Why is nobody talking about the Astrophotography mode?

nooblearner · Nov 27, 2019

I have searched the internet for examples of Astrophotography with the Google Pixel 4/4XL and couldn't find any other than what Google has put out. So, I recently went to the closest International Dark Sky Reserve in my area and captured these photos.
Am I the only person interested in this feature? ?

dave5777 · Nov 27, 2019

No, you're not alone I too have been playing with this. I just got my tripod mount and live in the country. I haven't had time to get some shots like yours, very good!

biggiestuff · Nov 27, 2019

Those are amazing. I might try it now. Have you tried with any human subjects in the photo? Would it even come out at all?

nooblearner · Nov 27, 2019

biggiestuff said:
Those are amazing. I might try it now. Have you tried with any human subjects in the photo? Would it even come out at all?

Yeah. Like the one with the tree.
By the way, the light on the tree is coming from a cellphone flashlight that was behind the camera. That's a cellphone flashlight at about twenty-thirty feet away!

nooblearner · Nov 27, 2019

What about the moon?. Have you guys taken pictures of it yet?

Mackay53 · Nov 27, 2019

nooblearner said:
What about the moon?. Have you guys taken pictures of it yet?

I've tried it but suns light on the moon made the picture awful, too much light interference.

You'd need to get a relatively dark moon for it to be decent

nooblearner · Nov 27, 2019

Mackay53 said:
I've tried it but suns light on the moon made the picture awful, too much light interference.

You'd need to get a relatively dark moon for it to be decent

The picture I took was the November full moon.

sic0048 · Nov 27, 2019

It certainly a great feature, but it is also pretty niche.

First, you have to have a tripod or other way to hold the phone steady. This isn't that difficult to figure out, but it also means that all the people that simply rush outside to try it the first time are going to get crappy results if they try to hand hold it.

Second, having access to a dark environment away from light pollution is very helpful. Unfortunately, the vast majority of us live where light pollution is a real problem. Even the smallest towns have so many lights that it prevents these dramatic pictures from being taken. The images I have been able to take are "meh" at best. Impressive technologically, but meh photographically......

MishaalRahman · Nov 27, 2019

nooblearner said:
I have searched the internet for examples of Astrophotography with the Google Pixel 4/4XL and couldn't find any other than what Google has put out. So, I recently went to the closest International Dark Sky Reserve in my area and captured these photos.
Am I the only person interested in this feature? ?

It's a great feature, but it's simply not viable for most people due to the excessive light pollution from most cities. I had to drive 1.5 hours away from home just to take my shots: https://www.xda-developers.com/google-pixel-4-camera-review/

nooblearner · Nov 27, 2019

MishaalRahman said:
It's a great feature, but it's simply not viable for most people due to the excessive light pollution from most cities. I had to drive 1.5 hours away from home just to take my shots: https://www.xda-developers.com/google-pixel-4-camera-review/

As does anyone attempting to photograph the stars. On a side note, my city is changing out the lighting here to improve star visibility. It has been working. I took this in my backyard. I used Photoshop Express "Vibrant" filter and this is it. All Astrophotography has post processing.
Can you see Orion? ?

MishaalRahman · Nov 27, 2019

nooblearner said:
As does anyone attempting to photograph the stars. On a side note, my city is changing out the lighting here to improve star visibility. It has been working. I took this in my backyard. I used Photoshop Express "Vibrant" filter and this is it. All Astrophotography has post processing.
Can you see Orion?

Yes, but that's the problem: Most people won't want to go that far just to take photos of the stars. They might do it during the occasional vacation, though. Since there aren't that many people taking Astro shots, the feature won't get talked about that much.

nooblearner · Nov 27, 2019

sic0048 said:
It certainly a great feature, but it is also pretty niche.

First, you have to have a tripod or other way to hold the phone steady. This isn't that difficult to figure out, but it also means that all the people that simply rush outside to try it the first time are going to get crappy results if they try to hand hold it.

Second, having access to a dark environment away from light pollution is very helpful. Unfortunately, the vast majority of us live where light pollution is a real problem. Even the smallest towns have so many lights that it prevents these dramatic pictures from being taken. The images I have been able to take are "meh" at best. Impressive technologically, but meh photographically......

Have you tried with a regular camera? If so, can you still capture even with the light pollution?
I drove an hour and a half to get these photos. I had to do research to find the location, e.g. Light Pollution Map app, local Dark Sky Reserve, and opportunity to access it.

I want to get the Milky Way. I'll have to buy the Photopills app and plan for that shot months in advance. I already know where I want to get the shot, otherwise I would have to plan that too.

It takes planning to get these shots. ?

Mackay53 · Nov 27, 2019

nooblearner said:
Have you tried with a regular camera? If so, can you still capture even with the light pollution?
I drove an hour and a half to get these photos. I had to do research to find the location, e.g. Light Pollution Map app, local Dark Sky Reserve, and opportunity to access it.

I want to get the Milky Way. I'll have to buy the Photopills app and plan for that shot months in advance. I already know where I want to get the shot, otherwise I would have to plan that too.

It takes planning to get these shots. ?

The light pollution map is pretty good, I'm too far away from black skies but I'm lucky where I can get some good shots from my garden (30 mins from nearest city)

Astro filter in the photos app makes it a bit better

nooblearner · Nov 27, 2019

Mackay53 said:
The light pollution map is pretty good, I'm too far away from black skies but I'm lucky where I can get some good shots from my garden (30 mins from nearest city)

Astro filter in the photos app makes it a bit better

Those are really good!

nooblearner · Nov 27, 2019

MishaalRahman said:
Yes, but that's the problem: Most people won't want to go that far just to take photos of the stars. They might do it during the occasional vacation, though. Since there aren't that many people taking Astro shots, the feature won't get talked about that much.

Honestly, I don't think many people know how to use it.

m+a+r+k · Nov 27, 2019

nooblearner said:
As does anyone attempting to photograph the stars. On a side note, my city is changing out the lighting here to improve star visibility. It has been working. I took this in my backyard. I used Photoshop Express "Vibrant" filter and this is it. All Astrophotography has post processing.
Can you see Orion? ?

Nice how you can see the colour differences in Rigel and Betelgeuse and Alnilam.

---------- Post added at 20:01 ---------- Previous post was at 19:59 ----------

nooblearner said:
What about the moon?. Have you guys taken pictures of it yet?

That's very good for a phone camera which would normally just over-exposure the hell out of it.
Saw a full moon shot someone posted in OnePlus 7 Pro reddit. It looked like a painting by a 7 year old, no detail at all!

---------- Post added at 20:06 ---------- Previous post was at 20:01 ----------

Mackay53 said:
The light pollution map is pretty good, I'm too far away from black skies but I'm lucky where I can get some good shots from my garden (30 mins from nearest city)

Astro filter in the photos app makes it a bit better

You are really killing it with these shots, absolutely amazing!
It's about on par with the dedicated CCD cameras on tracking tripods about 20 years ago, and they cost 000s and needed dedicated software and hours of processing.

Mackay53 · Dec 3, 2019

m+a+r+k said:
Nice how you can see the colour differences in Rigel and Betelgeuse and Alnilam.

---------- Post added at 20:01 ---------- Previous post was at 19:59 ----------

That's very good for a phone camera which would normally just over-exposure the hell out of it.
Saw a full moon shot someone posted in OnePlus 7 Pro reddit. It looked like a painting by a 7 year old, no detail at all!

---------- Post added at 20:06 ---------- Previous post was at 20:01 ----------

You are really killing it with these shots, absolutely amazing!
It's about on par with the dedicated CCD cameras on tracking tripods about 20 years ago, and they cost 000s and needed dedicated software and hours of processing.

Here's a few more from tonight. The moons light just gets in the way.

m+a+r+k · Dec 4, 2019

Mackay53 said:
Here's a few more from tonight. The moons light just gets in the way.

Loving the first one, great image, you have a flair for this and composition.
Is that a lens flare in the third one? And the bright object bottom left a planet? Venus, Saturn and Jupiter set late afternoon, early evening and like you it's dark by 4:30 - 5, so Saturn?
I remember now we had a Saturn+Moon conjunction. Nice one.

Mackay53 · Dec 4, 2019

m+a+r+k said:
Loving the first one, great image, you have a flair for this and composition.
Is that a lens flare in the third one? And the bright object bottom left a planet? Venus, Saturn and Jupiter set late afternoon, early evening and like you it's dark by 4:30 - 5, so Saturn?
I remember now we had a Saturn+Moon conjunction. Nice one.

I think it was a plane but usually those usually give big light trails. Managed to get a light trail from the space station a few weeks ago so surprising what you can see.

Not sure about the planets as I'm still working out where they all are.

Managed to get Andromeda galaxy tonight (right hand side of photo) but not as much detail as I hoped cause the moon's out again.

Mackay53 · Dec 4, 2019

m+a+r+k said:
Loving the first one, great image, you have a flair for this and composition.
Is that a lens flare in the third one? And the bright object bottom left a planet? Venus, Saturn and Jupiter set late afternoon, early evening and like you it's dark by 4:30 - 5, so Saturn?
I remember now we had a Saturn+Moon conjunction. Nice one.

Possibly Uranus to the right of Andromeda on this one (according to Google star map app)

Why is nobody talking about the Astrophotography mode?

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