Physical changes are also welcome, so things like skins, cases, screen protections etc... are fine to discuss.

For me, in this order:

• Wi-Fi calling: it was very surprising that this was not on by default, and enabling it helped a bit with the battery life on my Pixel 7a;
• Try custom launchers: I was happy with the phone but the very first annoying thing is the damn Google search bar and how there was no way to just hide it like any other widget. So I ended up installing KISS Launcher (it's FOSS and still maintained);
• Bite the bullet and install GrapheneOS: you get more security, sandboxed Play Services, a more fine-grained permissions system and you can still install the default Pixel apps from the Play Store while cutting off their internet access, and most importantly you get rid of the Google bar (also enabled Wi-Fi calling as previously done).

The Pixel phone cameras and their AI photo enhancements using Google's Tensor chip are among the things where Pixel phones shine and which make their owners fall in love with them. In case you didn't see it already, please take a look at all of the beautiful shots by the members in our Pixel photography megathread and feel free to contribute your own! 😁

Whether you're a photography geek or just starting out, this thread aims to be a place to share tips and tricks to make the most out of your Pixel phone's camera and its AI magic to capture stunning shots.

Please feel free to share your favorite tricks regarding but not limited to:

• Accessories: what are your must-have accessories that level up your photography experience?

• Composition techniques: rule of thirds, golden ratio... do you use any of these techniques?

• Digital zoom: do you ever use it?

• Google Camera settings: what are your go-to settings in the Google Camera app for different scenarios? Or do you prefer using another app?

• Gripping: how do you like to hold your device when shooting photos and videos?

• Lenses: which lenses do you use the most? Do you find yourself using macro and wide angle more, or telephoto (maybe even for close ups)?

• Lighting: how do you deal with different lighting conditions to get the perfect shot?

• Portrait shots: how do you get that perfect bokeh effect in your portrait shots?

• Post-processing: which Google Camera filters do you use the most? Do you use any other Android apps for additional post-processing or do you post-process on PC?

Model-specific tips are of course also welcome. Don't forget to state what phone model you have when posting!

Can't wait to see what photography hacks you've got up your sleeves! 📸✨

-- with love by AlmightySnoo & hackitfast

(photo featuring the Google Camera app by Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian)

We'll keep it in a single sticky thread for now and see how it goes. Please don't forget to indicate which model you used to take the photo! 😁

EDIT: Won't be pushing Pixelfed anymore. As someone in the comments already said, it reduces the quality of your photos. And Lemmy.world isn't a small instance anymore and should handle the photos so we'll ignore the recommendation below, unless of course you don't mind the lossy compression that's being applied :-)

If you want a tiny bit of lossless compression before posting your photos, if you're on Linux you could feed them to jpegoptim.

~~The following is of course not necessary, but if it's not too complicated for you it might be preferable to host your photos on a Pixelfed instance if they are too large to help lessen the burden on the lemmy.world instance!~~

~~Basically, once you upload your image on a Pixelfed instance, you can embed your image here by right-clicking (or long tap if on your phone) on the Pixelfed pic, choosing "copy image link" (or opening it in a new tab and copying the URL if your mobile browser doesn't show this), and then you paste the URL here inside an image tag like this:~~

~~![](PASTE_URL_HERE)~~

Discussions and suggestions about how the community is run, the moderation, the rules etc... go here!