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If you look through the camera roll on your phone, what kind of photos do you find? I see images of my friends, my pets, the odd receipt for a work expense and snapshots of coffee — hey, I was a barista for 11 years! Not every photo is meant to rival an Ansel Adams masterpiece. (Though I’m sure if he had a smartphone, he’d also take a pic of his parking space to remember where he parked his car.)
If you want to take better photos with your phone, Google has added a new tool to the Pixel 10 cameras that could help boost your skills. Camera Coach is powered by Gemini AI and serves up step-by-step instructions for different techniques: how to improve your framing, select the right lens and even hold the phone. Gemini doesn’t alter any of the images but merely acts as a guide, making you do all the work.
What’s great is that you learn in the process. At a time when AI is everywhere, it’s nice to see Google use Gemini as a teaching tool.
I haven’t seen a feature like Camera Coach on any other phone. To test whether this was another AI gimmick or something I’d use more than once, I took it around the streets of San Francisco. And I came away with a lot of great images that I’d say are keepers.
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When there’s a man standing with his head inside a bell you don’t need much guidance to get a good photo. Camera Coach helped me improve my framing to get a truly great shot.
Patrick Holland/CNET
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How to use Camera Coach
Camera Coach works on these phones:
Pixel 10
Pixel 10 Pro
Pixel 10 Pro XL
Pixel 10 Pro Fold
In the Camera app, frame your subject and, before you tap the shutter button, press the Camera Coach button at the top right (a camera icon with the plus sign). Next, an overlay pops up as your scene is scanned and analyzed. Gemini offers thematic suggestions specific to your composition. You choose one and then have distinct directions on what to do. Finally, you work your way through each step until you get to take the photo.
I used Camera Coach’s Get Inspired option and was guided step-by-step on how to get this very cool and dramatic up close shot of a pair of Ray-Bans reflecting a nearby sculpture in the lenses. I also had a very patient subject.
Patrick Holland/CNET
Camera Coach results
I’m pleased with most of the photos I took under Camera Coach’s guidance. Some are slightly different approaches than I’d normally take, and others are perspectives that were new to me. In terms of identifying subjects and the scene in my viewfinder, Gemini did a decent job. Though once in a while, it would interpret things completely wrong, like when it said a basket of ginger root was a basket of peaches.
Sometimes the steps you go through to take a photo seem at odds. When I was taking a photo of a white building with palm trees, it wanted me to reframe the photo so that a parked car wasn’t in the foreground. But then the next step had me zooming out to show more of the white building, which put the car back into the shot. It felt like I was trying to make a lasagna, and the directions I was following were from two different recipes. Fortunately, this only happened some of the time.
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This image was the result of choosing Get Inspired. It had me zoom in at 40x on the Mission High School dome which got enhanced by the Pixel 10 Pro’s Pro Res Zoom.
Patrick Holland/CNET
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Camera Coach had me get close to this bougainvillea plant and focus on one of the blooms (just right of center).
Patrick Holland/CNET
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In this shot, Camera Coach had me move closer to my subject, use Portrait mode (which did an amazing job with her curls) and frame some of the sculpture she was standing in front of into the shot.
Patrick Holland/CNET
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This is one of my favorite captures with Camera Coach. It took a lot of effort to follow the directions, which wanted me to frame out a car on the right side (you can still see the bumper inching into the frame).
Patrick Holland/CNET
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Is it art if there’s not at least one image of a bowl of fruit? Camera Coach helped me find a great angle that removed much of the other distractions of the display case.
Patrick Holland/CNET
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Camera Coach can’t improve the subject. This lovely old pickup was in shadow and despite the feature’s best efforts to help me frame it, I couldn’t overcome the fact that the pickup was backlit.
Patrick Holland/CNET
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Camera Coach expertly helped me hit the “thirds” in this image of the San Francisco skyline. The tops of buildings cross the top third of the image, and the palm trees cross the bottom third.
Patrick Holland/CNET
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This was another Get Inspired image. I’m tempted to take it another step and turn it into a black-and-white photo.
Patrick Holland/CNET
Things to know about Camera Coach
After using the Pixel 10 Pro’s Camera Coach for 10 days, I learned that it has some strong preferences and dislikes.
Camera Coach hates shadows
If you have a strong shadow in your image, it will suggest that you reframe the photo to remove it. This is great for those moments where your own shadow might enter your frame on a sunny day, but it did feel aggressive on occasion. For example, in the photo below of a service truck, Camera Coach wanted me to compose my shot so that the truck’s shadow didn’t appear. But the only way to do so would have been to stand in traffic on the other side of the vehicle. No dice.
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Camera Coach didn’t like the truck’s shadow in this shot. And looking at it now, I agree.
Patrick Holland/CNET
Camera Coach doesn’t like parked cars
I live in San Francisco, and there are many cars parked on the street. More often than not, I was told to “remove the car” that was in the frame. I get it, Camera Coach wants you to block out as many distractions as possible. And most of the time, I was able to move a few feet and re-angle the phone so the car was out of the frame. But sometimes, there’s not enough sidewalk space to get into a position and change the composition.
