Your Pixel phone or tablet provides many advanced options to take and edit photos. Learn how to open your Camera app.
Take a straight photo with Framing hintsWhile using your camera, your phone will be straight when the two lines meet, and the angle is zero.
- Open your Camera app .
- Hold your phone steadily. A yellow line and a white line appear in the middle of the screen.
- To make the lines meet, rotate your phone left to right and tilt it forward and backward.
- If you point your phone up or down at your subject, the "Up/Down" indicator appears.
- To align the "Up/Down" indicator and take a straight photo, rotate your phone left to right and tilt it forward and back.
- Open your Camera app .
- At the bottom left, tap Settings.
- Tap More settings.
- Turn off Framing hints.
You can use the slider at the bottom of your photos to adjust the photo’s:
- Focus
- Shutter speed
- ISO
You can capture high-resolution, 50 MP photos and control other aspects of your photos like color and exposure.
To turn on high resolution:
- Open your Camera app .
- On the bottom left, tap Settings Pro tab.
- Set Resolution to 50 MP.
To take portrait photos:
- Open your Camera app .
- In the photo mode carousel, tap Portrait Capture .
To add a blurred background on your photo:
- Open the Google Photos app .
- Tap Photos.
- Tap Edit photo Tools Blur .
- Move the Blur slider.
You can use Face Retouching to adjust your skin texture, under-eye tone, and eye brightness.
To turn on Face Retouching:
- Open your Camera app .
- In the bottom menu, tap Portrait Settings Face Retouching.
- Select an option:
- Off
- Subtle
- Smooth
Adjust your camera lens
Select your camera lens manuallyThis feature is only available on:
- Pixel 6 Pro
- Pixel 7 Pro
- Pixel 8 Pro
- Pixel Fold
When you zoom in or out your camera, your phone automatically selects which lens to use. However, if you want to select a specific lens, you can enable Manual Lens Selection.
- Open your Camera app .
- At the bottom left, tap Settings .
- Go to the Pro tab.
- Next to “Lens Selection,” tap Manual .
- When this feature is active, the standard zoom control is replaced with a button for each lens on your phone:
- Ultrawide (UW)
- Wide (W)
- Tele (T)
- To zoom, touch and hold the button for the lens you want to use.
- To zoom out, on the screen, you can also pinch your two fingers together. To zoom in, you can spread them apart.
Important: This feature is only available on Pixel 4a (5G) and later versions.
You can use Ultrawide zoom to capture more people and surroundings.
- Open your Camera app .
- On your screen, pinch your screen to zoom out.
- To focus on the subject of your photo, point your camera at the subject
- Tap on the subject. A white circle appears and moves on the screen with the subject.
- To lock the focus and exposure on a subject that moves, tap Lock .
- Open your Camera app .
- On the photo mode carousel, tap Panorama.
- Tap Capture .
- Hold the lens steady while you move the camera horizontally. Be sure to keep the white frame aligned.
- To take a vertical panorama, rotate your phone vertically. Then, move your camera up or down.
- When you're done capturing your image, tap Stop recording .
Tip: To cancel a photo, tap Close .
Important: This feature is only available on Pixel 3 to Pixel 7a.
With your Pixel camera, you can create different types of 360-degree photo spheres, such as panorama photo spheres and fisheye photos. To create a 360-degree photo sphere:
- Open your Camera app .
- On the photo mode carousel, tap Photo Sphere Capture.
- Hold the target circle over a white dot. The dot will turn blue, then disappear.
- Move the camera to the next white dot as you hold the lens steady.
- Repeat until there are no more white dots, or tap Done .
To change your Photo Sphere type:
- At the bottom left, tap Settings .
- To take a 360-degree photo, tap Panorama photo sphere .
- To take a horizontal photo, tap Horizontal .
- To take a vertical photo, tap Vertical.
- To take a photo with a wide arc, tap Wide-angle .
- To take a fisheye photo, tap Fisheye .
Important: This feature is only available on Pixel 7 Pro and later.
Use Macro Focus to capture small details like flower petals or dew drops in your photos and videos.
To use Macro Focus:
- Open your Camera app .
- Move your device close to your subject.
- Tap the screen to place the focus.
- When the Macro flower appears, take your photo or video.
Tips:
- Do not shade your subject or block your light source.
- To turn Macro Focus on or off, tap .
- To focus on a specific part of your subject, tap the screen where you want to focus.
- This feature also works with Auto Night Sight.
Capture photos of subjects from a distance. With the next generation of zoom lenses, you can zoom up to 30x on some Pixel devices.
Tip: Zoom stabilization turns on automatically on Pixel 7 Pro, Pixel 8 Pro, and Pixel Fold phones zoomed to 15x.
- Open your Camera app .
- Zoom into your subject.
- For quick adjustments: Tap the 2x or 5x zoom button above the shutter.
- For more precision: Pinch the screen or swipe across the zoom buttons to show the zoom slider.
- Tap your subject to focus.
- Take your photo.