What Doesandromeda Look Like Through A Camera Phone?

There are two things a camera should have to exist expert at astrophotography: a large prototype sensor and the power to manually command camera settings. Withal somehow, the Google Pixel vi Pro manages to capture stunning astrophotographs with the press of a unmarried button. The image sensor, though much bigger than previous iterations of the Pixel line-upward, is still tiny in comparison to mirrorless or DSLR cameras. But it's the powerful machine-learning software within that makes the Pixel half-dozen Pro so skillful at capturing the stars.

And so merely how does Google's latest flagship smartphone manage to produce photos that are star-studded, with minimal image noise and stunning clarity? I decided to put the Google Pixel 6 Pro to the test, focusing on a few key areas. I'll exist taking into account its ease of use, how Artificial Intelligence (AI) processes photos to clean things up, its color treatment ability, and I'll likewise take the photos into post-processing software to see whether it'south better to shoot JPEG or switch over to RAW — the results might surprise you!

The Google Pixel 6 Pro is a low light brute, perfect for astro photos when paired with a tripod.

While PetaPixel has given the Pixel half dozen Pro loftier marks overall and currently lists it as the best smartphone to leverage computational photography, in my optics, it is also probably the best smartphone you can buy right now to capture night sky images. I realize not everyone buys a smartphone for this ability, just for those stargazers who desire the convenience of astro shooting in their pocket, then this smartphone is the 1 to become for. For my money, the Pixel 6 Pro is not but a stopgap earlier y'all accomplish for a mirrorless or DSLR, information technology's probably the fastest and easiest way to capture the galaxies with crisp precision.

Operation

Gone are the days of setting up your mirrorless or DSLR, squinting at the screen as you endeavour to pinpoint focus on a dim star in the sky. There'southward no need to calculate discontinuity, shutter speed, and ISO sensitivity, or warm up the lens barrel before shooting. All you need is the Google Pixel six Pro and a tripod.

Shooting astrophotography with the Pixel six Pro is an absolute doddle. There are 2 options for shooting in low calorie-free with the smartphone: Night Sight mode and Astrophotography mode. They each aim to overcome specific problematic shooting conditions.

Night Sight, which has been around on Pixel smartphones since 2018, works by using Artificial Intelligence to create well exposed low light scenes when shooting handheld. Information technology looks for camera shake blur, motion blur, and other issues such as high paradigm racket, and then works autonomously to remove them from the last shot.

Astrophotography fashion, however, only appears when using Night Sight and the phone is completely even so. Information technology's best to mount it to a tripod (I've used the Joby Gorillapod and accompanying phone holder with my Pixel 6 Pro) merely y'all could also only prop information technology upward on a rock.

Here are how to access both features:

Night Sight Way

1. Open the Photographic camera app
2. Swipe between modes at the bottom of the screen, navigating to the Dark Sight option
3. The shutter release icon volition turn into a crescent moon, tap this and hold the phone as steady every bit y'all tin can while it captures the photo

Astrophotography Mode

1. Navigate to Night Sight as above
2. Make sure the telephone is on a tripod or propped up against something and remains completely still
3. The crescent moon shutter release icon turns to stars, tap it to capture an astrophoto
4. Wait up to four minutes for the exposure to finish

One thing I actually like most the astrophotography mode is that it displays a countdown timer on the screen. By counting downwards the exposure time, the boilerplate user is complimentary to think nigh other things, rather than concentrate on technical settings such as shutter speeds and ISO. For pros who like shooting in manual mode this lack of control might be a piddling frustrating, just let's face up it, if you're going to be shooting professional-grade astro images you're non going to be relying on a smartphone.

A helpful on-screen countdown timer makes it simple to keep track of longer exposures.

Another smashing feature is the level which appears when the phone reaches near-level. It appears equally two lines, one labelled by degrees of how far out of alignment the phone may be. If you hit 0 degrees (completely level) so the Pixel vibrates slightly which makes it like shooting fish in a barrel to get horizons expressionless straight without faffing.

Colour Handling

Overall, color handling is good in the Pixel half-dozen Pro. The majority of the time the white balance is spot-on and does an excellent chore at riding the fine line between reducing light pollution and keeping colors realistic. Occasionally though, it'south a little inconsistent. Swivel the camera round and take four or five different astro shots and you'll likely finish upwards with 2 or 3 different white balances. For example, a shot including the skyline of a distant city will produce a much warmer photo than one taken straight up at the stars with no foreground.

Unprocessed

DNG Processed: Due to light pollution the original JPEG image contains lots of magenta and orangish in the lower third of the frame, a little color correction in Lightroom Classic and the problem is gone

Tapping the scene while shooting provides on-screen sliders to command highlights, shadows, and the colour temperature. Though, if you're in astro way the movement from the vibrations from the tap will likely send it into Nighttime Sight mode, and so y'all'll accept to await a few more seconds before information technology switches back. Information technology's a shame that the astro mode isn't an option yous can lock into like Night Sight is, and is definitely something I'd similar to see added in a future update.

Color temperature tin be adjusted through a slider when tapping on the screen, but there'southward no specific Kelvin scale control for cohesive white balance through a series of images.

JPEG vs RAW

The magic of Google's new Pixel phones cameras isn't in the hardware, fifty-fifty if it's been updated for the latest line-up, only rather resides in the sophisticated AI-powered software that processes the images. I'm incredibly impressed by the Pixel half-dozen Pro'due south JPEG treatment when shooting astro as it reduces prototype noise astonishingly well, balances colors evenly, removes color artifacts, and also applies lens corrections to remove vignetting and lens distortions.

However, the phone does as well offering the ability to shoot RAW files aslope JPEG. Normally when shooting whatever kind of photography, I e'er opt for shooting RAW and rarely bother with JPEG capture. But Google has washed such an excellent task at automatically addressing imaging problems in the astrophotography mode that I'm considering making an exception for the Pixel half-dozen Pro.

These three photos below show the difference between the Google Pixel half dozen Pro's JPEG image, straight out of camera, a processed RAW version, and those same processed settings applied to its JPEG image. Personally, I think the processed JPEG looks the all-time:

DNG Processed

JPEG Processed

JPEG Unprocessed

I imported the RAW files to Lightroom Archetype and went about my usual processing techniques to remove noise, get practiced color balance, and allow the stars shine, but I found that I couldn't process the prototype as make clean every bit the JPEG file it produced on its own. No thing what I did in Lightroom Classic, I was still left with some colour artifacts and prototype noise. That said, I was able to tease out more particular in the RAW files equally is to be expected. Sadly though I wasn't able to make lens corrections due to the fact Adobe has not yet to incorporate the profile into Lightroom Classic.

Afterward synchronizing the settings between RAW and JPEG files I recollect I actually adopt the look of the JPEG. I think this is all due to Google'southward imaging algorithms whirring away in the background tweaking the shots during capture, only if it works, it works.

JPEG Unprocessed

JPEG Processed: The JPEG direct out of the Pixel 6 Pro is great, but with a little processing astro shots can look even amend.

Areas That Could Be Improved

What is the first thing you call back of when picturing astrophotography? If you're anything like me, it might be a beautiful, wide vista with an expansive sky overhead. The Pixel half-dozen Pro's new ultra-wide lens would exist ideal for this kind of photography, only unfortunately, astro fashion tin only engage when using the standard lens at 1x or 2x zoom.

It would be great to utilize the new ultra-wide lens for astro to fit more of the night sky into frame, and peradventure this is something we'll run into in future editions of the Pixel line. Disappointing though information technology is for the Pixel 6 Pro, it'due south non a deal-breaker. As you can run across from the example images information technology however captures a decently wide field of view on the standard lens.

It would also be good to see and set colour temperature values when capturing astro shots, which would do good the cohesiveness of not only a series of shots merely too the timelapse function.

A passing car ruins a four minute long exposure equally it nears the end of the shot, some kind of lens hood might have prevented this.

The phone is susceptible to some lens flare and glare from light sources, fifty-fifty though in-built software is designed to intelligently reduce this as much as possible. This isn't much of a problem when shooting during the day, but becomes more credible with the longer exposures required for nighttime photography. Passing car lights or flashlights easily flare beyond the lens, spoiling astro shots. While a lens hood would probably be asking a chip much of a smartphone, it would be overnice to see some kind of improvement on lens shielding.

Stellar Results for a Compact Camera

A wait at the cost for the Pixel 6 Pro reveals that it'southward extremely competitive at just $899. Toll, along with the sheer number of incredible features the Pixel six Pro has including 4x optical zoom, an ultra-wide lens, and fantastic low light/astro shooting features means I can't run across why anyone would voluntarily opt for a compact point-and-shoot camera these days where convenience is paramount.

Overall, for a smartphone that tin shoot astrophotographs every bit competently as this, the Pixel 6 Pro tin can't exist beaten. This is certainly its specialty and information technology performs extremely well. I'm sure with future software updates we'll see this pushed even farther, especially at present that Google has a smartphone with new photographic camera hardware and the self-created Tensor chip living inside.

Pros

• Astrophotography feature makes shooting easy
• Fantabulous processing removes image noise

Cons

• Express to four minute exposure
• Heavy vignetting around edge of frame

Should You Buy Information technology?

Aye, especially if you're looking to upgrade your smartphone and are thinking of purchasing a bespeak-and-shoot camera for astrophotography. There's no demand to get those two devices separately if you opt for this smartphone, and you'll probably salve a scrap of money too. Cheers to the smart processing in the Pixel vi Pro and freshly updated camera hardware you can easily capture astrophotographs so detailed that the Milky Style and other galaxies, constellations, and more are within attain. And all from something that slips into your pocket.

Source: https://petapixel.com/2021/11/04/google-pixel-6-pro-astrophotography-review-stellar-results/

Posted by: mcdonaldroure1972.blogspot.com

Share this post