How to Use Google Pixel Night Sight

This article explains how to use Night Sight with your Google Pixel camera. Night Sight is yet another example of how artificial intelligence is revolutionizing the photography world. 

How to Use Night Sight

Night Sight is automatically enabled on your device, and there are two ways to access it, depending on whether your phone thinks it's necessary to use it.

If you’re taking a photo in low light, Pixel will suggest using Night Sight. The small button will appear on the screen; just tap it to initiate Night Sight.

If Night Sight isn't automatically triggered, but you want to brighten the shot, swipe over to Night Sight or, depending on your device, go to More > Night Sight.

Regardless of how you activate Night Sight, just press the camera button once and then remain as steady as possible until the shot has been taken and the camera returns to normal.

If you're photographing the night sky, exposures can last anywhere from one to four minutes.

How to Increase Your Proficiency With Night Sight

Google has tips for taking better Night Sight shots. Some suggestions include:

• Motion: Ask your photo subject to hold still for a few seconds before and after you press the shutter button.
• Stability: Prop the phone against a stable surface, if possible. The steadier the hand, the more processing can focus on the light and sharpness of the exposure.
• Focus: Tap on or around your subject before taking the picture. This step helps your camera focus when taking photos in dark conditions.
• Bright lights: At least some light is necessary, but avoid bright lights to reduce reflections in your photo.

Which Phones Have Night Sight

All Pixel phones have this function, but they don't all work the same way. 

Pixel 1 and 2 use a modified HDR+ merging algorithm to help detect and reject misaligned pieces of frames.

Pixel 3 uses a similarly re-tuned Super Res Zoom whether you zoom or not. Although it was developed for super-resolution, it also works to reduce noise since it averages multiple images together. Super Res Zoom produces better results for some nighttime scenes than HDR+ but requires the faster processor of these newer Pixels.

HDR+ with Bracketing is available to users of Pixel 4a (5G) and Pixel 5 in Night Sight mode.

Pixel 7 uses updates to HDR+ with Bracketing and machine learning techniques to reduce noise so that low-light photos have less motion blur.

How Does Night Sight Work?

Night Sight is designed to take better photos in low-light conditions for both the rear and front-facing cameras. It lets you capture vibrant and detailed low-light photos without the need for a distorting flash or tripod. Like night goggles, it’ll even work in light so dim that you can't see much with your own eyes.

Shooting in low light can be infuriating for even the best photographers. Google has tapped into its bodacious Pixel HDR+ algorithm to boost color, brightness, and stability when confronted by low light. By choosing the Night Sight option, you enable Pixel's HDR+ processing to boost colors and brightness. If the camera detects a dark environment, a pop-up suggestion automatically appears.

It's All About the HDR+

Google’s HDR+ Processing is a proprietary technology that reduces “noise” and enlivens colors. In reality, it's taking a burst of shots, then combining the best of each image to create one final version of that image. 

Night Sight is constantly adapting to both you and your photo object. As you press the shutter button, Night Sight measures for any handshake and motion in the scene and then compensates by using shorter exposure bursts. 

If stability isn't an issue, Night Sight focuses its processing power on capturing light to brighten the scene. It takes multiple photos, merges the exposures, prevents motion blur, and brightens the image, resulting in a well-lit and sharp photo.

Some critics have accused Night Sight of fabricating a photo—taking some basic visual data and then filling in the blanks with educated guesses—and they’re not entirely off-base. Night Sight is essentially an improvement of a photo technology called image stacking, which has been around for years.

And yet, Night Sight is turning heads even among SLR camera buffs.