The best Snapseed tricks to edit your photos

When we see a photograph published on the Internet, in a magazine, a newspaper, we never see the first image that emerged from the lens of the photographer camera. Never again. Unless this is stated in the caption, or corresponds to a tutorial on image editing, the photographs that are published in the different media that we know of are modified. And we are not only talking about the digital development that we do from the 'raw' image (or RAW, which is what the unprocessed image format is called) but also about the subsequent editing that we all do of it.Instagram filters are a type of editing, altering the brightness, the contrast, adding a touch of softer skin… everything that we add later to the image that we have taken in the first place is considered image editing. And it is always done.

Thanks to our mobile phone, photo editing work can achieve almost professional results thanks to the different applications that we have in the Google Play Store. One of the best, most complete and simple tools that we can download to edit our photos is Snapseed. With this application, owned by Google, we will be able to put into practice everything we can think of to enhance and improve our snapshots. And best of all, it's free.

Since Snapseed is an application, a priori, that may seem complex, with multiple functions, we are going to tell you, in depth, about some of the most important steps and tricks you can do to edit an image.Grab your mobile, download the application and join us in this special to get the most out of the Snapseed application. The app is free, there are no purchases of any kind to unlock special features.

Download | Snapseed (Varies by device)

First steps: getting to know Snapseed

Home Screen

Snapseed's home screen has very few elements to play with. In the center, we see a large '+' icon that, if we click, will allow us to import the image we want to edit. From Snapseed we can't take photos, first we have to take them from the camera application that we have on our mobile and then take it to Snapseed. At the top we have a three-point menu that houses the application configuration section, a series of tutorials and a last section of 'Help and suggestions'.Within the 'Settings' section we can:

• Activate the dark mode of the application to save battery while editing the photo
• Choose the size we want to edit (we recommend not touching)
• In 'Format and quality' we choose 100% so that the app offers us the image in maximum quality. The files will weigh more but this way we make sure we have the best result.

Loading a photo for the first time: interface

Pressing on the home screen will open the gallery of our phone. We are going to choose the photo that we want to edit and click on it. Next, you will see that it already appears in the application, dividing the screen into three parts:

• At the top we find the button 'back' to undo and redo edits, recover the original image and see all the edits that We have carried out.
• An information icon where we will have the detail of the photograph (registration place, date…)
• The three-dot menu that we explained earlier.

Now let's go to the bottom part, which is where everything important about the application is.

• We see a small carousel of images in which there are filters already incorporated into it. If we click on them we will see the change in the main photograph. These are preconfigured filters like the ones we see on Instagram and will serve for superficial editing, when we don't want to stop for a long time.This section is called ‘Designs’.
• In the second section, 'Tools' we will find all the editing sections of the application. In this step we will go further in depth.
• To finish, in 'Export',as its name indicates, we are going to share the photo with third-party applications, save a copy of the photo, export it according to changes in 'Settings' (see when we save it at 100%). In 'Export the image as' we can save it with the title we want.

Here's the photo of the kitten with two filters default of the application so you can see the result.

Deep Editing: 'Tools' section

If you only want to use Snapseed in a superficial way, ie opening the image, applying a default filter and then saving it, the app usage tutorial would be over for you.However, if you want to edit the images in more depth, keep reading because we are going to stop at the section of 'Tools' This section consists, nothing more and nothing less than 28 different functions that we will explain in detail below.

Enhance Photo

Surely, the tool that we will use the most to edit photos in Snapseed. Thanks to 'improve photo' we are going to retouch all the basic elements of the image such as contrast, brightness, saturation, shadow, warmth... To move between the different elements we are going to place our finger on the photo and make a gesture from top to bottom. below. To modify each element, we move our finger from left to right.

The elements to be changed can also be made to appear by clicking on the striped icon at the bottom of the screen. If you want the application to make the adjustments automatically, click on the 'magic wand'.

The best thing you can do to see what each element does is play by increasing and decreasing it. When you want to see how the photo was before and now, you have to click on the upper right icon that we see in the previous screenshot. While we hold down, it will offer us the original image. When we release our finger, the edited image will appear.

Remember that you can see all the edits you make in the image by clicking on the 'back' button at the top of the page screen.

Details

In this section we are going to apply more detail and definition to the image. It is divided into two parts:

• Structure. The more detail, the 'harder' the image will appear, while less detail will make it much softer.
• Sharpness enhancement.

Curves

This is a section that the most technical photography users will recognize. It allows us to alter the highlight and shadow curves to lighten or darken the image. In order not to confuse the reader too much, say that in this section we are going to configure the light of the image I recommend choosing some of the default settings in the lower card icon. We press and we see the changes instantly. We accept when we have the one we like the most and that's it. Much better than placing guides and moving the curves.

White balance

How to get the colors of the photo to be natural and real? The image is not the same if we do it in cloudy daylight, or in fluorescent light.Here we will be able to adjust the temperature and tone of the image in general. We can also apply the real colors by selecting what is the 'real white' with the eyedropper tool. Also in 'AW' we can adjust the white balance automatically.

Trim

The usual option to crop the image. We can make a free cut or choose a cut shape predetermined by the application.

Spin

As its name indicates, we can rotate the photo if we have it in the wrong direction.

Perspective

Experiment with the perspective of photography. You can tilt the image, rotate the image... and in the space that remains when performing the movement of perspective we can choose whether to fill it with black, white or make an intelligent fill The best thing you can do in this section is to investigate and play with the different options that it offers you.

Expand

This tool is used to expand the limits of the image. It can be a good way to place a white frame around the photo is with this tool. To do this, we open the guides that appear in the image, having chosen the white cube. If we want black frame, we choose black cube. If we want intelligent filling, we click on the intelligent cube, but be careful because it does not always have the desired results.

Selective

We can apply a specific correction to a specific point of the image with this tool. Let's click on a certain point of the image and adjust the brightness, contrast, saturation and structure.If you want to add another point, click on the '+' button that we have at the bottom of the screen. To select between buttons, click on them. When the button is illuminated in blue the changes will affect that zone. To see the image without the buttons, click on the eye icon.

Brush

Let's 'paint' over our image and apply light and exposure effects, just exposure, temperature and saturation. Choose a quality, adjust the intensity of the effect (from -10 to 10) and paint over the image to modify it I suggest you activate the 'eye' icon to know where you are applying the effect. With a finger touch we apply the effect and with the pinch gesture we move and enlarge the image to apply it with more precision.

With this tweak, for example, we will be able to put an object or person in black and white and the background in color, or vice versa. To do this, we are going to 'paint' the person or object with the saturation brush at -10.

Stain remover

Do you want to remove something from the image? This is your function. However, we warn you that the stain remover works best to extract elements that are not very close to other different ones such as, for example, the clouds on the side of this image. You just have to enlarge the image, pass your finger over the object to delete and the application will do the rest.

HDR Landscape

With this function we are going to fix the images that offer us many chiaroscuro areas Thanks to the dynamic range (HDR) we can illuminate dark areas and darken overexposed areas.In this section we will choose if we apply the HDR landscape to people or nature, if we want a fine or intense filter. If we want to adjust it manually, click on the striped icon and vary the intensity of the filter, brightness and saturation, moving your finger from top to bottom and from left to right.

In the screenshot above, the image on the left is the result of applying HDR landscape nature, and the image on the right is raw.

Glamour glitter

As the name indicates, we are going to apply a bit of 'glamour' to our image This is not suitable for all images filter, try to choose those whose theme is more consistent. We can choose and adjust the default filters that appear in the section and adjust the halo, intensity and warmth of each one of them.

Tone Contrast

Here we are going to fine-tune the contrast adjustments of the image. The changes are so subtle that unless you are handling a highly contrasted image you will hardly notice any changes.

Drama

A filter with which we are going to give character to our image. It is recommended to apply to photographs with very little contrast, brightness, flat, or that present an opaque veil. We can choose between six different drama filters and each of them can be adjusted in intensity and saturation.

Vintage

As the name suggests, we will apply a series of vintage filters that provide an aged look, like from another era, to our images. It consists of twelve different filters and each filter can be adjusted independently.

Film Grain

Different filters to add a grain and thus provide another aspect to our image.

Backlighting

We find this filter more properly 'vintage' than the one itself called by the application. As an example we have a couple of screenshots.

Grunge

Translucent stencils that we place on top of the image and gives it a radical look. The arrows icon applies the template randomly, in the stripes icon we will adjust the qualities of the image and in the next icon we will choose the desired template. If we slide our finger towards the fingers we can change the style of the template. The results can be tremendously attractive.

Black and White and Noir

It is a series of sections dedicated to all the filters and image configurations to achieve black and white

Portrait

Highlight faces in a portrait by applying light filters, soften the face, skin and clarity of the eyes… you can choose between default settings or choose your own individually.

Head posture

With this configuration you can change the position of your face, if in the selfie you have not turned out as you wanted. Be careful because this configuration can give somewhat strange results.

Blur

We are going to apply a blur filter to the photograph, adjusting the affected circles located at a specific point. We can adjust the blur transition between both circles as well as their separation.

Vignetting

To place a bullet on the image, resulting in darker edges and a lighter center).

Double exposure

One of the coolest settings in Snapseed is Double Exposure. With this function we will be able to 'mix' two images, superimposing them, to create psychedelic and unique effects To create a double exposure image, click on the icon and select the first picture. Next we select the second image that will be mixed with the previous one, clicking on the lower icon '+'.

Next, we are going to position this last image as we want, moving it around, resizing it, rotating it, etc.In my example, we are going to insert the kitten inside the disco ball Once we have it, we play with the icons that we see at the bottom, combining the images by clearing, adding, superimposing, etc, being able to also adjust the opacity of both images.

Text

As you may have guessed, with this function we will be able to add text to our photograph We can choose between different text templates and colors, as well as being able to adjust the opacity. With your fingers we will place the text where we want as well as its orientation and size.

Frames

And we end this long tour of all the tools that Snapseed provides with the possibility of adding frames to the image. We have up to 23 pre-installed frames to try on the image before confirming the edition.As always, each frame can be adjusted by sliding from left to right, in this case the width of the frame.

Working by layers with Snapseed

At a much more domestic level than in Photoshop, thanks to Snapseed we will be able to work with different layers in the same image to create very attractive effects, like the one we already saw in extract color from a person in the foreground on a colored background. To access the different adjustment layers that we have applied to an image, we have to go to the upper icon of 'back' and then click on 'see editions. We are going to teach you how to work with layers through a tutorial to place another photo over our silhouette, to achieve a very striking effect.

Make sure you take a photo whose central character stands out fairly well from the background, as this will best achieve the effect.We open our photo and go to the 'improve photo' tool. We are going to raise the brightness a lot, the contrast, the highlights and the saturation, we lower it until we have the photo in black and white. As we can see, the silhouette has become quite detached from the background.

Once we have our black and white photo, we go to the double exposure tool and place the image we want on top. We adjust until we see that our silhouette and the added image combine well. Now, below, click on the cards icon and click on the combination that most convinces us. In the drop icon we are going to adjust the opacity of both images

Now we go with the final result. We go to the layers/back icon at the top of the screen and click on ‘See editions‘.

Click on the 'double exposure' edition and enter the central editing icon. Now, carefully, we are going to go 'painting' on our silhouette so that the other image appears. For the background to appear, you must set the 'double exposure' brush (you have it in the lower central part) to 100. If you make a mistake, set the brush to 0 to erase. To enlarge and move around the image, use two fingers. To paint, only one.

Editing RAW photos with Snapseed

To make it clear before getting into the matter, we refer to RAW format (which we could translate from English as 'raw') to the equivalent of photographic negativethat we had on analog cameras. That negative was sent to a laboratory where an expert 'developed' the image to transfer it to paper. In digital, it would come to be equivalent to the JPEG format.Snapseed, in this case, provides the necessary elements to reveal the image and we are the laboratory experts.

To be able to carry out formats in RAW or DNG our mobile must have enabled the Camera2 Google API In the manual mode of your mobile you should have, in file type, the option to save a DNG of the image. When exporting that image to Snapseed, it will open the RAW development mode automatically, as you can see in the screenshots that we show you below.

The developer screen interface does not differ at all from what we have already seen in other sections. At the bottom we have the two icons that interest us, the one for tools and another specifically for white balance. First, we are going to go to the white balance and we are going to choose a 'white' that we think fits reality.From that white, the colors will automatically adjust to offer the most natural version of them.

In the tools icon we will be able to modify the following elements.

• Exposure (image light)
• Highlights
• Shades
• Contrast
• Structure
• Saturation
• Temperature
• Tone

Batch Editing

Have you done a photographic job in which the images are all very similar and you don't want to edit one by one? Well, you can configure an image, by adding all the editing steps you want, copy them and then paste them to the other images you want.To do this, once you have made all the adjustments to the image, we are going to press the 'layers / back' icon. In 'See editions' we are going to click on the three-point menu and, later, 'copy'.

Open the new image, click on the 'layers/back' button again, 'see editions', three-point menu and, to paste the edition that we have made before, click on 'insert' . This is a good way to, for example, add the same face retouching to a portrait shoot.

Snapseed Tutorials

With the Snapseed application itself we will be able to learn how to edit. Right now, the application has 30 tutorials with which to learn techniques such as selective editing, the focus effect for portraits, detailed black and white, a postcard vintage, different text techniques, etc.

To access the different tutorials that Snapseed offers you, let's do the following.

• We open a photograph and we are going to go to the menu of three points located in the upper right part of the screen.
• Click on the 'tutorials' option.
• We choose the one that most interests us to learn. In this case, according to the image we have chosen, the tutorial of 'Postal vintage' is adjusted. Click on it.

• On the tutorial screen, the application tells us how many steps we have to follow to achieve the desired result and how long it will take to do it. In this case there are only three steps and an average of 4 minutes.

Best of all, any tutorial you open can be done automatically with the click of a button. Click on 'test' and, immediately, you will see the image with the entire process already applied.

So far, everything you need to know about one of the photo editing applications of all Android. Developed by Google, Snapseed gives you a true Swiss Army knife for any lover of the world of digital photography. Remember that it is totally free and that it does not contain anything from .