Snapseed is an app created to edit photos taken with your smartphone or tablet available for Android and iOS: here’s how it works and how to use it
Snapseed is an app dedicated to photo editing developed by Google and has now become one of the best and most popular free photo editors available for both iOS and Android. The program, with its 24 tools and various filters with which to improve the photos taken with your smartphone or tablet, allows you to open and edit manually or with predefined settings color and exposure of your photos, as well as crop and rotate the shots, adjust saturation, light and warmth of your shots. Let’s discover together all the secrets of Snapseed and how to use it at its best.
Download Snapseed
Let’s start with the basics. The Snapseed app is free to download from the Android Play Store, or alternative stores, as well as from the iOS App Store on both iPads and iPhones, depending on which device you own. Once downloaded, you’ll be able to start making your first attempts to transform your photos into authentic masterpieces of digital communication.
Starting to use Snapseed
From the start you’ll discover that using Snapseed is very simple and its interface is really intuitive. Once you’ve opened the Snapseed app on your smartphone or tablet, pressing a big (+) will take you directly to the photo gallery to select the photos you want to start working on. From the Effects menu you can choose from a satisfying selection of filters to apply to your photos, while in the Tools menu you’ll find a series of advanced editing tools.
All the editing tools in the Snapseed app are easy to use via the so-called swipe, an action that has become increasingly central to the use of the touch screen of smartphones and the vast majority of common applications, such as Instagram and Facebook. By swiping from top to bottom you can choose the parameter to be modified or the filter to be added, and from right to left or vice versa you can adjust the values of the chosen parameter.
Once you have applied the desired effect or tool, two intuitive forward and backward arrows will allow you to undo or redo the change you have just made. Then there are two very simple buttons: a “√” lets you save the changes, while a classic “X” cancels them. Another of Snapseed’s strong points, apart from being extremely simple and intuitive, is that it has an innovative technology called “control point” that lets you select up to 8 distinct points on the photo you want to edit to assign them different improvements and corrections, depending on your needs and the effects you want to achieve.
Once you have finished the changes you want to make to your photo, the “Export” item lets you save the modified copy on your device. Pay attention to the fact that if you use Android you can safely save the edited photo while keeping the original, while on iOS the app overwrites the edited image over the original. If you don’t intend to, remember to create a copy before using Snapseed, so you don’t have to work on the original.
All Snapseed effects and tools
In addition to the ability to add vignettes and/or text to your photos to make them more dynamic and interesting, let’s now take a closer look at the main effects and tools that make Snapseed so popular among photo editing apps. Snapseed’s HDR feature, which is the basis of any photo editing program, allows you to add the hyper-realistic effect of multiple exposures to your single shot, thus maximizing the actual number of details. The Bokeh effect, on the other hand, is ideal for portraits and can be obtained with the Lens Blur tool, which will give you the ability to soften the background as much as possible, thus highlighting the faces in the foreground.
The algorithm used by Snapseed also gives you the possibility of treating shadows, midtones and lights in a particularly selective way. The Emphasis effect will enhance the drama of your shot, the Grunge effect will make it stronger and more extreme. Among the effects you can’t miss a wide selection of vintage filters: from the classic Black and White, Noir, to Retro with scratches and light smudges, to the patina typical of photos from the fifties, sixties and seventies. The Calibrate feature lets you control and adjust the fundamental parameters behind any photographic image: contrast, brightness and calibration. The Details, via the feature of the same name, that you can change are texture and sharpness, while the Curves adjust the contrast and RGB color curve, the basic colors perceived by the human eye. Altro parametro fondamentale è il bilanciamento del Bianco, la regolazione automatica o manuale di temperatura e tinta, mentre gli onnipresenti strumenti Ritaglia e Ruota, insieme allo strumento Espandi, vi danno il pieno controllo su ogni singola porzione e inclinazione della vostra immagine.
Con lo strumento Pennello, anche questo estremamente intuitivo, ogni singolo valore può essere aumentato o diminuito con estrema facilità. Con lo strumento Esposizione Doppia si può inoltre combinare foto con esposizioni diverse alla ricerca di un effetto ancora più originale. Vediamo infine quelle che sono forse le due funzionalità più sofisticate presenti su Snapseed, quelle che da sole vi permetteranno di ottenere delle foto con una qualità e una resa quasi professionale:
- Correzione. Questo elaborato strumento vi permette di correggere ogni porzione della foto ed eliminare tutti quegli elementi indesiderati che minano la perfezione del vostro scatto: un dettaglio banale, oggetti tagliati, photobombing indesiderati di amici fastidiosi o inconsapevoli sconosciuti. Potete eliminare tutto. Dopo aver selezionato lo strumento in questione, ingrandite a piacimento la foto con due dita e individuate l’elemento da eliminare. A questo punto vi basterà premere su di esso per cancellarlo;
- Selettivo. Questa funzionalità permette invece di effettuare correzioni in maniera estremamente precisa in aree specifiche della foto grazie alla già citata tecnologia “punto di controllo”. Una volta selezionato lo strumento in questione semplicemente premendovi sopra, andate come sempre a ingrandire l’immagine con due dita, premete su (+) e poi sopra l’area desiderata, per associarle un punto di controllo. Fate attenzione che il punto di controllo assuma il colore blu e non grigio (diventa blu premendolo un’altra volta). L’area interessata alla modifica diventerà rossa. A questo punto, swippando sullo schermo con il dito dal basso verso l’alto o viceversa, scegliete il parametro che desiderate modificare e regolatelo scorrendo il dito da destra verso sinistra. Ricordate che potete selezionare fino a un massimo di 8 punti su ogni foto. Premendo di nuovo su ogni singolo punto le opzioni Taglia, Copia e Incolla permettono di mantenere o rimuovere le modifiche appena effettuate.