Google is making the Pixel cameras better by making them worse

If you look at a photo taken by a smartphone today, it's hard to find much that's technically wrong. Faces are bright and visible. The skies are pristine and blue. Even at night, scenes are well lit and noise-free. If the physical limitations of a tiny camera are what you're trying to solve for, you could probably label smartphone photography a mostly solved problem. But in our current moment, the photos people are drawn to are not flawless - and that's created a real problem for the people…