.

With this new update, the Google Camera app gets manual controls so you can adjust low-light exposure as needed. There’s also a new “Astro mode,” which sets the exposure to four minutes when your phone is pointed toward the stars. With Astro mode, you cannot set a manual time frame for the exposure (as it’s locked at four minutes). Instead, Android attempts to capture the most prolonged time frame possible for the best shot.

Also: The Pixel phone camera was already the best, but these new features make it even better.

Why does this matter? Longer exposure times make it possible to capture better images in low-light settings (such as taking a photo of the night sky). With the combination of manual low-light exposure and Astro mode, the likelihood of getting a fantastic shot of your starry starry night is considerably better.

Keep in mind that when working with such long exposures, your phone must be on a tripod (or other stabilizing device) because the slightest movement will ruin the shot. You will get warning prompts about using a tripod when in Astrophotography mode.

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Another new feature Google is rolling out – Zoom Enhance – will be found alongside Magic Erasure , Unblur , and Portrait Blur. With the help of AI, Zoom Enhance intelligently fills in the gaps between pixels and predicts the finer details for high-quality zoom results post-capture.

Google says Zoom Enhance is in the early stages, so your results may vary.

Also: Your Android phone is getting an anti-theft upgrade, thanks to AI. How it works

Astrophotography Mode and Zoom Enhance are just two of the features Google is adding to the latest iteration of its camera app.

You’ll also find a new HDR+ imaging pipeline; Super Res Zoom Video; Add Me , which adds you into photos even if you’re the one taking them; Reimagine in Magic Editor, which allows you to describe what you want and AI makes it happen; Auto Frame, which frames your photos better; and Made You Look (Pixel Fold only), which displays animated graphics to get your children to look at the camera when taking pictures.

Read more about the new features coming to the Google Camera app in the official announcement .