Snapseed for iPad
Nik Software’s Snapseed for iPad
As an experienced photographer, I have come to recognize innovative photo software when I come across it. Nik Software has an array of very powerful software with many different effects and uses. With so many Photoshop filter companies out there, it’s hard to distinguish one company from another. One piece of their software caught my attention immediately. Viveza and its U-Point technology set the bar for me for making difficult color corrections easily.
Imagine my surprise when I received a press release from Nik Software announcing a new app called, “Snapseed for iPad.” I believe it took me less than two minutes to have found it and downloaded it to my iPad. I have not been disappointed since.
Snapseed offers some of the most innovative adjustment controls that I have ever come across in any application, desktop or otherwise. The interface is simple and clean and encourages users to experiment. There are undo buttons and redo buttons, but if you really don’t like what you’ve created you can choose revert and start all over. This makes it easy to try out the various effects and controls while toning or artistically altering your photo.
This app is an editing app, not a capture app. There is no camera interface. When you open Snapseed, you click on “Open Image” to access your photo albums and choose an image to edit. Your image opens in a window on the right if in landscape or on top if your iPad is in portrait orientation. There is a filter menu on the left (or bottom) which you can then use to pick an adjustment or effect filter to apply to your photo. As you can imagine, each has its own set of controls which is slightly different. What makes this app so innovative, though, is how you select and make your adjustments.
How you interact with Snapseed’s controls is quite simple. You slide your finger up or down on the photo to choose the adjustment mode and slide left or right to adjust the amount of effect that adjustment has. Some filters, such as the Selective Adjust filter, use U-Point technology just like Viveza does. You simply select a point that you would like to apply an adjustment, choose the type of adjustment (Brightness, Contrast, Saturation), then it’s reach by pinching, and its amount by sliding right or left. The whole process is extremely intuitive.
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As I noted above, Snapseed also offers effects filters such as Black & White, Vintage, Drama, Grunge, Center Focus, and Organic Frames. The Grunge and Frames filters use a bit of a random selection process which can be disconcerting, but there are some aspects that can be customized via the app’s standard method. Some of the filters have differing versions which you can select through buttons on the bottom menu bar.
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All of the effects and adjustments can be layered ad infinitum until you get the look you desire. Simply hit apply to accept your settings and the app takes you back to the main menu where you can choose a new effect or adjustment. From the main menu, you can compare your new version to the original, revert back to the original, save the image to your iPad library, or share on social media. The share feature is a little light on networks for my taste, so I tend to share in other apps. Currently, sharing from Snapseed is limited to email, printing, Flickr, or Facebook. As a huge Twitter user, the lack of twitter is a problem for me. I hope that Twitter is one of the features added in upcoming updates.
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Overall, this app is an incredible piece of engineering. Most all of the adjustments which I need to do are included within this single app. Adjustments which require masking in other apps are simplistic and fast in Snapseed. Snapseed also has the ability to work with camera RAW images and save them as JPG files.
I highly recommend iPhoneographers and photographers who find themselves making critical adjustments or want to apply easy effects download Snapseed.
Rating: ✭✭✭✭✭
Nik Software’s Snapseed site: Has great demo videos.
Snapseed on the Apple App Store
Update: 9/21/2011 – Snapseed is now universal and has the ability to capture photos from within the app.
If you download this app and would like to share your photos with others on twitter, please add the hashtag #PringleFYP to your tweet. This way others can see how you have used them!
Click here to run a twitter search for #PringleFYP
–David Pringle
When I began carrying my first iPhone, its first generation camera was poor at best. This fact didn’t deter me from exploring the quickly-evolving pack of photography apps exploding onto the App Store. When the iPhone 4 was released, a whole new world was given to us. My intent in this column is to offer my readers my fair evaluation of apps intended to be used on iOs devices to create photographic art. As a professional photographer in the field and an artist, I will bring both angles on the apps and the devices on which they are used. Hang tight to your iPhone and join me in a quest to create the best mobile art we can! Visit my site at http://www.pringle-art.com
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Wow! Great write-up! Between this article and the website, I totally want this app… and I don’t even have an iPad (yet)!
David, I just wanted to drop by and quickly say thanks for reviewing Snapseed. Your post hit some great highlights and I think gave people a good sense of the software.
There is one aspect of Snapseed I wanted to share that could also be interesting to your readers: it’s the concept of using multiple filters in succession to create great looks and/or finishing an image. For instance, you can Auto Correct and Selective Adjust, then use Vintage Film and Frames to finish up an image. So… filter “stacking” (if you will) can be very powerful.
Cheers, Kevin (from Nik Software)
Hi Kevin,
The software really is quite easy to use. Took me just a few seconds to understand the “touch” controls and get my photo just the way I wanted it. Love the sharing options too.
Try checking out GoldenPic for your iPhone! Great way to keep track of the Golden Hours, Blue Hours, sunrise, sunset, moon info, even weather and GPS coordinates!
Just installed it. So far, I love it.
“Snapseed also has the ability to work with camera RAW images and save them as JPG files.”
OK, that’s massive (for me at least)! How do you do that, I never saw that option when I was looking for it?
You’ll need the iPad Camera Connection Kit to import RAW images into the iPad from either SD card or directly from the camera via USB.