I have sung the praises of the Snapseed photo editing app in the past, but now that app has undergone a radical re-design. I’ve already told you about the new interface and the new filters. These changes have been controversial among users. Today, I’ll show you some nifty new tools and another great feature.
The app has added what’s called non-destructive editing. That means I can make multiple changes and apply them, but still go back to a version of the image without one or all of the effects. Here, I’ve cropped an image, added an HDR filter and a linear blur.
If you look up at the top, you’ll see a little box with the number 3 next to Save.
If I tap that box, a list of the changes appears at the bottom of the screen.
By tapping the HDR Scape effect, I can see the mage without the blur. I can do the same to see the image without the crop.
Or I can choose the original.
If I decide I like the look with all the effects, I can, just tap the top layer.
You can tap the lower left part of the screen to see a histogram showing the distributions of tones in the image.
While I’m not keen on all of the changes to Snapseed, I do like the ability to select portions of the image for adjustment.
Using the selective tool, I can zoom in on a small area of the image.
Then I can adjust saturation, contrast and brightness for just that portion of the photo.
Spot Repair is a welcome addition to the app.
It’s basically a clone tool. Here, I’m using it to try to remove wires from a shot of the sky.
The brush tool lets you selectively control the applications of adjustments like dodge & burn, exposure, temperature and saturation in an image. These are the kinds of controls I associate with expensive programs like Photoshop. It can take some time to become skilled at using them, but you can really achieve amazing results with your phone photography.
The nice thing about Snapseed is that you can keep it simple by just applying a filter or cropping or you can get really creative and explore all of the tools available.
Snapseed is free to download in the Google Play store or the Apple App store.
~ Cynthia