Google Pixel’s Night Sight lets you shoot in the dark without a flash
Aperfect photo-op has presented itself. Well, perfect, that is, except for one critical problem: There’s barely any light.
You could fire up a flash, but the results are often unsatisfactory. Besides, in some places using a flash is prohibited altogether. And a flash won’t do you much good if what you want to shoot is a landscape.
When Google launched the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL smartphones recently it promised a Night Sight feature that would address such problems, by letting you take pictures in dimly-lit places without a flash.
Over the next few days, Night Sight will be coming to the latest
Pixels, and the previous two generations of Google’s Pixel phones, through an update to the Camera app. The feature works on both the front and rear cameras on these devices.
I’ve gotten to try the Night Sight ahead of time, using a Pixel 3 XL. I got decent albeit imperfect results. I was quite pleased with some night-time shots of my kids in the backyard, and in at least one instance with an indoor shot of my daughter taken in a dark room.
But some images were badly pixelated, with the flaws especially visible if you zoom in on a picture. And a shot of the trees in my neighbourhood came out a bit blurry and made night-time look a bit like dusk.
Still, most Night Sight pictures I took are more than Instagram-worthy. I had already reaped praise on the Pixel 3 XL camera in a prior review. The addition of Night Sight makes the already excellent camera here all the better.
The way Google explains Night
Sight, the feature constantly adapts to you and your surroundings, and it doesn’t matter if you’re holding the Pixel yourself or propping it on a steady surface. Before you press the shutter button, Night Sight measures your natural hand shake, and how much motion is in the scene. If Night Sight detects a still and stable scene, the camera will capture more light to minimise noise; if the Pixel does detect movement in the scene or by the shooter, Night Sight will use shorter exposures, capturing less light to minimise motion blur.
Google adds that if your subject moves, instead of capturing one bright and blurry photo, Night Sight will grab an equal amount of light over a burst of many dark but sharp photos. It will then merge the burst to help prevent motion blur and brighten the photo.
When you launch the Camera app in some low light settings, you may see a notification suggesting you use Night Sight. But you can also manually turn on the setting.
After I pressed the shutter for my own Night Sight pictures, I was directed to hold the phone still for another couple of seconds — and if you are shooting a person, you’ll want to direct them to remain still too. You’ll know you’re shooting in Night Sight mode because the shutter button has a crescent moon-shaped icon on it.
If it is very dark, it may help to tap on or around your subject to help the camera focus. But remember, you’ll need some light for the feature to work. There are no miracles to be had in the pitch black.