How to Make Samsung Photos Sharper: Settings and Technique

Camera selection. Resolution. How much processing you want done by the Camera app. How still you can hold your Galaxy for the duration of an exposure. Sharpness is determined by many choices that are made before the shutter button is even pressed. Here’s a list of things you can do to improve the sharpness of Galaxy camera pictures that are already good. In case of evident blur in a photo, you can try our blurry camera troubleshooter first because there you'll find out what caused each type of blur.

Sharpness settings at a glance

As menu names may change depending on your model and One UI version, note that the menu names and steps given here were checked on a Galaxy S25 Ultra running One UI 9 as of November 2026, as well as in Samsung’s Galaxy S26 guide for One UI 8.5. Depending on your particular phone model and One UI version, you may notice some minor discrepancies.

Pick the camera that holds the most detail

On the Galaxy S26 Ultra, in poorer light the smaller sensors of the 3x (1/3.94-inch) and 5x (1/2.52-inch) telephoto cameras gather less light than the main camera's (1/1.3-inch sensor, f/1.4, information courtesy of GSMArena), so expect noise-reduction processing to make images look a little soft. In daylight every lens records plenty of detail.

In a dim room, shoot at 1x and crop later. In good light, use the optical zoom cameras for shooting distant objects. Beyond that, you're just digitally zooming (enlarging a crop), and Samsung doesn't guarantee image quality past 10x magnification on the Galaxy S26 Ultra (it calls up to 10x 'optical quality zoom' and warns images may deteriorate past that). Our 100x zoom guide covers the long end.

The telephoto cameras also have a longer minimum focus distance. For example, the Galaxy S26 Ultra's 5x camera's minimum focus distance is around 52cm (Samsung advises 80cm). With Auto lens switching enabled, the camera takes this into account (as well as lighting conditions and your zoom setting) when choosing which camera to use, so images shot with the telephoto cameras up close or in poor light may actually be from the main camera (digital zoom). Disable Auto lens switching in Camera Assistant if you want to use a particular camera (images will be noisier in poor light).

Choose a resolution for the light you have

Galaxy phones shoot 12MP by default, combining neighbouring pixels, while the 50MP and 200MP modes record all pixels and can capture more details in well-lit conditions. You can crop them more freely too. The images will be bigger and take longer to process, and the high-resolution modes aren’t always better in low light conditions. According to Samsung’s S23 support page, 200MP photos will take up around 25 to 30MB of storage each. When shooting 200MP photos on the S23, expect to wait around 5 to 6 seconds before taking another picture.

When shooting in 200MP mode, some areas of an image might not be in focus. Samsung explains that this is a normal optical characteristic and is determined by the distance to the subject, where it’s positioned in the frame and the aperture used. Use 50MP or 200MP when shooting in good light and for subjects such as buildings and landscapes that aren’t moving. Use 12MP when shooting people and moving subjects or in low light. The 24MP mode added to Galaxy S26 series phones can be enabled using Camera Assistant. Our 12MP vs 50MP vs 200MP guide compares the modes.

Control how much the phone processes

Photo enhancer (One UI 9) processes photos by combining multiple images. Set Prioritize quality (One UI 9; Maximum in Intelligent optimization on One UI 8.5) for still subjects. Samsung says Balanced and Prioritize speed (Minimum on One UI 8.5) reduce processing to speed things up.

Turn off Photo softening (Camera Assistant; Picture softening on older versions) unless photographing people with particularly harsh skin textures, as it reduces the apparent sharpness of textures and edges. On One UI 9 Scene optimizer is now called Scene detection (within Photo enhancer). It applies contrast and colour changes according to the detected scene. Disabling it won’t magically add detail but will provide a more neutral starting point for editing. Its changes are explained in our Scene optimizer guide.

HDR isn’t available in Pro mode, according to Samsung’s camera FAQ. Use Pro mode to see what’s achievable with just one exposure. It's also where you can save a RAW file, which our RAW vs JPEG guide covers.

Hold the phone still

To avoid most instances of softness from camera movement, hold your phone with both hands and press your elbows into your torso for stability. Lean against something solid like a railing or wall if you can. As for pressing the shutter button, exhale and press gently.

Tapping the screen to shoot can jostle your phone at the worst possible time. Set Camera settings > General > Shooting methods > Press Volume buttons to take pictures instead, or enable a voice command like Smile or Capture. You can also use the self-timer in Quick controls for static subjects, and in Camera Assistant you’ll find Timer multi-photo options that will capture multiple images in succession.

For moving subjects, take multiple shots and pick the sharpest one. On One UI 9 for the Galaxy S25 Ultra, swipe the shutter button to the edge of the screen to take burst shots (this is now found in Camera Assistant). Press and hold the shutter button to take a video.

Use a faster shutter for moving subjects

Photo mode automatically adjusts your Galaxy’s shutter speed, but often it’s too slow indoors to avoid motion blur in an effort to avoid a high ISO. Newer Galaxy phones running One UI 8.5 or later include minimum shutter speed options via Camera Assistant’s Advanced Photo mode controls. You can choose from 1/1000, 1/500, 1/120 or 1/30 of a second (SamMobile reported that One UI 9 would add 1/60, but a Galaxy S25 Ultra on One UI 9 still offered only these four in November 2026), but keep in mind that faster shutter speeds require higher ISOs, so expect noisier shots.

Pro mode allows you to set your Galaxy’s shutter speed manually. Start with 1/125s for photos of people that aren’t moving much, 1/250s for slow movement and 1/500s or faster for active kids and pets. Shutter speeds on Galaxy’s top-tier phones can be as long as 30 seconds for shots taken on a tripod, but shutter speed controls aren’t available on some Galaxy A and M phones, and some top out at 10 seconds. The shutter speed guide offers a full range of shutter speeds.

Put the focus where you want it

Tap to choose your own focus point, since autofocus may not always focus on what you consider to be the main subject. Tap and hold to lock focus and exposure so that they won’t change as you recompose your shot. Our AE/AF lock guide covers the lock in detail.

There are two focus options that we recommend enabling in Camera Assistant. With Prioritize focus over speed enabled, the camera will wait for the subject to be in focus before taking the photo, which can result in a small delay before the shutter fires. When shooting manually in Pro modes, Focus peaking can help you see what’s in focus by highlighting edges in focus. This can be helpful when shooting close-ups or in low light. There’s also a Tracking auto focus option in Camera settings > General that can be helpful for keeping focus on a selected subject. However, it showed as unavailable in Photo mode on a Galaxy S25 Ultra running One UI 9.

Sharpen in editing, but lightly

We'd recommend sharpening last after you've cropped the image and edited the exposure. Phone JPEGs tend to already have some sharpening applied, so you shouldn't need to add too much more. Check your edits full-size and stop before you notice halos (bright outlines) around edges, as this effect is harder to remove than mild softness. If you shoot in RAW format, you'll be able to choose the amount of sharpening applied, as explained in our guide to shooting in RAW vs JPEG.

You can also use the Remaster tool in Gallery (swipe up on the image, then tap Remaster) to improve blurry and low-resolution images, as described in Samsung’s S26 guide. It's not going to restore detail that wasn't captured, but it can help sharpen slightly soft shots. Alternatively, use the free Snapseed app and its Details tool to bring out detail and texture.