Top Shot and Photobooth modes

Google has incorporated its famous AI into the cameras on the Pixel 3 in a more comprehensive way than ever before. Married with HDR+ capability, a feature called Top Shot captures a sequence of images, then checks them all and recommends the best one that has all your subjects smiling, facing the camera and not blinking.

If you're more into self-portraits, there's another feature called Photobooth. Again, the AI can determine when you're smiling or making a face. It then snaps the photo on its own so you don't have to do that awkward shutter button reach and possibly drop your device into a canyon.

Group Selfies and Super-Res Zoom

Group Selfie gives you a field of view that's 184 percent wider than the normal mode. You can activate it by double-tapping the power button, switching to selfie mode (by double flicking your wrist) and then double-tapping. Or you can simply ask the Google Assistant to "take a group selfie." At that point, you can fit yourself, your friends, and/or a scenic backdrop into the scene.

If you want to go the other way, there's the Super Res Zoom. It's still a digital rather than optical zoom, but the Pixel 3 takes multiple photos in order to reduce the grain. So in the end, you get a telephoto, sharp, non-pixelated picture without needing a second lens. Because of the multiple exposures, however, you'll have to keep your phone steady when you shoot that way.

Low-Light Capability

Oftentimes you must make a difficult choice when shooting photos around a fire or at a bar or concert. If you don't use the flash, the shot will be unusably grainy, but if you do use it, it could look artificial and non-flattering. The Pixel 3's solution to this is Night Sight (yes, Google has a fancy name for all these features).

Cameras like Sony's A7 III can easily handle low light nowadays, but how does the Pixel manage with a tiny smartphone sensor? As with the zoom feature, Night Sight takes multiple exposures in order to reduce the grain that would normally make your photos look like garbage. That gives you bright, evenly toned shots that better capture that evening mood. The only drawback, again, is that you have to hold the phone still while shooting and your subjects can't move around much either. Note that this feature won't be available right away -- it'll come along in a future update.

Portrait Mode and bokeh

Apple's latest iPhones like the XS and XS Max let shooters blur out the backgrounds to make their subjects stand out by using multiple cameras, but Google does the same thing with a single lens. You can adjust the level of bokeh-flavored blur in the shot after you take it simply by adjusting a slider. Again, this is done using AI and multiple exposures.

Motion Auto Focus

My jaw dropped when I saw that the normally reclusive filmmaker Terrence Malick had produced a short video for Google. It seemed the company wanted to flaunt its Motion Auto Focus feature that ensures your subjects stay as sharp as possible. Malick's video shows a lot of close-ups and the camera never seems to stop moving, yet everything does indeed stay sharp.

That's thanks in large part to Motion Focus, which figures out what your subject is and keeps track of it. On top of that, the Pixel 3 comes with front-facing video stabilization, keeping things steady if you're walking or moving around while recording yourself.

Live Albums and Playground

Thanks again to Google's AI, it's now a bit easier to share photos of specific people thanks to Google's new Live Albums. If you're constantly sending baby pictures to Grandma, you can create a specific Live Album. Then, whenever you snap a shot, Google will automatically add it with no manual labor required.

Finally, there's the new Playground, which lets you incorporate animated stickers of weather, pets and other things into your selfies, photos or videos. Google has added characters like Hulk and Iron Man from the Marvel Studios universe, and later this year you'll get a Childish Gambino character to dance with thanks to a collaboration between Google and Donald Glover.

Follow all the latest news from Google's Pixel 3 event here!

Video

Presenter: Chris Velazco

Script: Chris Velazco

Script Editor: Terrence O'Brien

Camera: Taylor Ligay

Editor: Kyle Maack

Producer: Michael Morris