Take high quality photos on your Pixel phone or tablet

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 hints

While using your camera, your phone will be straight when the two lines meet, and the angle is zero.

1. Open your Camera app .
2. Hold your phone steadily. A yellow line and a white line appear in the middle of the screen.
3. To make the lines meet, rotate your phone left to right and tilt it forward and backward.
4. If you point your phone up or down at your subject, the "Up/Down" indicator appears.
5. To align the "Up/Down" indicator and take a straight photo, rotate your phone left to right and tilt it forward and back.

Turn horizon leveling and the up or down indicator on or off

1. Open your Camera app .
2. At the bottom left, tap Settings.
3. Tap More settings.
4. Turn off Framing hints.

Control how your photos appear with Pro Controls

You can use the slider at the bottom of your photos to adjust the photo’s:

• Focus
• Shutter speed
• ISO

Take a high-resolution (50 MP) photo

You can capture high-resolution, 50 MP photos and control other aspects of your photos like color and exposure.

To turn on high resolution:

1. Open your Camera app .
2. On the bottom left, tap Settings  Pro tab.
3. Set Resolution to 50 MP.

Take a portrait photo with Portrait mode

To take portrait photos:

1.  Open your Camera app .
2. In the photo mode carousel, tap Portrait  Capture .

To add a blurred background on your photo:

1. Open the Google Photos app .
2. Tap Photos.
3. Tap Edit photo Tools Blur .
4. Move the Blur slider.

Tip: For Pixel Tablet, you can only use Portrait mode on the front camera.

Enhance your facial photos (Face Retouching)

You can use Face Retouching to adjust your skin texture, under-eye tone, and eye brightness.

To turn on Face Retouching:

1. Open your Camera app .
2. In the bottom menu, tap Portrait  Settings  Face Retouching.
3. Select an option:
   • Off
   • Subtle
   • Smooth

Adjust your camera lens

Take a wider shot with Ultrawide zoom

Important: This feature is only available on Pixel 4a (5G) and later versions.

You can use Ultrawide zoom to capture more people and surroundings.

1. Open your Camera app .
2. On your screen, pinch your screen to zoom out.

Adjust the sharpness of the subject with auto-focus

1. To focus on the subject of your photo, point your camera at the subject
2. Tap on the subject. A white circle appears and moves on the screen with the subject.
3. To lock the focus and exposure on a subject that moves, tap Lock .

Tip: If you have accessibility features turned on, to focus on and expose the subject of your photo, double-tap your screen.

Take a panorama

1. Open your Camera app .
2. On the photo mode carousel, tap Panorama.
3. Tap Capture .
4. 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.
5. When you're done capturing your image, tap Stop recording .

Tip: To cancel a photo, tap Close .

Take a 360-degree photo sphere

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:

1. Open your Camera app .
2. On the photo mode carousel, tap Photo Sphere Capture.
3. Hold the target circle over a white dot. The dot will turn blue, then disappear.
4. Move the camera to the next white dot as you hold the lens steady.
5. 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 .

Take a close up with Macro Focus

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:

1. Open your Camera app .
2. Move your device close to your subject.
3. Tap the screen to place the focus.
4. 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.

Take a photo or video from far away

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.

1. Open your Camera app .
2. 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.
3. Tap your subject to focus.
4. Take your photo.

Tip: Bright light is best for photos captured with zoom and stabilization.

Related resources

• Get started with photos on your Pixel phone or tablet
• Change your Camera app settings on your Pixel phone
• Open & close your Camera app on your Pixel phone