fabrona naveed reigane
Faustina Trafton
Please be aware that this tutorial guide is a bit of a beast (and to be honest only scratches the surface of what can be achieved using Snapseed) so if you want to skip certain sections and jump straight to the parts that interest you, simply click on the table of content links below.
Snapseed is one of the most popular and versatile photo editing apps in the iTunes and Google Play app stores and is certainly one of my favourites. Originally developed by Nik Software, Snapseed was acquired by Google back in 2012. Since then the app has been redesigned and updated.
On opening Snapseed you will first be faced with a grey screen prompting you to select the image you want to work with. When it comes to selecting the photo to use, you have several options. You can either choose an image from the camera roll, take a photo with the camera, open the latest image or paste in a copied image.
With the desired photo selected you then notice that the entire screen is devoted to your chosen image with a minimal navigation interface surrounding it. Walking through the navigation layout you will find the following;
In the top right corner there are three symbols, going left to right you have, the Stacks menu which allows you to undo, redo, or revert back to a previous stage of editing. Stacks is where you can also access the different layers for each of the edits you have made. From here you can adjust the settings of each layer or filter or delete without having to start your edit again from scratch.
TIP: Once you have finished editing a photo I recommend saving the photo and then exporting your photo. The reason being is that I have found Snapseed has a tendency to lose your edits as time goes by. By using the export option it means your final image is set in stone and always accessible.
At the bottom of the screen you will see several options. The first stage on the cropping process is to select a ratio format by tapping the icon second from the right. This opens a pop up window with various ratios. Swipe from left to right until you see your preferred format. I generally go for a square 1:1 ratio format but it depends on the composition of the photo I am working with.
With the format selected I then move the crop area around using my finger until I have my desired composition framed. For this image I position the horizon on the lower rule of thirds grid line and position the tree on the lower right intersecting line.
You can drag the corners in or out, or change the orientation of the crop frame by 90 degrees by tapping the rotate icon (the icon to the left of the centre). Be aware though, that reducing the size of the crop will reduce the size of the final image.
Firstly, open the photo in the Tune Image tool, then tap the auto correct option (the icon to the right of the centre at the bottom of the screen) to see how the image looks. This tends to even out the Histogram levels (the graph image in the lower left). I find the auto correct feature offers a good starting point from which to work from.
The Structure setting will increase the amount of detail in the image. Structure will bring out the texture of objects throughout the photo, without affecting the edges of the objects. Sharpening on the other hand increases the amount of sharpness in the details of the image. Increasing the settings will give more definition to the image, while decreasing the settings will soften the look of the image.
The Tonal Contrast tool allows you to select the Low, Mid and High Tones and increase the level of definition in these areas in order to sharpen the detail contained within them. The tool also allows you to protect shadow and highlight areas which will gives you a further degree of control when adding definition to select areas of an image.
Very often you can just leave the Tonal Contrast settings at their defaults but for this photo I decide to increase the Low Tones to +100 and Mid Tones by +50. Tapping the icon in the top right corner allows you to compare the before and after states.
After selecting a filter preset, you can adjust the amount of grain that is applied to the image as well as the strength of the filter. As with the other filters you are able to pinch to zoom in closer to the photograph for more detail.
Another way to add mood to a photograph, and one of my personal favourites, is the vintage filter. I especially love it for landscape photography, its one of my go to filters in the majority of editing that I do.
Next I swipe up and down to select the Brightness option and increase this setting to about +20. You can also adjust the colour saturation, the style strength or the vignette strength. I opt to leave these at their defaults except for the vignette strength which I reduce to +15. I prefer to add some extra vignette in the next step.
After opening the Vignette tool there are basically two settings, the inner and outer brightness. For this image I feel that the foreground is probably dark enough but the sky would benefit from a little darkening to the edges.
Next, I darken the outer brightness by -85 and leave the inner brightness at 0 and reposition to the centre point of the vignette area so that the main part of the vignette is applied to the sky area. Again, tapping the tick saves the edit.
The first method of converting a photo into black and white in Snapseed is to use the Tune Image tool. First, open the photo in Tune Image, then swipe up/down to select the Saturation option. Now slide your finger to reduce the level of saturation to -100. This will remove all color from the photo and will leave you with a black and white photo.
When it comes to editing portrait or selfie style photos in Snapseed, the key thing to bear in mind is that less is more. When editing a portrait the main aim is to enhance the image and not to over do your edits. Let me demonstrate.
The first step in my editing process is to crop the image. For this photo I choose a 5:4 crop as it suits the origination of the photo. I also position the crop so that the face is central in the image.
The next step is to adjust the photo in the Tune Image tool. I begin by tapping the auto-correct button, then I review the adjustments. This has increased the amount of detail in the shadows area. I decide to add a little extra Ambience in order to brighten the photo and make the colours more vibrant. Happy with the changes I hit the tick.
Tapping on the swatch to the bottom right of the centre settings icon opens a selection of 10 preset filters that highlight areas such as eye clarity, skin smoothness, lighting or a combination of the three.
For more manual control over the settings, tap the centre icon or simply swipe up and down to display the options of Face Spotlight, Skin Smoothing and Eye Clarity. Swiping right will increase the level applied to the setting. Swiping left will reduce this.
The healing tool in Snapseed can be a tricky tool to master at first. It is excellent for simple and small edits or plain areas of similar pattern and tone, however, for something more complex you may be better using an app such as TouchRetouch.
The beauty of Snapseed is that all the edits which you make are saved in a non-destructive way and are stacked on top of each other in layers. This means that you can edit these layers at a later date. Let me show you how.
Thank you for a very detailed tutorial. There are so many photo editing apps and they all operate differently, so I had missed some of Snapseeds features. I can now delete most of the apps and stick with Snapseed and VSCO for the filters ?
Yes you can get this for PC but the only way is by installing an app named Bluestacks. This is an android emulator for windows. Once downloaded it with show the google play store. Type in snapseed and Voila. All done.
We are delighted to publish Part 3 of a new three part series with the upgraded Snapseed app tested by Jerry Jobe. This is an extensive tutorial and series and we are sure you are all going to enjoy this. Previously we have published an overview video of Snapseed (here) and you can find Part 1 of this series (here) and Part 2 (here). (Foreword by Joanne Carter).
In part 1 of the Snapseed 2.0 tutorials, the nine Tools were covered. In part 2, it was the eleven Filters. In the video overview, the new interface was featured. But the most powerful part of Snapseed 2.0, which was hinted at in the video tutorial, needs to be shown in depth: the Stack.
I apply the Crop, and return to the main screen. Looking up in the upper right corner, I see a box with the number 2. This button accesses the Stack. It tells me that I currently have 2 edits in the Stack (Transform and Crop).
Tapping the box takes me into the Stack. Looking down at the lower right I see the Original image on the bottom. On top of that is the Transform, and on top of that is Crop. Crop is highlighted, showing that all edits are visible.
On the Masking screen, shown below, you are presented the image without the changes applied. The default is to paint to mask the changes in. If you want to apply the changes over the whole image, you tap the Invert button. The changes will show over the entire image and the brush will mask them out.
The Tonal Contrast emphasized how gray the leaves on the ground are. I would like to warm them up considerably. I return to Tune Image to add Warmth and Saturation and decrease Brightness. Of course, that makes the green in the Trees and on the boards toxic. We will have to go back and mask these changes.
After performing edits on other images, I re-opened the image I just saved above. When I access the Stack, I see all seven steps intact. By tapping the three dots at the upper right on the Stack screen, I am given the opportunity to Copy the Stack.
Copying a Stack copies ALL the settings. The Crop takes off the bottom of the image, just as I did on the stage photo. The masks are also copied, which can be proven by going back into the Mask screen on the Tune Image step we used for the ground. In that step I increased Warmth and Saturation, which explains why the logs at the bottom are VERY red.
c01484d022