I’ve used Pixels for years, and for most of that time, taking a photo has looked exactly the same. Open the camera, point it at whatever caught my eye, tap the shutter, and move on. Pixels have always done the hard work for me so well that I never really felt the need to explore much beyond that. But that changed when I swiped across the row of camera modes sitting just above the shutter button. I’d obviously seen them before, but I’d never paid much attention to what was actually hiding there. Turns out, quite a lot.

That carousel is where some of the Pixel camera’s most interesting tricks live, and I’d been ignoring most of them because the regular photo mode rarely gave me a reason to look elsewhere. But once I started trying them on my Pixel 11 and Pixel 11 Pro XL, I realized how much I’d been missing. Suddenly, cameras I thought I knew inside out felt surprisingly new again.

This is where things get blurry

Hold still, let everything else move

The first mode I really fell for was Long Exposure, mostly because it can make an otherwise ordinary photo look far more interesting. Swipe over to it, frame your shot, hold the phone as steady as you can, and the Pixel takes care of everything else. Anything moving through the frame gets blurred, while everything standing still stays relatively sharp.

That opens up a lot more possibilities than I initially expected. Point it at a busy road at night, for example, and ordinary headlights can turn into long streaks of light running through the frame. Try it with a waterfall or fountain, and the moving water takes on that smooth, almost silky look you’d normally associate with a much more carefully planned photo. I even found myself looking at moving cars, crowds, and flowing water differently because I was constantly wondering what long exposure could do with them.

Chasing the perfect shot

Making fast things look even faster

Sitting right next to Long Exposure is Action Pan, and in some ways, I’ve had even more fun with this one. It tries to keep it sharp while adding motion blur to the background. The result is that exaggerated sense of speed you often see in sports or automotive photography, except you don’t need to know much about photography to pull it off.

I’ve been using it whenever something refuses to stay still. My dog running across the park is an obvious subject; this mode adds that streaky background behind my dog, and suddenly the same shot has movement and energy.

It also involves a little technique, which makes it more fun to use. I try to follow the subject with my phone as I tap the shutter. I definitely don’t nail it every time, especially when my subject changes direction without warning, but when it works, the results can look far more deliberate than the effort I actually put in.

Okay, this one feels like magic

Finding stars I couldn’t even see

Then there’s Night Sight, which you’ve probably already used without even thinking about it. The Pixel is smart enough to automatically kick it in when things get dark, whether I’m taking a photo inside a dimly lit restaurant or trying to capture friends outside at night. But swiping over to Night Sight manually gives me a little more control over what I’m trying to capture, and that’s also where one of my favorite Pixel camera tricks comes in: Astrophotography.

This one requires a little more patience. The phone needs to be completely still, so I usually prop it against something solid or place it on a tripod, point it toward a clear patch of night sky, and leave it alone. Once the Pixel realizes it isn’t moving, Astrophotography kicks in and starts capturing the scene over the next few minutes.

The waiting is actually part of the fun because the final photo can look nothing like what I can see with my own eyes. Stars that were barely noticeable suddenly fill the frame, and on a particularly clear night with very little pollution, you can even capture details in the Milky Way.

When one frame isn’t enough

Keep sweeping; there’s more to see

Panorama is probably the least exciting-looking mode in this entire row, but I’ve ended up using it, too. It’s the same sweep-across-the-scene trick that phone cameras have had for years. But every once in a while, I’ll come across something that refuses to fit inside a regular photo, and that’s when Panorama suddenly earns its place.

Wide landscapes are the obvious example. If I’m standing somewhere with mountains stretching across the horizon or looking out over a huge city skyline, a normal photo can feel like I’m chopping off half of what made the view impressive in the first place. Panorama lets me sweep across the entire scene and capture much more of what I’m actually seeing.

Good videos come to those who wait

Google Photos has some work to do

If you’re using a Pro model like my Pixel 11 Pro XL, there’s another trick worth knowing about when you switch over to video: Video Boost. I don’t leave it on all the time, but I’ve found it particularly useful when I’m recording in situations where the regular video camera starts to struggle.

Nighttime is where I notice the biggest difference. If I’m walking down a dimly lit street or recording a concert, Video Boost can work on the brightness, colors, stabilization, and overall detail of the footage. It can take a clip that looks a little dark or rough straight out of the camera and turn it into something cleaner and more polished.

There is one catch, though, and it’s important to know before you use it. Video Boost doesn’t do all of that processing directly on the phone. After I finish recording, the clip needs to be backed up to Google Photos, where the boosted version is processed. That delay is also why I don’t bother using Video Boost for every random video I shoot. If I’m quickly recording my dog doing something ridiculous, the regular video mode is more than enough.

This one is hiding in plain sight

The best tricks stay hidden

The sixth is the newest, but it works a little differently from everything else I’ve mentioned. Magic Capture isn’t another option sitting in the camera’s mode carousel. Instead, it’s a setting that works in the background and automatically kicks in when you capture a video. It automatically pulls out the best moments from a video and turns them into high-quality still photos, so you don’t have to scrub through the clip and grab frames yourself. It essentially lets you record the moment first and worry about finding the perfect shot afterward.

The photo mode is so good you never look further

My advice: spend five minutes exploring your Pixel’s camera before you need these modes. Swipe through the carousel, try them, and you’ll quickly learn what each mode does and, more importantly, remember it when the right moment comes along.

That’s what changed for me. I spent years treating an incredibly versatile camera like a simple point-and-shoot because the regular photo mode was already so good. I still use it most of the time, but now I know when it’s worth swiping sideways. Sometimes, that one little swipe is all it takes to turn an ordinary shot into something much more interesting.