Google’s Pixel smartphones have always been known for the high quality of the images you can take with them. Now the ninth generation devices are getting even more features that make the snapshots you take look like professional shots. Google
At its Made at Google event, the company not only presented a lot of new hardware such as the Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro Fold, the Pixel Buds Pro 2 and the Pixel Watch 3, but also showed new camera functions. With the help of AI, shots can be optimized while taking the photo or edited afterwards.
According to Google, HDR has been given a complete makeover and has been tweaked in a number of ways. Images are said to be significantly improved in many areas, such as exposure, sharpness and contrast. Images taken in poor lighting conditions will particularly benefit from this. For the first time, HDR+ will also be available for panoramic photos. The completely redesigned mode offers a new interface that is much more intuitive and guides the user through the process step by step.
Google took the opportunity to demonstrate the alleged superiority of its new panoramic images with a comparison between the Pixel 9 Pro XL and the iPhone 15 Pro Max. While the image of a mountain range taken with Apple’s smartphone is barely recognizable, many details of the surroundings are visible in the Pixel photo.
Google introduced a completely new function called “Add Me”. This not only allows you to swap the heads of people in a photo, as with “Best Take”, but also to insert entire people who were not originally in the picture. To do this, at least two shots are taken, which are then subsequently combined by the algorithm into a single photo.
Google has come up with a special feature for the Pixel 9 Pro Fold. One of these is designed to help you take better pictures of small children. The “Made You Look” function uses the screen on the back of the foldable. One of several funny animations can be displayed on it while you are trying to take a photo. These are designed to attract the children’s attention so that they look into the camera and laugh.
But the folding phone also has something to offer adults. When taking a photo, the image can also be displayed on the external screen if desired. This way, the person being photographed can also see exactly what the image will look like. Those who are more familiar with photography will also have more control over individual parameters in the future with the “Pro Controls”. These include shutter speeds or manual focus.
With the help of the Magic Editor, photos that have already been taken can also be edited in different ways afterwards. For example, the alignment of crooked images can be corrected. If image areas in the corners of the photo are missing due to subsequent rotation, the AI fills them in and adds even small details. In addition, entire sections of a photo can be spruced up by clicking on them and entering the appropriate text. For example, flowers can be added to a photo of a green lawn. Individual objects can also be inserted very precisely at a specific location in the photo by marking an area. As an example in the presentation, a hot air balloon was placed in the sky in a snapshot.
The new features for the Pixel 9 models improve both the quality of the images taken and the post-processing options. In most cases, the AI features work so well that a layperson will not notice any abnormalities in a photo edited with artificial intelligence. What was also noticeable during the presentation, however, was that the results are not always satisfactory on the first attempt.
Overall, when it comes to photography, Google once again delivers an impressive package with features that are currently not available on any other smartphone. But the company is charging a high price for this. If you want to have all the new options at your disposal, you have to go for the Pixel 9 Pro Fold.
