Google Pixel photo editing features can fix your almost-perfect family photos. Here’s how.

A professional photographer wasn’t in the cards, so in the delivery room, Byrne gave her Google Pixel to her husband, Tom. As each boy entered the world, Tom snapped a photo of their swaddled, squirming bodies. Their faces turned out sharp and still in the pictures thanks to Portrait Mode, which blurred out the background and put all the focus on her newborns. “I’m grateful for those once-in-a-lifetime moments to be captured in a way we can rely on with no worry or guessing if the photos will turn out,” Byrne says.  

For new parents, births are just the first in an endless string of photo-worthy moments that digital cameras have made easy to capture. Riley Adams, who says he’s the “unofficial photographer in the family,” has filled his Google Photos albums with thousands of pictures of his two toddlers taken with his Google Pixel. From that trove of images, he creates separate albums, one for each set of grandparents, to publish as Google Photos books and give as Christmas gifts.

“Google Photos does a remarkable job of grouping images by event, selecting the most important ones, and then organizing them into an engaging sequence in these books,” says Adams, who works as an accountant at Google.

This year, the albums will contain pictures from the family’s summer trip to Poi‘pū Beach in Hawaii. Amid photos of their little ones splashing in the water at the shore, Adams says he used Portrait Mode for a picture of his wife, Lily, and their two boys to draw more attention to his favorite subjects: “my family!” Portrait Mode brings subjects to the forefront of a picture, focusing on them while blurring out everything behind them – just like in a professional photo shoot. “It has better lighting, shading, and blur,” says Adams.

To clean up the action shots of his kids, Adams relies on the Pixel editing features. “I live by those tools,” he says. Magic Eraser has helped him put the focus back on his kids by cutting out unwanted background objects.³ Photo Unblur improves photos – new or old – from any camera. This makes it even easier to remove blur and visual noise with one tap so photos look their best. And once you’re done with editing, Google One offers storage and even more editing with AI-powered Magic Editor for all of your photos.

Google Pixel phone features can be particularly helpful when you’re asking five family members to hold still and take a great photo. Laura McGee-Gramke can count on Best Take to get the best shot.¹

Every August at her house, her four kids plus their dad squeeze together on the front step, and she snaps a picture to remember the moment. It’s the first day of a new school year.

“I always tell them, just show me what you’re feeling,” says McGee-Gramke. “I want to bottle that snapshot of our family together.” 

The oldest child, Sophie, and dad, Stephen, pose in the back, while the younger trio of Kate, Claire, and Charlie takes up the front row. Some years there are gleeful smiles, while in others, there are silly frowns. But when she likes, McGee-Gramke can always opt for a photo that’s entirely smiles, thanks to Best Take, which uses AI to combine similar shots into one where everyone’s putting their best face forward.

“Kids grow fast,” McGee-Gramke says. “The photos help me go back and feel those moments again.” 

Learning how to take family photos has traditionally been an exercise in patience. Picture this: Just like McGee-Gramke’s family, your kids are posing for their annual back-to-school photos. At the last second, your youngest turns away from the camera. 

Pixel 9 Pro Fold gives you a trick to grab the attention (and smile) of your most distracted loved ones: Made You Look. While you frame the photo, Made You Look plays a silly sound and animation on the outer screen, encouraging eye contact and genuine smiles from your kids.

We’ve all relied on designated family photographers, selfie sticks, or helpful strangers to help us snap group pics. Add Me makes sure no one is left out of a photo. Take one with the group, then swap in the photographer. Pixel magically merges both photos.² 

Say you’re on a remote camping trip and there’s not a helpful stranger in sight. Your amateur photographer partner may not mind taking the photos, but you’d like them in the picture with you and your kids. Have them take the first photo, then swap places with them. Using augmented reality, your Pixel will guide you to take a similarly framed photo. Then, with just a few taps, Add Me seamlessly merges the two photos into one complete image.

That’s a lot of amazing photography help, but it’s just scratching the surface of Pixel’s suite of tools. See what else you can accomplish with AI-powered features like Best Take,⁴ Add Me, and Magic Editor.⁵