How to take pictures of stars on Xiaomi Redmi Note 9: Professional approach

Owners of the Redmi series of smartphones often wonder whether their gadget is able to capture the greatness of the night sky. Xiaomi Redmi Note 9, despite its age, has a powerful enough sensor of the main camera, which, with a competent approach, allows you to take impressive pictures of the Milky Way and star clusters. The key to success lies not only in the “iron”, but also in understanding the principles of the matrix in low light conditions.

Standard automatic mode is often powerless in the dark, producing blurred or noisy images, which is why you need to switch to manual settings for quality astrophotography, controlling shutter speed, sensitivity and focus. In this article, we will detail how to turn your smartphone into a space survey tool.

Before we start, it's worth noting that the stability of the device is the foundation of night photography. Any, even microscopic hand tremors, will turn a star point into a blurry line, so equipment preparation is as important as the setup of the software part of the camera itself.

Preparation of equipment and choice of location

The first step to successful star photography is finding the right place. Urban lighting negates all efforts, making the sky gray and faceless. You need to move away from artificial light sources: streetlights, advertising signs and busy trails. The darker the horizon, the more detail will appear in the final image.

The second critical element is a tripod. It's technically impossible to take off your hands in long exposure mode. If you don't have a professional tripod, you can use sandbags, you can lean your phone against a rock or a tree, making it completely immobile. The main rule is that the camera should not move a millimeter during the exposure.

• 🌌 Choose a new moon night or phase when the moon has not risen yet to avoid the sky shining.
• 🔋 Fully charge the battery of the smartphone, as night shooting and screen work consume energy.
• 🧹 Wipe the camera lens with a soft cloth, as fat spots turn into glare when long exposure.

⚠️ Warning: Do not use digital zoom when shooting stars, this only reduces the resolution of the frame and adds digital noise, without bringing objects closer.

It's also worth checking the weather forecast, because even a thin layer of clouds or high humidity can spoil the frame, and the ideal conditions are a clear, dry and cold night when the air is most transparent.

Use of the built-in "Night mode" mode

The easiest way to get a good result is to use the built-in MIUI Camera algorithms. In the camera app, find Night mode, which automatically combines multiple frames with different exposures to create a final image with less noise.

But automation doesn't always know what you're shooting, and often the phone tries to lighten the shadows so that the sky turns gray and the stars disappear. To improve the result, click on the gear settings inside the mode and try to turn off HDR or reduce the force of the effect, if this option is available in your version of the firmware.

When using automatic mode, the phone will determine the required duration of shooting. This usually takes 2 to 4 seconds. At this time, hold your breath and do not touch the device. If there is an Astrophotography switch on the menu (often activated itself when you detect a tripod and darkness), be sure to wait for it to turn on - it launches a series of images with a very long shutter speed.

• 📱 Set the phone on a tripod and give it to him. 2-3 Seconds to stabilize before the shutter is released.
• 🔇 Turn on silent mode or use a timer so that the vibration from pressing the screen does not lubricate the frame.
• 🌡️ Watch for heating of the case, as long-term photo processing can cause overheating of the processor.

Automation is good for fast shooting, but it rarely unlocks the full potential of the sensor, and true creativity requires a shift to manual control.

Setting up the PRO mode for astrophotography

To get a professional result, you need to go to PRO (or Manual) mode. Here you get full control of the exposure. First of all, turn off autofocus and put the lens into MF (Manual Focus) mode. The focus slider should be taken to the extreme position of Infinity (mountain icon). In practice, on the Redmi Note 9, this is often around 0.95-1.0, but it is better to take a test shot and twist the value until clear stars appear.

Then adjust shutter speed (S. or Shutter). To shoot stars without tracks (movement), the shutter speed should not exceed 15-20 seconds. Longer shutter speed will cause the stars to turn into short digits due to the rotation of the Earth. The optimal starting value for the Redmi Note 9 is 15 seconds.

The third is ISO (light sensitivity). Don't set the maximum value, otherwise the frame will be in the snow. Start with ISO 800 or ISO 1600. If the frame is too dark, you can raise it to 3200, but remember about the growth of digital noise. White balance (WB) is better set manually in the area of 3500K-4000K for the cold night sky or leave it on Auto if you shoot in RAW format for later processing.

⚠️ Note: When shooting in format RAW files take up much more space and require mandatory post-processing. JPEG high-quality.

Experiment with combinations of ISO and shutter speeds. Sometimes it's better to make the frame a little darker, but cleaner than lighter, but with porridge made of colored noise.

Comparison of sensor characteristics Redmi Note 9

It's important to know which lens you're using. The Redmi Note 9 has a four-camera system, but it's mostly the main one for night photography. The wide-angle and macro cameras have significantly smaller apertures and matrix sizes, making them useless for astrophotography.

Here's a table below that shows why the core module is the only option for this kind of task, and the difference in aperture and pixel size is enormous.

As the data shows, only the core module, with its high-speed optics and 4-in-1 pixel-combination technology, is able to collect enough light for a clean shot. Using other cameras will result in a disappointing result with a huge number of artifacts.

RAW shooting and post-processing

For maximum quality, turn on RAW in your camera settings. This format stores all the information received by the matrix without compression and processing by noise reduction algorithms. RAW files (usually with the.dng extension) look faded and gray immediately after shooting, but they contain a huge dynamic range.

Processing these images requires specialized software, and you can use apps like Snapseed or Lightroom Mobile on your smartphone, where you can draw shadows, add contrast, and most importantly, reduce noise by preserving the details of the stars.

When editing, look at the Clarity and Texture sliders, which help to highlight the structure of the Milky Way, but don't overdo it: overprocessing makes the photo unnatural and plastic.

If you're serious about mobile astrophotography, learn the basic principles of Curves in editors to make the sky deep and black, leaving the stars bright.

Common Errors and How to Resolve Them

One of the most common problems is condensation on the lens, so when you take a cold phone out to a warm room or vice versa, the dew can come out on the glass, and it will instantly turn the stars into blurry spots, let the device acclimatize in a sealed bag before you shoot, or use special moisture absorbers.

Another mistake is to use a flash, which means that in nighttime shooting, the flash must be categorically turned off, and it only illuminates the dust in front of the lens and nearby objects, completely lighting up the frame and preventing the matrix from seeing the faint light of stars.

• 🚫 Do not touch your phone during exposure, even if the timer is on.
• 📵 Turn off notifications or turn on Do Not Disturb mode so the screen doesn't catch fire in the middle of shooting.
• 🌡️ Avoid shooting in the cold below -10°C without preparation as lithium-ion batteries lose charge quickly.

⚠️ Warning: Long shutter speeds can lead to “hot pixels” (bright colored dots) – a normal physical phenomenon for smartphone arrays that can be easily removed by processing or long noise cancellation in settings.

Also watch the battery. Shooting in the cold season with the screen on and the image processing processor running can discharge the Redmi Note 9 faster than usual.

💡

Use a Bluetooth button or voice control to lower the shutter to completely eliminate mechanical impact on the smartphone body.

FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions

💡

The main secret of successful shooting on Redmi Note 9 is the use of a tripod, manual PRO mode and shooting in RAW format for subsequent processing.

Following these guidelines will help unlock the hidden potential of your smartphone’s camera. Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 is capable of creating spectacular night sky shots that look like the work of a professional camera if you approach the process creatively and technically competently.