I love the camera on my Pixel 10 Pro. I’ve trusted Google’s extremely natural approach to image processing for years, reaching for its lifelike tones over Samsung’s punchy reds and greens ever since I switched from the Galaxy S10 to the Pixel 5. However, I’ve always had one little problem with Google’s realistic approach: Sometimes I feel like my images are missing some character.
So, when Google announced Ask Photos as a brand-new way to edit my entire camera roll of thoroughly average snaps, I jumped at the chance to try it out. I grabbed my Pixel 10 Pro XL, headed out the door, and captured a few quick shots to mess around with. Here’s how my adventure into the world of Gemini-powered photo editing went.
The power of the perfect prompt
Ryan Haines / Android Authority
I won’t lie — it only took about five minutes of walking around Baltimore’s Fells Point neighborhood before I had the shot I knew I wanted. I’d grabbed a few others of flowers, car-lined streets, and the buildings I pass daily, but one shot of a pair of buoys at the edge of the harbor jumped out to me. Why? Well, it has a couple of distinct colors, a reflection, and different textures like the water and the wood of the promenade for me to explore.
So, I headed home to escape the summer heat and opened Google Photos. Once there, I tapped on the original shot of the buoys and pressed the Edit button. Thankfully, Google has made it impossible to miss its Ask Photos editor, which pops up at the bottom of the screen with a Help me edit prompt inside. And, once or twice, I did let it help, but for the most part, I took editing into my own hands and let my imagination run a little wild.
Original image Make the water more blue Add a seagull on the orange buoy Make the white buoy smaller
In this first set of images, I kept things pretty simple. I wanted to change one element at a time to see how Gemini and the Tensor G5 would handle a basic request. For the most part, they did fine — I can’t deny that the water in the second image is bluer, and the white buoy on the far right side is, indeed, smaller. Yes, that’s mostly because it’s a totally different buoy, but it’s still technically what I asked for.
I’m a little split on the seagull I asked Gemini to add, though. On one hand, its feet look like they’re actually on the buoy, following the slope pretty nicely. However, it seems a bit more like a sticker around the top of its head, and where the tail overlaps with the wood of the promenade. At the very least, Google handled the colors of the gull almost perfectly for the lighting.
Original image Change the color of the white buoy to green Erase both buoys Replace the water with sand
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