How to take pictures of the starry sky on Xiaomi Redmi 9: the secrets of high-quality pictures without professional equipment

Shooting the sky on a smartphone is not a myth, but a real opportunity even for budget models like the Xiaomi Redmi 9. Many people mistakenly believe that astrophotography requires a SLR camera with an expensive lens, but modern image processing algorithms and the right settings allow you to achieve impressive results directly from the phone screen. The key to success is to understand the limitations of technology and competently circumvent them.

Your Redmi. 9 equipped with a primary camera on 13 diaphragm-map f/2.2, And that's not ideal for night photography, but it's good enough to capture the Milky Way or the bright constellations when you do it right. The main enemies of quality here are noise and blur, which are caused by long exposure and high exposure. ISO. In this article, we’ll explore how to minimize these problems using hidden camera features, third-party apps, and simple composition techniques.

You'll learn not only the technical settings, but also how to choose the best time and place to shoot, what accessories will help stabilize the shot, and how to process the images to make them look professional. Without any extra theory, only the practical tips for Redmi 9.

1.Phone preparation: camera and software settings

Before you go outside, make sure your Xiaomi Redmi 9 is ready to shoot.

• 📱 Update the firmware: go to Settings → The phone. → System updates. New versions MIUI They often improve photo processing algorithms, especially in Night mode.
• 🧹 Clean the lens: even microscopic dust particles or fingerprints on the lens can ruin the frame. Use a soft napkin for glasses.
• 🔋 Charge the battery at least 70%. Long exposure and cold weather quickly drain the battery.
• 📁 Free Memory: Pictures in the Format RAW It takes up to 20 MB each, delete unnecessary files or transfer them to a memory card.

Xiaomi’s standard Camera app has a hidden Professional (or Pro) mode that lets you manually adjust shutter speed, ISO And white balance, so you can activate it:

1. Open the Camera app.
2. Scroll through the shooting modes to the left until the end.
3. Choose More. → Professional.

If this mode is not available, upgrade the app via Google Play or install an alternative camera like the GCam (more on this in the next section).

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Enable Grid Mode in Camera Settings (Settings) → Grid) to make it easier to align the horizon and composition of the frame.

2. Application selection: Standard camera vs GCam

The standard Redmi 9 camera will handle basic starshots, but for better results, we recommend using a modified version of the Google Camera (GCam), which is optimized for low-light shooting thanks to the Night Sight algorithm.

Where to get GCam for Redmi 9:

• 🔍 Look for telegram channels like this. @GCamMods forum 4PDA (Xiaomi Redmi 9).
• 📌 Download versions marked for Snapdragon 662 (your phone chipset).
• ⚙️ After installation, configure the configuration (setting file) for your model – this will improve color reproduction and reduce noise.

Comparison of the standard camera and GCam:

Critical: Turn off the GCam HDR+ Night mode — it can add artifacts at long shutter speeds. Instead, use Night Sight with manual settings.

3. Optimal settings for shooting stars

Even with the GCam or the professional mode of the standard camera, you need to set the settings correctly.

• ⏱️ Shutter speed: 10 to 30 seconds. Longer exposure will add more light, but stars will start to lubricate because of the Earth's rotation (this is noticeable after 20 seconds).
• 🌙 ISO: 1600-3200. ISO 4000 or higher, the noise will become uncontrollable. ISO 2500 at 25 seconds exposure.
• 🎯 Focus: Put it in mode MF (You can do a manual focus, and set the value to infinity (slider to the right to stop.
• 🔘 White balance: 3,500–4000K. It'll take the yellow off the city light.
• 📏 Resolution: Always maximum (4:3, 13 MP). For GCam, enable saving in RAW.

Example of settings for shooting the Milky Way:

Mode: Professional (or Night Sight in GCam)


Exposure: 25 seconds




ISO: 2500




Focus: MF → ∞




White balance: 3800K




Format: RAW (if available)

Set the phone on a tripod|Putting a manual focus on infinity|Turn off flash and HDR|Enable delay timer (2-3 seconds)|Check the battery charge-->

Use a timer (2-3 seconds) or remote control to avoid shaking when you press the trigger button.

4.Time and place: when and where to shoot

Even perfect settings won't work if you've chosen the wrong time or place. For shooting the starry sky on Redmi 9, consider:

• 🌌 Moon phase: shoot during the new moon or when the moon is below the horizon. The bright moon shines out stars. Check phases in applications like PhotoPills or Stellarium.
• 🏙️ Lighting: get 30 to 50 kilometers from the city, even a small town can damage the frame with light pollution.
• ⏰ Time of day: best time of day is 23:00 to 4:00, when the atmosphere is most transparent. In summer, the Milky Way is visible from midnight, in winter, closer to the morning.
• 🌡️ Weather: cloudless skies and low humidity, fog or haze scattering the light of the stars, check the forecast for yr.no or Windy.

Use the applications to plan the shooting:

• PhotoPills – shows the position of the Milky Way, the time of sunrise / sunset of the moon.
• Stellarium Mobile is an interactive map of the sky in real time.
• Clear Outside is a cloudy and transparent atmospheric forecast for astronomers.

Secret Lifehack: If you can't get far from the city, remove the zenith (the top point of the sky) - there's minimal illumination. Also look for objects that obscure light sources (for example, mountains or tall trees).

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The Milky Way is visible from March to October in the northern hemisphere, and in winter, photograph constellations (Orion, Ursa Major) or bright planets (Jupiter, Venus).

5. Accessories: What will help improve the pictures

Although the Redmi 9 will do without additional equipment, a few inexpensive accessories will significantly improve the result:

• 📷 Tripod: mandatory for long shutter speeds, even a mini-station with flexible legs (for example, Xiaomi Mi Selfie Stick Tripod) is suitable.
• 🔗 Remote descent: wireless Bluetooth remote (costs) ~300 rubles.) will eliminate trembling when pressing the screen.
• 🔋 Power Bank: Battery goes down faster in the cold. Take an external 10,000 mAh battery.
• 🌡️ Heated case: if you remove at a temperature below -5°C, the phone may shut down. Use chemical heating cases.
• 🔭 Fish-eye lens: a cheap nozzle (for example, Xiaomi Lens Clip-On) will increase the viewing angle for shooting the Milky Way.

Budget version of the tripod can be done yourself:

1. Take a plastic bottle with sand or stones.
2. Attach the phone with tape or rubber band to the neck.
3. Adjust the angle of inclination by putting a book or tablet under a bottle.

Attention! Don't use zoom when shooting stars, it'll only increase noise and blur. All framing is done during the processing phase.

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If there is no tripod, place the phone on a flat surface (such as a stone or the hood of a car) and back it up with a bag of rice for stability.

6. Shooting and processing: from the frame to the finished photo

When you are ready, start shooting:

1. Set your phone on a tripod, align on the horizon (use the level in the camera app).
2. Point at the brightest part of the sky (for example, the Milky Way or the North Star).
3. Take a few pictures with different shutter speed settings/ISO (for example, 15 sack/ISO 2000 and 25 sack/ISO 2500).
4. Don’t touch your phone while shooting – even a light touch will cause you to shake.

After you take the photo, transfer it to your computer for processing.

• Darktable is the equivalent of Lightroom RAW-It reduces noise and increases star contrast.
• GIMP — for point correction (remove the illumination, enhance the color of the Milky Way).
• Snapseed (mobile) – for fast processing JPG right on the phone.

The basic processing steps in Darktable:

1. Import. RAW-file.
2. In the Exposition module, raise the shadows to +50 and reduce the Lights by -20.
3. In the Noise module, set the Noise Reduction (Color) to 70-80%.
4. In the Contrast module, increase the Local Contrast to +30.
5. Export in JPG quality 90%.

Warning: Do not overdo it with increased exposure, this will make the sky gray instead of black, and the stars will lose contrast.

7 Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Even experienced photographers sometimes make mistakes in shooting the sky, and this is what spoils Redmi 9's shots most often:

• 🌫️ Shooting through glass: even a clean window adds glare and reduces sharpness. Always shoot outdoors.
• 📱 Low battery power: at levels below 20%, the phone may shut down during long shutter speeds.
• 🌡️ Condensation on the lens: when the temperature drops (for example, when you take the phone out of a warm room to the cold), the lens foggies. Give the phone 10-15 minutes to acclimatize.
• 🚫 Using a flash: It will only illuminate nearby objects and spoil the sky's exposure.
• 🔄 Frequent change of settings: between frames give the camera 5-10 seconds for rest, otherwise the sensor will overheat, and the noise will increase.

Another common problem is the hot pixels, which are the bright colored dots in the image, which are caused by the overheating of the matrix, to remove them.

1. Take a dark shot (cover the lens with a lid and take a picture with the same settings).
2. In Darktable or Photoshop, subtract the dark frame from the main one.

If you see stripes or gradient in your pictures, it's a sign of light pollution. Try taking it somewhere else or use a filter to correct it. GIMP (Filters → Improvements → Remove the gradient).

8. Examples and inspiration: what to shoot on Redmi 9

Don't think that you can only shoot blurry dots on a budget smartphone. Here are some ideas for your upcoming shots:

• 🌌 The Milky Way: the best object for beginners. Look for it in the southern sky (in the northern hemisphere). For Redmi 9, it is realistic to capture its central part (near the constellation Sagittarius).
• ⭐ Star Tracks: set shutter speeds for 2-3 minutes (in GCam or through the Star Trail Camera app) and get a spinning effect of the sky.
• 🌠 Meteor streams: shoot during peak stream (e.g. Perseids in August) Use a series of frames at intervals of 5 seconds.
• 🪐 Planets: Jupiter and Venus are visible as bright dots. Use maximum zoom (but remember that the quality will be low) to shoot).
• 🏔️ Landscape. + sky: combine stars with silhouettes of trees, mountains or buildings. Use the rule of thirds for composition.

Examples of settings for different objects:

Don't be afraid to experiment, for example, you can make a timelapse of the starry sky.

1. Set the phone on a tripod.
2. Shoot the frames at intervals of 30 seconds (exposure 15 seconds, ISO 3200).
3. Use the Lapse It app to glue into the video.

Inspiring fact: famed astrophotographer Peter Ward shot the Milky Way on a Google Pixel smartphone (which is similar in characteristics to Redmi 9) and his work was published in National Geographic. Your phone can do it too!

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The most spectacular shots are obtained when the winter triangle (Sirius, Betelgeuse, Procyon) or the summer-autumn triangle (Vega, Deneb, Altair) are visible in the sky.

FAQ: Answers to Frequent Questions