Snapseed – By Nik Software

This is my #1 go-to portable editing app. Snapseed is a powerful editing tool

that contains everything a photographer needs to make beautiful images
on the go. This app is available FREE for iPad, iPhone and Android:
iPhone & iPad App Link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/snapseed/id439438619?mt=8
Android App Link https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.niksoftware.snapseed

When editing, less is always more and this is doubly true when working on
any device. Knowing ‘when to stop’ is one of the most important
elements in producing high-quality digital photographs.

Converting Digital Captures to B&W – Capture an image with a camera

or a camera app in full color then always convert to black & white in post-
processing. This method delivers the best B&W tonal range and details in
an image.

Snapseed Filters

TUNE IMAGE – Begin with adjusting your image to make it as strong of a

foundation as possible by using this filter. Achieve the perfect
enhancement by improving the tonality, or distribution of light, and overall
appearance of any image.

Brightness – when an image is initially converted to B&W adding a bit of

brightness right away will establish a perfect exposure level. Swiping to the right
brightens the photo, while swiping to the left darkens it.

Ambiance – The Ambiance control is a special type of contrast that controls the
balance of light in a photo. It can be used to balance backlit photos or to
accentuate contrasts throughout your photo. Swipe right for photos where the
subject is darker than the background. Swipe left to increase the contrast of dark
objects and create a slight glow around darker objects. This is especially helpful in
photos that are slightly flat.

Contrast – contrast boosts drama and enhances the overall mood making
images pop – it is quasi-sharpening without adding noise. Swiping to the right
increases the contrast, while swiping to the left reduces the contrast.

Saturation – Swiping to the right increases saturation, or vibrancy, of the colors.

Swiping to the left decreases saturation. A value of -100 will result in a photo

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 completely without color.

White Balance – Use the White Balance control to adjust the color balance of the
image. This is helpful if the image was shot in a difficult lighting situation. Moving
the control to the left will cool the image, making it bluer and less orange. Moving
to the right will warm the image, making it more orange and less blue. At the
extreme ends of the control are the ability to correct for fluorescent and other
more extreme colorcasts.

B&W Conversion – use the ‘Color Filter’ presets to give your B&W images
an instant boost – Snapseed offers a selection of color filters and a neutral.
These filters may seem to be a mute point but remember the black &
white conversation is layered on the original color image. These filters
speak to the colors in the original while enhancing the monochrome
tones.
Preset – This pop-up menu allows you to select from a range of preset values.
Each preset has different values for each of the available controls. After selecting
a preset, use the available controls to fine-tune the result.

Color Filter – Simulates the use of a piece of colored glass over the lens, a
technique often used by professional photographers. The color of the filter causes
objects of that same color to become lighter in the resulting black and white
image. Experimenting with different colors can help you create different looks
and makes it possible to accentuate certain objects in your image.

Brightness – Swiping to the right brightens or swiping left darkens a photo.

Contrast – Swiping right increases the contrast or swiping left to reduces contrast.
Use the Contrast control to increase the difference between the brightest object
and the darkest object throughout a photo.

Grain – Creates natural-looking grain to create a nostalgic effect. Swipe right to

increase the amount of grain or to the left to reduce the grain. A value of 0 will
ensure no grain is added to the image.

Crop – trimming your image with a constrained aspect ratio crop tool
introduces a stylish alternative to the plain old rectangle. Try a classic
square at 1:1 or the fresh new HD 16:9 ratio.

The Crop filter makes it possible to re-compose a photo. Use the crop filter to
remove distractions from an image and ensure the subject is the main focal
point. Drag any edge or corner to change the crop rectangle. Use a pinch or
zoom gesture to adjust the crop rectangle while keeping the same aspect ratio.
Pressing Apply will process the crop, deleting the areas outside of the crop
rectangle.

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Details – Use either a traditional sharpening approach or the unique
Structure control both found in the center menu to enhance the details in
your photo. Use the included loupe to see details at 100% while
enhancing your photo.

Structure – partly a sharpening tool, partly a depth tool; structure adds that extra
bit of ‘oomph’ to a photograph that takes it to the next level in terms of image
detail. Swipe to the right to increase the amount of details of your photo.
Structure uses a unique algorithm to bring out the texture of objects throughout
the photo, without affecting the edges of objects.

Sharpening – a little goes a long way especially when processing on a smaller

screen, such as a hand held device. Swipe to the right to increase the amount of
sharpness of the details in your photo.

Loupe – Tap on the Loupe button to show the loupe control on top of your
image. Tap and drag the loupe to different parts of your image, showing that
area zoomed into 100%.

Selective Adjustments – the power to selectively adjust small areas of an

image give a photographer complete control.

To use a Control Point:

1. Tap on the Add button.

2. Tap on the object or area that you want to enhance. A control point will be
placed where you tap. Move the control point at any time by dragging the
control point.

3. After adding a Control Point, swiping left or right will darken or lighten the
object you selected.

3-a. To increase the area affected, use two fingers to make a zoom gesture and
pinch out. This will increase the reach of the control point. Increasing the reach
causes the Control Point to look for similar enhancements needed farther and
farther away from where the Control Point is placed. While adjusting the reach, a
circle is shown describing the range of the Control Point. While this is shown as a
circle, the effect will only be applied to objects that are similar to the object
selected by the Control Point. To reduce the reach of the control point, make an
inward pinch gesture.

Center Focus – The Center Focus filter makes it possible for you to create
an effect that is very popular with professional photographers: making the
background out of focus and drawing more attention to the subject. The

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different types of blurs available provide a range of possibilities to create
a look that matches the feeling of the image.

The center focus control starts off in the center of the image. Tapping and
dragging this control changes where the blur effect is applied. Making a zoom or
pinch gesture increases or decreases the size of the area in focus.

Preset – Tap on this pop-up menu to select from a range of preset blurs and
vignettes. Each preset has different values for each of the available controls.
After selecting a preset, use the available controls to fine-tune the result.

Weak/Strong – Tap this button to select between a weak, soft-focus blur or a

strong, lens blur.

Blur Radius – Swiping to the right to make the area outside of the focus area more
and more blurred. Swiping to the left to bring the outside area into more focus.

Outer Brightness – Controls the brightness of the outside of the image. Swipe to
the left to darken the outer edges or to the right to brighten them.

Grunge – adding any tone to a B&W image and it will be immediately

transformed. My favorite old-school looks are sepia, ambrotype,
coffee/tea and selenium. (Explore the Eastman Kodak Museum website for examples and definitions of the above
mentioned photo styles http://www.geh.org/taschen/htmlsrc/glossary.html & http://www.alternativephotography.com/wp/toning/toning-black-
white-photographs-with-organic-materials)

The Grunge filter adds a random texture to the image while changing the colors
throughout the image and drawing attention to a portion of your image with
both a vignette and center focus effect. When the filter is first opened, a control is
available at the center of the image. Tap and drag this control to change where
the enhancement is applied. Zoom or pinch to increase or decrease the size of
the area in focus.

Shuffle – Tap this button to shuffle the various controls found within the Grunge
filter. This is a great way to quickly experiment with different looks of the image.

Texture – Tap the texture button to show a list of available textures. Tap the
Properties button to randomize the angle and position of the texture to provide a
different texture look for each image.

Style – Swiping to the left and right will change the color distribution throughout
your photo. Experiment with the different positions of this control to find the color
values that work best with each particular photo.

Brightness – Swiping this control to the right will brighten the entire photo, while
swiping to the left will darken it.

Contrast – Use the Contrast control to increase the difference between the
brightest object and the darkest object. Swiping to the right will increase the
contrast. Swiping to the left will reduce the contrast.

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 Saturation – Swiping to the right will increase the saturation, or vibrancy, of the
colors throughout a photo. Swiping to the left decreases saturation. A value of -
100 will result in a photo completely without color.

Texture Strength – Swiping to the right to increase the visibility of the texture in the
image. Swiping to the left to make the texture more subtle. A value of 0 will
applies no texture to your photo.

Vignette (Center Focus filter) – the drama that can be produced when
adding a vignette to a black & white image is always stunning. In my
editing workflow, I add the vignette last for that final extra punch.

SNAPSEED MENUS
The enhancement menu is hidden in the center of screen.
Drag your finger down on the center of the image to reveal the menu.
Swipe side to side to make adjustment.

SNAPSEED EDITING 101

Hold device either in landscape or portrait mode to utilize your entire screen.

Opening an image
Option 1 – Open a photo from your Gallery or Library. Tap the Open Photo
button at the top, and then select the Choose Photo option to launch your
Gallery. On an iOS device, select the Photo Library option. Locate your image
and tap it to open the image in Snapseed.

Option 2 – Snap a new photo. To activate the camera on your device, Tap the
Open Photo button, and then select the Take Photo or Camera option.

Adding a filter effect – The square menu buttons organized in 15

catagories are called ‘filters.’ After opening an image, tap on one of the

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‘filter’ buttons from the list on either the left or bottom depending on how
you’re holding your device. Scroll the buttons to reveal all 15. To apply
the filter, tap the √ or to cancel and exit, tap the X.

Hidden Menus – Remember every filter effect has a hidden menu waiting
to be revealed. Use it in combination with presets in the same window.

Saving your image – While in the main ‘filter selection’ screen, you can
save or share an image.
To Save – By clicking the Save icon, images are saved as a copy of the original to
your Gallery or Camera Roll.

On Android, the image is saved to a Snapseed album. On iOS, the image is saved
to your Camera Roll, and further organized by saving to a Snapseed album.
Deleting the edited photo from the Snapseed album on iOS does not remove the
image from your Camera Roll, so for a permanent delete, images must be
deleted through the Camera Roll.

To Share – Edited images can be shared via email, posted to Google+, or saved
to other apps on your device without saving to your Gallery or Camera Roll. If you
would like to save the image to your device in addition to sharing it, you must
perform both actions separately before closing the image.

Snapseed Settings – On iPads when using RAW files, if they keep showing
up as a small thumbnail, go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services and
turn this setting to ‘On’ for Snapseed. This is required to allow Snapseed to
use the iOS RAW processing.

Resolution – Any photos enhanced with Snapseed will be saved at the

same resolution as the original photo up to what your device will allow. An
iPad 1, iPhone 3GS and an iPod Touch can save an image up to 6.25
megapixels. An iPad 2, iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S can save an image up to
16 megapixels. An iPad 3rd Generation can save up to 20.25 megapixels.
If your image is larger than your device supports, the image will be
downsampled to the maximum supported megapixels. The details of the
current image File Name, File Size, and Image Size can all be found in the
‘Help’ dropdown menu found when tapping the question mark symbol.

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 Suzanne’s Snapseed Workflow
1. TUNE IMAGE then tweak with the below filters:

SELECTIVE ADJUST – brighten or darken any area

DETAILS – sharpen & add structure
Revisit TUNE IMAGE for critical adjustments
2. DRAMA – adds a dramatic and super-real pop to image

3. ALTERATIONS

STRAIGHTEN
CROP – use ratio menu and change orientation
4. SPECIAL FOCUS EFFECTS (optional – experiment)

TILT SHIFT – select a linear or Elliptical effect and apply it to the organic
and complex options in the center ‘hidden’ menu.
CENTER FOCUS – a variety of options – apply and revisit until as many
as you desire are applied.
5. Always save a COLOR VERSION before converting to B&W

6. B&W CONVERSION

Color Filters (tap on circle symbol for menu)

BLACK & WHITE Presets (tap on star/slider symbol for menu)
7.TONING, TEXTURES & MORE (explore & experiment)

VINTAGE
RETROLUX
HDR
GRUNGE
8. FINAL TOUCHES

CENTER FOCUS (tap on star/slider symbol for menu) > Vignettes

FRAMES
Want to APP STACK? Tap ‘save’ button then ‘OPEN IN…’

8. Save to Photo Library

Print, post and share – then repeat. Enjoy!

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