In 2017, Google Pixel 2 was marked as the smartphone with the best camera in the world. The power of the Google Pixel 2 camera comes from new hardware improvements and, more importantly, changes to the software used to process the images.
Many Google Pixel 2 owners still don’t know how to master the camera, and they’re missing out.
There are several options available to Google Pixel 2 owners that most users don’t take advantage of. In this guide, we explain all of these features so you can get the most out of your smartphone camera.
Table of Contents
Master the Google Pixel 2 camera app
Google has put a lot of effort into building a powerful, intelligent camera app that can learn about how to take the right kind of photos in different situations.
For this reason, the Google Pixel 2 camera app is one of the best point-and-shoot cameras in the world.
There aren’t a lot of manual settings as you usually don’t need them. Just point your camera at something like below and press the shutter button.
For the most part, that’s all you need to do. The powerful Pixel AI camera chip will do most of the hard work for you. However, there are some settings that can enhance your experience when using the Google Pixel 2 camera app.
One feature that I really like is Show dirty lenses warning. By default, this is set to off, so you’ll have to go into settings to enable it. But I can’t tell you how many times I had to tell my parents to clean my lenses before taking pictures! This will help them take better photos.
There are many other great features that we will cover below.
Edit your selfies
The Google Pixel 2 has one of the most powerful selfie cameras in the world. You can enable portrait mode to create professional-looking portraits in seconds. Simple open the cameraafterward press the menu button at the top left and touch portrait.
Next, focus the camera on your or someone else’s face, touch the person’s face on your screen, let it focus and press shutter button.
Also, in the latest update to the camera app, you can now change the way double-tap works. By default it zooms in, but you can go into the settings and change it to switch cameras. This is great for people who love taking selfies and want to switch cameras faster.
Adjust focus and exposure
Google’s camera AI is usually very good at choosing subjects to focus on, but you can easily change that by tapping areas of your screen. This way the camera will refocus its focus to the area you touched.
You can also adjust the exposure of the photo. If too much light gets through or the image isn’t bright enough, exposure settings can help.
Tap the area you want to add focus to, then use the slider that appears on the right side of the screen. Sliding up will add more light and sliding down will darken the image.
Use Google Smartburst to pick the best photos
Sometimes it can be difficult to find the highest quality photo, especially if movement is involved. With Google Smartburst, you can let AI pick the best photos.
To use Smartburst, take multiple pictures and then tap the circle icon inside bottom right.
Next, tap the Smartburst . icon center at the bottom of the screen.
Afterward, tap ‘show only the best photos’. This will show the images that the camera’s AI thinks is the best.
Finally, scroll through the images and tap to delete the ones you don’t want to keep.
You can also create animations from the images you just created. Tap the smartburst . icon again and tap ‘animate’.
This will create a small looping video file of your photo that can be shared on Instagram or other social media platforms.
Best settings for Google Pixel 2 video recording
Now that we’ve looked at how to capture stills on the Google Pixel 2, let’s now take a look at the best settings for video recording.
Improved frame rate
You can improve your Google Pixel 2’s frame rate by tap the ’30’ icon in the top left corner. You can then choose between 30 fps and 60 fps.
Remember that 60 frames per second means you can’t shoot in 4K.
Record at 4K
To shoot in 4K, you must first change your frame to 30. Next, tap menu button inside upper left corner. Next, click install.
In the settings menu, scroll down to the video section and press Rear camera video resolution. Tap to change it to UHD 4K (30 fps).
Tips for taking videos on Google Pixel 2
Recording videos on the Google Pixel 2 is pretty straightforward. Thankfully, the camera software will do most of the work for you. Stabilization is used to keep footage from shaking, but you can make your video footage even smoother by keeping your hand steady while recording.
If you’re serious about creating good video content with your smartphone, consider buying a smartphone gimbal. They might set you back around $100, but they’ll help you stabilize the video footage and create professional-quality content.
Inference
All in all, the Google Pixel 2’s camera is powerful because the AI and the software that powers it do an incredible job at automating most tasks. For the most part, simply pointing your camera at what you want to capture is all you need to do.
What do you think of the Google Pixel 2’s camera? Do you have any questions about it? If you do, leave a comment below and we’ll get back to you. Interesting!
