My Pixel 9 did not want a brand new digicam app however a brand new picture editor

It’s humorous — when considered one of us right here at Android Authority has an opinion, there’s normally another person on the staff who feels precisely the identical method. So, when my colleague Dhruv argued that the iPhone 16 Professional’s Photographic Kinds put him off from the Pixel 9 Professional’s simple picture processing, I couldn’t assist however agree with him. As a lot as I like what the Tensor G4 brings to Google’s newest flagship Pixel, generally I don’t need a remaining picture that appears so true to life. I wanted I had the adjustability of Apple’s coloration profiles with the reliability of Google’s processing and determined that one thing wanted to vary.

But when I used to be going to vary one thing, what wouldn’t it be? Would I search for a unique digicam app like Open Digital camera or ProShot? Or did I would like a brand new picture editor like Lightroom or VSCO? Properly, right here’s how I made a decision.

Often, when you’re wanting to boost your Google Pixel’s digicam, you’re on the lookout for one factor — handbook digicam controls. That was a legitimate challenge for a very long time, as Google merely didn’t provide them in any actual type till it launched the Pixel 8 sequence. Even then, tweaks to the ISO, shutter pace, and capturing in RAW required you to splurge on the Pixel 8 Professional. Nevertheless, I’ve by no means actually cared about handbook controls on my smartphone digicam.

For no matter cause, I really feel like the one member of the Android Authority staff who would a lot quite snap away in computerized mode. I’m not a quick sufficient photographer to take a seat down and mess with the publicity triangle whereas I’m out for a day on the Smithsonian Zoo or having fun with a Friendsgiving forward of the vacation season. If something, I’ll decrease the brightness earlier than I snap a photograph, however that’s just because most pictures come out a bit too shiny for my liking. In any other case, I’m pleased to let Google do the identical intelligent processing methods I’ve loved for the reason that Pixel 5.

Moreover, if I had been to ditch the Pixel Digital camera app, I’d additionally hand over a few of Google’s Tensor-powered digicam options. Issues like Add Me would get subtracted, and clean photographs of working water would require the persistence for a correct lengthy publicity. Google additionally simply reworked its strategy to panoramas for the higher, and I’ve no want to return to the gradual, tough strategy of panning between two parallel strains. I’ve waited patiently for spherical after spherical of Google’s Function Drops, and I’m not about to surrender on them now.

That’s to not say there aren’t good different digicam apps on the market — there are. ProShot (which can run you $6.99) gives nearly every part you could possibly ask for, with pro-grade controls for pictures and movies and lengthy publicity modes for Gentle Portray, Timelapse, and Star Trails. Nevertheless, it’s just about the other of what I need from a digicam app, with a button-heavy format that places a settings wheel in a single nook and one other row of buttons throughout the highest of the picture preview. After I intention to shoot rapidly and edit later, the muddle simply doesn’t work.

And but, I don’t need one thing too easy, both. The just-launched Zerocam app, for instance, guarantees to be the other of at the moment’s AI-powered cameras, nevertheless it would possibly go a bit too far. It trades cluttered menus for a single shutter button, promising to ditch heavy post-processing so you may concentrate on the second quite than your digicam settings. It virtually sounds nice till you understand there’s no option to zoom or decrease your publicity in shiny scenes.

For me, Pixel Digital camera is right here to remain.

So, if I like Google’s digicam methods and the variety of buttons in Pixel Digital camera, that should imply one factor — I would like a brand new picture modifying platform. In spite of everything, if I need my Pixel 9 Professional to really feel extra like an iPhone 16 Professional, and I need my iPhone 16 Professional to really feel extra like my Fujifilm X100V, then I have to need my Pixel 9 Professional to really feel like my trusty point-and-shoot. And actually, there’s not a greater option to sum it up. I need the pictures my Pixel places out to match how I really feel within the second quite than to look completely true to life, if that is sensible.

With my Fujifilm X100V, I lock in my movie simulation, slim my settings to 1 or two tweaks per scenario, and snap round no matter metropolis I’m in. Then, I can save any precise modifying for later, figuring out that my preexisting settings have completed loads of the onerous work for me. With the iPhone 16 Professional, I can do this utilizing a Photographic Type. With the Pixel 9 Professional, I suppose I’ll want a brand new picture modifying app.

Anyway, now that I’ve narrowed that down, I feel I’ve three choices: Google’s personal Pictures, VSCO, and Lightroom Cell. Pictures would, in fact, be the best possibility because it’s already on each Pixel I’ve ever used, nevertheless it’s the opposite two platforms that received me considering. I’d largely laughed off VSCO as one thing that top college children use as a substitute of Instagram filters, and I believed Lightroom Cell could be extra highly effective than I’d want. However, when Dhruv talked about each in his authentic piece praising the iPhone 16 Professional’s Photographic Kinds, I figured it could be time to dig in.

So, I did what anybody would do — I grabbed just a few pictures I’d snapped with the Pixel 9 Professional and got down to edit them on my three competing platforms. By the way in which, that is one more reason I’m leaning in the direction of a brand new modifying platform over a brand new digicam app: I can return and punch up photographs I took months in the past. Listed here are the outcomes of my fast testing:

After my fast set of checks, I believed I’d be capable of let you know definitively which picture editor was my favourite. I figured one would shine brighter than the others and earn a everlasting place on my Pixel. As a substitute, I’ve discovered issues I like and dislike about all three. VSCO, for starters, is extremely restricted when you’re not prepared to pay for it. You basically get entry to a sliver of the general presets, primary tweaks to publicity and white stability, and that’s it. Positive, the G3 and P5 presets look good, however there’s not sufficient flexibility and not using a price.

Lightroom Cell could be very a lot the identical method, however I’m prepared to be a little bit extra versatile as a result of I’m already an Adobe buyer. As a result of I exploit the desktop model of Lightroom virtually each day, I robotically have entry to the premium options inside Lightroom Cell, making it straightforward to faucet into the identical Auto Retro presets I typically use, in addition to the same total interface. It labored completely for tweaks like fixing the geometry of my photographs — particularly in straightening the Fred’s Tavern signal — and utilizing the attention dropper to set my white stability. Nevertheless, I can’t shake the truth that my shot of a fence working alongside the dunes seems to be a little bit bit washed out in Lightroom in comparison with the remaining.

After which there’s Google Pictures — the basic standby. By way of ease of use, it’s robust to beat. As quickly as you open a picture in Pictures, Google is correct there to counsel tips on how to edit it, normally making it sharper and extra vivid or suggesting that you simply change the sky altogether. It labored fairly effectively for the solar setting over the bay, including a inexperienced moodiness to my shot, however I used to be much less impressed on the opposite two checks, with the dunes taking up a sepia tone that makes every part look a bit too flat.

If I needed to choose a winner, I’d stick to what I do know.

So, welcome to my setup, Lightroom Cell — or no less than a mix of Lightroom Cell and Google Pictures. Regardless that Lightroom Cell didn’t come out as a commanding winner throughout all three of my checks, it confirmed sufficient promise in fixing geometry and giving entry to presets that I’m already acquainted with that I’m prepared to take extra time to be taught the platform. It’s actually a unique expertise from utilizing Lightroom on my MacBook Air, nevertheless it’s shut sufficient that I really feel like I’m beginning nearer to second base. With a little bit extra follow, I think about I can get shut sufficient to the edits I need and accomplish that with out including one other subscription to my present pile.

After all, when you actually don’t wish to pay for a brand new picture editor, you could possibly in all probability get by with Google Pictures by itself. Its urged edits aren’t half dangerous, normally sticking to the fundamentals like altering your depth of area or letting Gemini improve your colours. You can even soar into just a few easy filters as beginning factors on your edit, although they don’t take different settings like brightness, distinction, or saturation into impact, so that you may need to spend a bit extra time menu-hopping till you get your settings excellent. It doesn’t appear to be Google Pictures enables you to construct a preset, both, so it received’t be as straightforward to get the identical settings twice — one more reason to provide Lightroom Cell no less than half an opportunity.

In case you do, you would possibly discover that it will get your Pixel 9 Professional as near the iPhone 16 Professional — or perhaps a mirrorless digicam just like the Fujifilm X100V — as attainable. Google did lots to cement its newest flagship as one of many finest digicam telephones on the market; I simply assume some intelligent edits can take it even additional. You’ll have to beat a little bit of a studying curve, nevertheless it’s price it for the completed product.