DIY Photography

Your one stop shop for everything photo-video

  • News
  • Inspiration
  • Reviews
  • Tutorials
  • DIY
  • Gear
Search

Submit A Story

Google’s Night Sight feature lets you shoot in the dark without a tripod or flash

Nov 15, 2018 by Dunja Djudjic Add Comment

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

Google Pixel 3 may only have one rear camera, but it relies heavily on Google’s promising AI to deliver high-quality images. The latest feature Google launched for all three generations of Pixel lets you shoot clean and bright images in near darkness – even when you can barely see anything with your own eyes. It works on both front and rear cameras, and you don’t even need a tripod or a flash.

The Night Sight builds on Google’s HDR+ mode, which was first introduced in 2014 and can be found on all three generation of Pixel phones. It shoots a burst of images and merges them together, improving the dynamic range in situations with tricky lighting. “As it turns out, merging multiple pictures also reduces the impact of shot noise and read noise,” Marc Levoy of Google writes. So, “why not use HDR+ to merge dozens of frames so we can effectively see in the dark?”

With the Night Sight feature, you can capture clean and sharp images in the regime between 3 lux and 0.3 lux. To give you an idea, 3 lux is a “sidewalk lit by street lamps” and 0.3 lux is “I can’t find my keys on the floor.” So, just by using a smartphone, a single shutter press, no LED flash and no tripod – your Google Pixel phone can find those keys on the floor. And apparently, take a sharp photo of them.

According to Levoy, there are two problems with the Night Sight feature. First, it uses positive-shutter-lag (PSL), unlike the default mode which uses a zero-shutter-lag (ZSL). With the PSL, the phone waits until after you press the shutter button before it starts capturing images. So, you need to hold still for a short time after pressing the shutter. But on the other hand, this allows the use of longer exposures.

The second problem is motion blur due to the handshake or to moving objects in the scene and it comes with increasing exposure time. The optical image stabilization found on Pixel 2 and 3 “reduces handshake for moderate exposure times (up to about 1/8 second), but doesn’t help with longer exposures or with moving objects, Levoy explains. Google solved this problem is solved by measuring motion in a scene and setting per-frame exposure time that minimizes blur. If the camera is stabilized, the exposure of each frame is increased to as much as one second. In addition to varying per-frame exposure, the number of frames captured varies as well: 6 if the phone is on a tripod, and up to 15 if it is handheld.

You can read more about the Night Sight feature on Google Blog and see more sample images. The result seems pretty impressive, considering that these are smartphone images taken with a single camera.

[via DPReview, Google Blog]

FIND THIS INTERESTING? SHARE IT WITH YOUR FRIENDS!

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

Related posts:

The new Super Dark variable ND from Syrp lets you shoot long exposure timelapse in bright sunlight How to shoot night neon-themed portraits without leaving home Default ThumbnailHow Good Is Your Hue Sight? Here is a rare sight for a 19th century photo: a smile

Filed Under: news Tagged With: Computational Imaging, computational photography, google, Google Pixel, Google Pixel 3, Google Pixel 3 XL, Night Vision, smartphone photography

Dunja Djudjic: from diyphotography.net

About Dunja Djudjic

Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.

« Lume Cube AIR is a super-portable, app-controlled light for your photo and video work
It costs over $130,000 to deliver this $23,000 Nikon kit to the ISS »

Submit A Story

Get our FREE Lighting Book

DIYP lighting book cover

* download requires newsletter signup
DIYPhotography

Recent Comments

Free Resources

Advanced lighting book

Recent Posts

  • Ace your next portrait shoot with these composition tips
  • This is how to get photography clients on Instagram – even with few followers
  • “I prefer using smaller cameras” – an unorthodox take on size
  • A pigeon scares a meteorologist as it photobombs a live camera
  • Photographer files lawsuit against NFL receiver and teams after shoving incident

Udi Tirosh: from diyphotography.netUdi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.

Alex Baker: from diyphotography.netAlex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe

David Williams: from diyphotography.netDave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.

John Aldred: from diyphotography.netJohn Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

Dunja Djudjic: from diyphotography.netDunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.

Copyright © DIYPhotography 2006 - 2023 | About | Contact | Advertise | Write for DIYP | Full Disclosure | Privacy Policy