When I was in Italy last month, I took a few snapshots that I intended to process with Camera+ and post to Instagram, but after messing with them for a bit, I just couldn't get them to look the way I wanted. Today, using Snapseed, I was finally able to do it. The big difference? Fine control over specific areas of the image, and the ability to mix and match a ton of different adjustments, very quickly and intuitively. I love the simple UI.
Although this is destructive editing (like pretty much all iPhone photo editing apps), you have the ability to fully adjust a full range of different settings within one selected adjustment. For example, you can edit contrast, saturation and brightness all independently of each other and go back and forth between them until you have the image exactly the way you want before proceeding to the next adjustment. Once you move on, however, the change is locked. You can still go back and make the same adjustments again after the fact, but near as I can tell, you're editing the new image, not from the original anymore. If I'm wrong, that would be another super cool feature of this app.
The image below also represents a couple of the great features: Fine rotation and cropping. It's still a bit difficult to get tiny angles on a small screen, but if you compare it to the original, you can see how just a little shift can make a big difference. Most apps can crop, but I haven't seen one that rotates as well as Snapseed. Another nice thing, Snapseed is a Universal app. So it works on an iPad and is optimized for the larger screen.
Here’s an example of results from both apps:
- First Image: Original
- Second Image: Snapseed
- Third Image: Camera+
Camera+ did a decent job, but you can see where fine control has it's advantages. I didn’t try to make the two identical, I was just messing around to learn how to use the "Selective Adjust" controls.
Based on my examples above, it might seem like Snapseed can only do these semi-retro-looking filtered images. Not the case. I just happened to process these specific images that way. I’m sure I'll be trying out some additional tweaks in the future on other images, but with the amount of control Snapseed gives you, there’s tons of possibilities. I’m looking forward to messing around with this a lot more.
Overall, totally worth the $4.99 it cost. If you enjoy taking photographs with your iPhone, go get Snapseed now.
