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App Review: Snapseed

Wed, Jan 25th, 2012 by Bob Brown

Over the winter break, I stumbled upon a great app for the iPad called Snapseed. It is an incredible app for manipulating your everyday photos into beautiful masterpieces. It has many of the tools for photo editing that you would find in more powerful desktop applications like Photoshop.

The most appealing thing about this app is its ingenious interface. Its takes a few minutes to get the hang of it, but once you understand it, it becomes very user-friendly. The app utilizes the full range of gestures allowing you to control the various effects with swipes and pinches in true iPad style.

Unlike Hipstamatic, another one of my favorite apps, which let’s you take photos using various vintage cameras and film, Snapseed allows you to work with photos that you have already taken and with more control over the outcome.

Here is an example of an otherwise ordinary photo:

example-1

In under a minute I was able to transform it into this:

example-2

For this example, I applied a lot of filters and effects to get my point across, but you can be as subtle with your manipulation as you want, or take it too the limits using the built in Vintage or Grunge presets.

When I downloaded it a couple of weeks ago it was free, but it looks like the price has gone up to $4.99. Well worth it if you ask me.

Related Links:
http://www.snapseed.com/
http://hipstamatic.com/