Google Pixel 3 Night Sight review: Game-changer for phone photography

Holy moly, has Google just changed the smartphone camera game with the release of the Night Sight mode for its Pixel 3 and 3 XL phones.

Announced at its October Pixel 3 launch event, Google boasted Night Sight as a significant leap forward for taking night photos — useful for exposing colors and details lost in the shadows.

I’ve only just tried Night Sight, currently rolling out to Pixel 3 phones via a software update, and my mind’s still piecing itself back together from being blown apart.

It’s no secret Google has been flexing its computational photography and machine-learning skills to enhance shots taken with its Pixel phones.

Though it’s questionable whether we, as photographers and creatives, should be letting Google decide for us what is a “good-looking” photo — the Pixel 3 tends to shoot pictures that are more contrasty, more saturated, and artificially sharpened than an iPhone or Samsung Galaxy — I don’t think anyone disagrees that the company’s leveraging of software to produce better pictures is a game-changer.

Unlike regular DSLRs or mirrorless cameras, where you can attach lenses of all different sizes with different-size apertures to shoot better low-light photos, smartphones are limited by their thickness.

The tiny image sensors inside of our phones can only collect so much light. Phone makers could make these image sensors larger so they could collect more light to take better low-light photos, but it’d also make phones balloon in size, thickness, and weight as well. 

So Google turned to software. And Apple’s done the same, too. And I’d bet good money other phone makers will soon make the move as well.

Does it really work like magic? Yes, and no. But mostly yes.

With HDR+, Google proved it could take one evenly-exposed money shot by combining a series of images taken at short exposures. The results were good and have only become better.

Night Sight uses the same HDR+ technology, but injects it with steroids. Depending on how dark the scene is and the amount of luminance available (measured in lux), the Pixel 3 will take up to 15 shots at varying shutter speeds (i.e. 1/15th of a second or 1 second) and then combine them all into one final picture.

In other words, Night Sight is the equivalent to a long exposure on a “real” camera. Google gets really technical and nerdy about the details in a blog post, but what you really want to know is: Does it really work like magic?

Yes. And no. But mostly yes.

While the Pixel 3 and 3 XL are Google’s best phones to show off the power of Night Sight because of improved camera components and a faster processor, the original Pixels and Pixel 2’s are also getting the new camera mode. 

I haven’t tried Night Sight on any Pixel 1 or Pixel 2 phones yet so I can’t speak to how well it works on older hardware (Google says there are some differences and shots won’t look as good as on Pixel 3). 

But on a Pixel 3 XL, however, Night Sight seemingly turns night into day. See for yourself in the shots below.

In the below photos, I pointed the Pixel 3 at a scene so dark I could barely make out what I was shooting. The Pixel 3’s camera brightens the viewfinder in Night Sight mode so you can see what you’re shooting, but it looks really noisy.

However, you won’t see that level of extreme image noise in your photo after it’s finished processing. 

Without firing the flash, the Pixel 3’s Night Sight mode exposed this faux Thanksgiving dinner scene, bringing out the colors that would be lost without the mode turned on.

It’s a lovely shot and would work just fine for posting to Instagram or Twitter, but the picture’s a little soft overall. In really dark scenarios, the Pixel 3 struggled to find something to autofocus on. There’s a button in the upper right corner of the mode that lets you manually change the focus to “near” or “far”. I’ll have to shoot more with it in the real world to see how well it really works, though.

Night Sight enhances dynamic range. Similar to a long exposure, the colors can be more exaggerated. There wasn’t a green cast on the standup bass, but the instrument is more defined and pops in the image.

This candle-lit dinner scene wasn’t quite as dark as the one above, but you can still see Night Sight brings out the shadows nicely.

Night Sight isn’t always the best mode to shoot low-light photos with, though. Sometimes you want a little contrast and shadow to give a shot a certain tone. Night Sight can sometimes flatten the colors in an image like in the shot below. 

Mashable Deputy Tech Editor Michael Nuñez looks more spritely here. His posture is more visible and the food looks more appetizing. 

Not a whole of image noise here too. There’s a teensy bit of skin-smoothening going on, but it still looks pretty darn good.

As good as Night Sight is, you don’t wanna use it all the time. In some night shots, the regular camera just produces a better look that’s less washed out and has less image noise (see black sky in on right side of photos below) IMO:

Night Sight also works with the selfie camera. On the left is what the scene looked like to my feeble human eyes. The image is a little soft, but still… like wow.

I can’t help but be really, really impressed by Night Sight, even though it can be hit or miss with photos sometimes coming out completely blurry, soft, or full of image noise.

These nitpicks aren’t enough to stain Night Sight because this is just the first version. It’ll only get better like HDR+ has and as features like optical image stabilization improve. Using a tripod should also improve sharpness.

Night Sight feels almost like black magic. It’s really not very different from Sony’s A7S II, which is beloved for its ability to to do the same. The difference is how the Pixels are doing it. Instead of hardware, Google’s doing it all with software. Night Sight puts the Pixel 3 cameras several steps ahead of the competition — at least when it comes to night photography.

At first, I was really concerned about Night Sight misrepresenting reality. And in many ways it does. Night Sight is like having night vision — it lets you see what your naked eyes can’t. But just like a long exposure, it opens up new creative expressions for mobile photography. You should use it sparingly, but it’s gonna be hard not to. I’d love to see a future version shoot both a Night Sight version and a regular version and let us pick the one we want.