Take photos & pick your best shot with Top Shot

Use Top Shot to take photos and save frames from a motion photo. With Top Shot, you can also pick your favorite shot. Learn how to open your Camera app.

Use Motion Mode to take an Action Pan or Long Exposure photo

Important: Action Pan is not available on Pixel 7a or Pixel Fold.

1. Open your Camera app .
2. Scroll to Motion.
3. Choose which blur effect to use:
   • Action Pan: Add a creative blur to the background. Hold your camera still or follow a moving subject to add a creative blur to the background. Tap Capture when you have the photo just right.
   • Long Exposure: Add a creative blur to a moving subject. Hold your camera still or follow a moving subject to add a creative blur to the subject. Tap Capture when you have the photo just right.

Action Pan or Long Exposure availability

Device	Action Pan	Long Exposure
Pixel 5a (5G) and earlier	No	No
Pixel 6	Yes	Yes
Pixel 6 Pro	Yes	Yes
Pixel 6a	No	No
Pixel 7	Yes	Yes
Pixel 7 Pro	Yes	Yes
Pixel 7a	No	Yes
Pixel Fold	No	Yes
Pixel 8	Yes	Yes
Pixel 8 Pro	Yes	Yes
Pixel 8a	Yes	Yes

Tips for taking an Action Pan photo

Action Pan works best when:

• The subject is a person with a visible face.
• The subject is moving. Photos of still or very slow-moving subjects may show no or little effect.
• There’s one obvious main subject. Try to keep the main subject in the foreground and in front of any other people in the photo.
• The subject is a large part of the photo and has been in the viewfinder for more than a second before you tap capture.

Tips for taking a Long Exposure photo

Long Exposure works best when you hold your device still. Long Exposure photos start when you tap Capture. 

The length of exposure adapts to motion in the scene depending on size and speed of the item in focus.

Use Top Shot to save individual shots from a motion photo or video

When you take a photo or quick video, you might get recommendations for a better-quality Top Shot from your photo or video.

Important: These features are only available on Pixel 3 & later, including Pixel Fold.

Turn on Top Shot

1. Open your device's Camera app .
2. At the bottom left, tap Settings . 
3. Set Top Shot to Auto  or On .

Tip: To get help, activate Google Assistant on your Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro and ask, "How do I take motion photos?" Learn more about Pixel support on Assistant.

Pick a Top Shot

Take motion photos to capture something in motion and then pick a favorite shot from your motion photo or video using Top Shot.

Tip: Recommended shots are saved in higher resolution and in HDR.

To save the motion photo as a video, tap More Export Video Export.

Turn Frequent Faces on or off

You can help the camera on your Pixel 4 or later, including Fold, to identify and recommend better shots of the faces you photograph or record the most.

When your camera finds and recommends other shots within your photos or quick videos, your camera recognizes which shots include the faces you capture often. Then, your camera recommends better photos of those faces.

If you turn on Frequent Faces, your camera saves data about the faces you photograph or record. All face data is saved on your device, not sent to Google. If you turn off Frequent Faces, your data is deleted.

To turn on Frequent Faces:

1. Open your Camera app .
2. At the bottom left, tap Settings More settings.
3. Tap Frequent Faces.
4. Turn on Frequent Faces.

Tip: On Pixel 6 and later, including Pixel Fold, Frequent Faces can also help the camera show skin tones more accurately.