iPhoneography Apps – Snapseed (Part 2)

Snapseed – Part 2

Smart phone apps change constantly, but imagine my surprise when within 12 hours of posting part 1 of my review/tutorial of Snapseed, the folks at nik Software (now owned by Google) made major changes to the product. There’s some improvement, but there is one “what were they thinking?!” change that I’ll discuss at the end.

I haven’t been talking about the cost of any of these apps – one, because it’s negligible (usually only a buck or two), and two, because apps are usually offered free once a year or more. Snapseed used to be steep in price at $5, but the first change they’ve made is to make it permanently free. And you can’t beat that price, especially for all that is offered.

They’ve also added a new module, Retrolux. Since I already had the task of discussing seven modules, and now there are eight, let’s get started. Remember, the controls in the modules work as follows: swipe up and down to access the various controls within the module, swipe left and right to change the values of those controls.

We’ll start with Black and White, and a picture of my foyer. Black and White is just what it says; if you’re looking for sepia-toned or cyanotype looks, then you will not find them here. It only converts to black and white.

The controls are few: Brightness, Contrast and Grain. Adding Grain to an iPhone photo that already has a lot of noise might seem counterproductive, but many old black and white film stocks had a large amount of grain.

There are several presets that act as good starting points for your balck and white conversion.

This module also has filter options, that work as though you had colored filters over the lens when taking the picture. A particular color will lighten that color in the picture, and darken the opposite color.

In my example, I’ve chosen the orange filter to brighten up the flowers on the door.

The next module we’ll discuss is the new one, Retrolux. It not only produces on old photo look, but introduces some severe stresses in the form of scratches and light leaks. When you enter the module, I would suggest you tap the Shuffle option a few times until you start to get the look you want, then adjust the parameters.

Tapping the Style button gives you several styles to choose from, each of which will affect the color and contrast. At the end of the Style bar is the Properties option.

Tapping the Properties option will allow you to adjust the different types of scratches and light leaks.

Controls within Retrolux allow for complete control: Brightness, Saturation, and Contrast for the entire picture; and Strength of Style, Scratches, and Light Leaks. (I’m not a fan of Light Leaks unless they are very subtle, so this control pleases me.)

For the next three modules – Vintage, Drama, and Grunge – I’ll be using this picture of myself on an airplane.

Vintage, like Retrolux, reproduces the look of old film, but in a subtler manner. You begin by choosing a style that affects color and contrast.

There are four textures to choose from, but even with the Texture Strength cranked way up, I have trouble seeing it.

The controls are Brightness, Saturation, Texture Strength, Style Strength, and Center Size. Center Size controls the size of the darken vignette applied to the photo.

The Drama module adds sharpness and contrast to a photo. The controls are simple: You have six presets to choose from.

The controls are Filter Strength and Saturation. It is a simple module, but really helps on those occasions when you’re looking for a little drama to help your photos pop.

The Grunge module uses texture, style, blur, and vignetting to really change the look of your photo: nothing subtle here. As with Retrolux, the Shuffle option will allow you to quickly change parameters to try to narrow in on a look you like.

There are five textures to choose from in the Grunge module.

The controls are Style, Brightness, Contrast, Texture Strength, and Saturation. If you look at the gauge at the bottom center you will see that Style is not limited to the nine or eleven styles in the Vintage or Retrolux modules, but allows for gradations in between.

The Grunge look uses a darkening and blurring vignette, and the size and placement of it can be changed by tapping on the picture, moving the blue button, and using a two-finger pinch to adjust the size.

I like adding a frame before using Grunge to blend the picture into the frame.

The next two modules deal with blur: Center Focus restricts you to a round area of focus, while Tilt-Shift allows for either linear or elliptical areas of focus. I’ll be using this picture of a flower in Hilton Head Island to illustrate these.

Center Focus allows you to change the size and placement of the focus, just as in the Grunge module.

The controls are Blur Strength, Outer Brightness and Inner Brightness, The Weak/Strong button at the bottom gives you more control over the Blur Strength: two different scales of blurriness.

There are also seven presets, but the controls are so easy to use that I don’t find that I use presets much.

Tilt-Shift works as though you have one of those fancy tilt-shift lenses that make vistas look as though they were miniatures photographed with a macro lens. The area of focus is divided in three: in-focus, out-of-focus, and the transitional are between the two.

The area of focus (the middle strip with the blue button) can be rotated and sized with two-finger adjustments.

The Transition size can be change with a control: wide transitions for a smooth look; tight for a harsh transition. The remaining controls (Blur Strength, Brightness, Contrast, and Saturation) affect the out-of-focus area.

Style in Tilt-Shift is a choice between Linear and Elliptical. Elliptical allow you to adjust the shape and size of the ellipse with two-finger gestures.

The final module is Frames. This is the most problematic module in Snapseed, and the new version changes one problem for another. I kept the old version on my phone for a couple of days so that I’d be able to show you the difference.

The old version really only gave you one option of frame: a white, “sloppy” frame with an inner black edge.

The controls were limited to two: Frame Width and Frame Offset.

This allowed you to change the size of the frame. This is good, as frame size is variable given the requirements of the individual photograph. Still, the single style of frame was a problem.

With the all-new frame module, we are supplied with many styles of frame; white and black with smooth, rough or rounded edges. But the controls for the size of the frames are gone! They seem to think that every picture needs a medium-sized frame – no thin or thick frames.

So here we are: a selection of white frames.

A selection of black frames.

Two options: Colorize (which is so subtle that there’s no point in trying to show you before and after).

Format (which crops your picture to a square while adding a frame).

Conclusion

Snapseed is still my editor of choice on the iPad/iPhone. When I need a number of quick changes, it accomplishes them with ease. I enjoy the creativity that the Grunge, Retrolux, Drama, and two focus modules give me. The goodwill is tempered, though with the cluelessness they’ve shown in their next-to-useless Frames module. I hope that turning Snapseed into a free app will not eliminate any further development.

Still – it’s free! Go out and get it!