The Cool New Feature on Google's Pixel 4: Astrophotography

One of the coolest new features on Google's pixel 4 phone is astrophotography. I recently posted a couple of photos on Twitter, and people seem to be really excited about this mode. Some people even went out and bought pixel fours just to have the Astra mode, but let me tell you, side note don't do that because this is software, and it's being ported to a lot of phones.

I've gotten a ton of messages from people saying I can already do this on my phone. That's technically true, but Google is doing astrophotography completely differently than everybody else. Regular phones and cameras for that matter do astrophotography by leaving the shutter open for extended periods of time to capture more light. Now, the main problem here is that if you have other lights in the shot they're generally going to get pretty blown out because you need to have that open shutter to be able to capture the stars which are not exactly very bright.

With regular phones, the cameras can still make these usable but it does take a little bit of post-processing. What the pixel is doing is something that Google likes to call HDR+ on steroids. If you don't know what HDR+ is, make sure you watch my video over here, because effectively what the phone is doing is taking a bunch of really short exposures which is able to maintain those highlights and then it stacks all of those exposures on top of each other, takes the average pixel color for every single pixel, bumps the shadows up in that way, you get a lot of dynamic range.

Astrophotography mode is basically the same thing except this time Google leaves the shutter open for about 15 seconds. Now, it takes about 15 to 16 different exposures and stacks them on top of each other and also does something called semantic segmentation. What this does is it recognizes the sky and says hey I need to process this slightly differently to kind of pull out the detail from the stars. This allows you to take some Astro images a lot simpler than before, it's pretty much plug and play as long as the phone recognizes that one, it's dark enough, and two, you're not moving the phone at all.

The other benefit here is that there's a rule of thumb that says you should not keep the shutter open longer than 20 seconds if you don't want to get start Rell's. But because Google is only taking 15 second exposures and then aligning them, you get perfectly sharp images. Honestly, I think one of the coolest things about astrophotography mode is that it's purely software. This is something that we technically should have done a couple of years ago but people are just now thinking to do it in this way.

So, what does this mean for you? This means that you're gonna be able to do this on a lot more phones. I wouldn't be surprised if multiple manufacturers implemented this into their default camera app down the line. But, if you want to get access to this now and you don't have a pixel for, there are a lot of G cam images online that you can port onto your phone.

I just had a ton of fun with the astrophotography mode on the phone, it got me outside multiple times more than I would have gone outside normally. I had a ton of fun with my friends just shooting the Stars on a random night. If you want to learn more about the pixel 4's new camera features, I have a detailed article up here that you can click on.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enso one of the coolest new features on Google's pixel for phone is astrophotography I posted a couple of photos on Twitter and people seem to be really really excited about this mode some people even going out and buying pixel fours just to have the Astra mode and side note don't do that because this is software and it's being ported to a lot of phones and yeah look I've gotten a ton of messages from people saying I can already do this on my phone we'll always have this for a couple of years and that's technically true but Google is doing astrophotography completely differently than everybody else so regular phones and cameras for that matter do astrophotography by leaving the shutter open for extended period of time to capture more light now the main problem here is that if you have other lights in the shot they're generally going to get pretty blown out because you need to have that open shutter to be able to capture the stars which are not exactly very bright and with regular phones the cameras you can still make these usable but it does take a little bit of post-processing but what the pixel is doing is something that Google likes to call hdr+ on steroids and if you don't know what hdr+ is make sure you watch my video over here but effectively what the phone is doing is taking a bunch of really short exposures which is able to maintain those highlights and then it stacks all of those exposures on top of each other takes the average pixel color for every single pixel bumps the shadows up in that way you get a lot of dynamic range astrophotography mode is basically the same thing except this time google leaves the shutter open for about 15 seconds now it takes about 15 to 16 different exposures and stacks them on top of each other and also do something called semantic segmentation what this does is it recognizes the sky and it says hey I need to process this slightly differently to kind of pull out the detail from the stars now what this does is allow you to take some Astro images a lot simpler than before it's pretty much plug and play as long as the phone recognizes that one it's dark enough and two you're not moving the phone at all the other benefit here is that there's a rule of thumb that says you should not keep the shutter open longer than 20 seconds if you don't want to get start Rell's but because google is only taking 15 second exposures and then aligning them you get perfectly sharp image but honestly I think one of the coolest things about astrophotography mode is that it's purely software this is something that we technically should have done a couple of years ago but people are just now thinking to do it in this way so this means that you're gonna be able to do this on a lot more phones I wouldn't be surprised if multiple manufacturers implemented this into their default camera app down the line but if you want to get access to this now and you don't have a pixel for there are a lot of G cam images online that you're able to port onto your phone and honestly I just had a ton of fun with the astrophotography mode on the phone it got me outside multiple times more than I would have gone outside normally and I had a ton of fun with my friends just shooting the Stars on a random night now if you want to learn more about the pixel 4s new camera features I have a detailed article up here that you can click on I did this interview with Mark Lavoie who makes the camera software at Google so make sure you check that out if you want to learn more and make sure you stay tuned the website we're gonna have more pixel for content more content across all of Android because we are an authority and I will catch you in the next videoso one of the coolest new features on Google's pixel for phone is astrophotography I posted a couple of photos on Twitter and people seem to be really really excited about this mode some people even going out and buying pixel fours just to have the Astra mode and side note don't do that because this is software and it's being ported to a lot of phones and yeah look I've gotten a ton of messages from people saying I can already do this on my phone we'll always have this for a couple of years and that's technically true but Google is doing astrophotography completely differently than everybody else so regular phones and cameras for that matter do astrophotography by leaving the shutter open for extended period of time to capture more light now the main problem here is that if you have other lights in the shot they're generally going to get pretty blown out because you need to have that open shutter to be able to capture the stars which are not exactly very bright and with regular phones the cameras you can still make these usable but it does take a little bit of post-processing but what the pixel is doing is something that Google likes to call hdr+ on steroids and if you don't know what hdr+ is make sure you watch my video over here but effectively what the phone is doing is taking a bunch of really short exposures which is able to maintain those highlights and then it stacks all of those exposures on top of each other takes the average pixel color for every single pixel bumps the shadows up in that way you get a lot of dynamic range astrophotography mode is basically the same thing except this time google leaves the shutter open for about 15 seconds now it takes about 15 to 16 different exposures and stacks them on top of each other and also do something called semantic segmentation what this does is it recognizes the sky and it says hey I need to process this slightly differently to kind of pull out the detail from the stars now what this does is allow you to take some Astro images a lot simpler than before it's pretty much plug and play as long as the phone recognizes that one it's dark enough and two you're not moving the phone at all the other benefit here is that there's a rule of thumb that says you should not keep the shutter open longer than 20 seconds if you don't want to get start Rell's but because google is only taking 15 second exposures and then aligning them you get perfectly sharp image but honestly I think one of the coolest things about astrophotography mode is that it's purely software this is something that we technically should have done a couple of years ago but people are just now thinking to do it in this way so this means that you're gonna be able to do this on a lot more phones I wouldn't be surprised if multiple manufacturers implemented this into their default camera app down the line but if you want to get access to this now and you don't have a pixel for there are a lot of G cam images online that you're able to port onto your phone and honestly I just had a ton of fun with the astrophotography mode on the phone it got me outside multiple times more than I would have gone outside normally and I had a ton of fun with my friends just shooting the Stars on a random night now if you want to learn more about the pixel 4s new camera features I have a detailed article up here that you can click on I did this interview with Mark Lavoie who makes the camera software at Google so make sure you check that out if you want to learn more and make sure you stay tuned the website we're gonna have more pixel for content more content across all of Android because we are an authority and I will catch you in the next video\n"