Galaxy S25 Ultra Night Mode: Best Settings by Scene

The Galaxy S25 Ultra uses the same cameras as the Galaxy S24 Ultra, save for the jump from a 12MP to a 50MP ultrawide (the main 200MP camera remains unchanged). While most of the improvements at night come from processing, which camera you use will still have a greater impact than any given camera setting. We cover the S25 Ultra by day (S25 Ultra camera guide) and by night (this page).

Night settings by scene

Use these as starting points for settings on the S25 Ultra. They’re based on Samsung’s recommendations and reviewer feedback for each lens, so take one test photo and tweak from there. Our S25 Ultra camera settings page covers daytime starting values too.

Which S25 Ultra camera to use after dark

GSMArena’s review of the phone noted that the 5x camera performed better than the 3x in low light, which makes sense since the 3x has the weakest hardware of the bunch, sporting the smallest sensor and an f/2.4 lens.

By contrast, the 1x camera has the phone’s largest sensor and brightest lens, making it the go-to camera at night.

Where Night mode is on the S25 Ultra

Galaxy S25 Ultra users may have noticed two different ways to take low-light pics, Night mode and Night shot (aka Nightography). Both are still there after the One UI 9 update.

As noted by SamMobile in an October 2026 post comparing the Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S25, Samsung has included both a dedicated Night mode and Night shot/Nightography toggle in Photo mode on these phones. The Galaxy S26 series instead received a three-way Night option in Photo mode (hence any Galaxy S26-specific instructions won’t apply to you).

Galaxy S25 Ultra owners running One UI 9 (confirmed on a Galaxy S25 Ultra in November 2026) have access to both a Night shot toggle and Night mode, the latter of which lives in the primary menu bar (on other models, you may have to tap More to access it). Tapping the moon icon enables/disables Night shot aka Nightography. Note that Night mode always has Nightography enabled, and according to Samsung it takes and combines 30 shots into a single image.

Per Samsung’s website, a yellow moon icon indicates that Nightography is active, a non-yellow moon means it’s available to use but currently disabled, and the absence of a moon icon means it’s unavailable because there’s too much light.

1. 1

   Pick the mode

   For photos of people or to quickly snap a pic in Photo mode, tap the moon icon until it's yellow. For night photos of buildings or other non-moving things, choose Night in the mode bar (in More if not visible).

2. 2

   Set the focus

   Tap a contrasting area (like around a window with lights on) to help the camera focus.

3. 3

   Brace before you press

   Brace yourself (put elbows on a table, lean against a wall) or set your phone on a table or against a wall. Tap the shutter lightly or, in Camera settings > Shooting methods, set the volume button to take pics.

4. 4

   Hold until it finishes

   Hold still until the photo animation finishes. Lowering it early is a common cause of soft night photos, and the Night mode guide covers the other causes.

What reviewers found after dark

GSMArena's reviewer noticed that although detail retention was decent in night shots from the main camera, they suffered from noise. Some shots exhibited a slightly greenish tint in darker regions and shadows looked a tad soft. Enabling Night mode got rid of the colour cast but introduced heavy noise reduction and sharpening. The reviewer also felt that image capture was on the slower side in this mode. Night mode on the 3x camera did a good job of suppressing noise but GSMArena pointed out that it could result in images with a watercolour effect at times.

In its own round of tests back in March 2025, DXOMARK observed that the S25 Ultra generally captured well-exposed images in low light conditions. While noise was more distracting compared to the S24 Ultra, images exhibited marginally better sharpness. The agency added that noise and detail levels fluctuated from image to image even when photographing the same scene, and some images had a colour cast as well. So, if you're shooting something important, it'd be best to take a couple or even three shots and pick the best one.

If camera performance in poor lighting conditions is a key deciding factor for you, take note that the S26 Ultra has a brighter f/1.4 primary camera. According to Samsung, its primary and 5x cameras let in 47% and 37% more light, respectively, compared to those on the S25 Ultra. The S26 Ultra vs S25 Ultra comparison does consider cost.

Tripod cityscapes in Pro mode

If you’re using a tripod and shooting in Pro mode, you’ll usually get better results out of a single long exposure shot (compared to Night mode). Start with an ISO of 50 and work your way up from there as needed. Aim for an exposure time between 4 and 10 seconds and use the 2-second timer so that you don’t introduce any camera shake by tapping the shutter release. Note: Longer exposures let you get creative with light trails (especially cars on a dimly lit street), and Galaxy flagships let you shoot up to 30 seconds in Pro mode.

If there are street lamps in your scene, try reducing the exposure time as street lamps can blow out to a white orb when exposure times get longer.

When shooting in Pro mode with your Galaxy phone, you may need to manually increase the ISO if your image is coming out dark, as Samsung’s Pro mode guide says ISO is set to a manual option when you adjust the exposure time.

For consistent white balance across multiple shots, try manually adjusting the white balance instead of leaving it on auto.

If you’re planning on editing your images after the fact, you can enable shooting in RAW file format by going to Photo format in the Camera settings and changing Pro mode picture format to RAW and JPEG (this is where it’s at in One UI 9; it used to be under Advanced picture options in previous iterations).

Expert RAW and Astrophoto

Expert RAW is Samsung's free camera app from the Galaxy Store, and the S25 Ultra supports it. Its DNGs contain more information than JPEGs and thus allow photographers to do things like recover highlight details in windows and lift up shadows. According to Samsung, it saves a 16-bit linear DNG alongside each JPEG. Per SamMobile, if you’re using an S25, this is also how you can take 24MP shots.

Samsung’s Astrophoto mode is designed for shooting stars, so it’s unsurprising that the feature’s preview screen has an option called Sky guide, which will highlight constellations. Other settings will vary based on the version of the app you’re using, but to access Astrophoto, you’ll need to make sure your resolution is set to 12MP and turn on Special photo options. Expect Astrophoto to take anywhere from four to 10 minutes per shot, according to SamMobile, which reported this back when the feature reached the Galaxy Z Fold4. The phone has to sit on a tripod the whole time, and the astrophotography guide covers the full workflow. For an aurora, select Pro mode and set the parameters as in the northern lights settings.

Nightography video on the S25 Ultra

In terms of video, Samsung says that the S25 series can analyse motion across frames and separate stationary from moving objects to better reduce noise in low-light conditions. The phones can also shoot 10-bit HDR video by default.

According to GSMArena, videos shot at night with the main camera sensor on the Galaxy S25 Ultra were detailed, though a bit grainy in darker areas. It also complimented the exposure and dynamic range. DXOMARK, meanwhile, reported that videos taken in poor lighting conditions suffered from more noise than those captured on the S24 Ultra, as well as focus issues at times.

• Film on the 1x camera and try to keep the phone as still as possible – hold it firmly up against a wall or use a gimbal.
• Enable Auto FPS (available for 30fps video only on One UI 9) in the Videos section of the Camera app’s settings to get brighter videos (by lowering the FPS) – handy for filming slower-paced action, but not suited to filming cars and people in motion.
• Tap to focus on the object you want to film – DXOMARK noted that the camera sometimes focused on the wrong object in low light.
• If you grade your footage, the Log video guide explains how to expose it.