Ultimate Guide of Snapseed: How to Edit Photos in Snapseed

This is a complete guide to Snapseed in 2024. Explore the tips and skills that can help you get some awesome pictures.

In this new guide, you’ll learn how to edit photos in Snapseed.

We’ll discuss and show you some Snapseed basic settings for the photo challenge in 2024. So, if you’re looking for the key to enhancing your images and getting many likes and followers on your social media, this chapter is for you.

 Upload An Image In Snapseed Photo Editor

1. Tap the” open” to let Snapseed access your photo library.

2. Swipe across the row of image thumbnails and view your recent images.

3. Select an image for editing.

4. Tap the tool at the bottom of the image and start to edit your image.

Enhance Color, Exposure & Detail

Indeed, color, exposure, and detail are essential elements that contribute to an image’s overall quality and attractiveness. Skillfully adjusting these elements can significantly enhance the visual impact of a photograph.

Tune Image

It allows you to adjust the tonality of an image automatically.

1. Open the image you want to edit in Snapseed.
2. Tap on the editing tools icon, usually a pencil or brush icon.
3. Scroll through the options in the editing tools menu and select the “Tune Image” tool. It is often the first option in the menu.

4. Once you tap Tune Image, you will see a range of adjustment sliders and controls.

5. Adjust the sliders to make changes to the image’s tonality. These sliders typically include brightness, contrast, saturation, ambience, highlights, shadows, warmth, and more.

All the accompanying images have been adjusted to their maximum settings, allowing you to understand these specific settings visually and comprehensively.

Brightness: Brightness refers to an image’s overall lightness or darkness. Slide right (+) to increase brightness and left (-) to decrease. The setting value is at the top of the screen.

Note: The middle one is the original photo. The left is to decrease the brightness, and the right is to increase the brightness.

Contrast: Contrast is the range of brightness in an image, from the lightest to the darkest areas. Adjusting contrast lets you keep details in shadows or highlights, ensuring a well-balanced and dynamic scene representation.

Note: The middle one is the original photo. The left is a low-contrast image, and the right is a high-contrast image.

Saturation: Saturation refers to the intensity or vividness of colors in an image. By increasing the saturation, the colors appear more vivid and vibrant. Decreasing saturation reduces the intensity of colors. A setting value of -100 for saturation will remove colour from the photo, resulting in a black-and-white or grayscale image, such as the image shown on the left below.

Note: The middle one is the original photo. The left is to – saturation and the right is + saturation.

Ambience: Ambience refers to the overall atmosphere, mood, and feeling conveyed by a scene or an image. It is used to balance backlit photos or to accentuate contrasts throughout your photo.

Note: The middle one is the original photo. The left is to – ambience, and the right is + ambience.

Highlights and Shadows: Highlights refer to the brightest elements or areas. On the other hand, shadows are the darkest areas in a snap.

By adjusting the Highlights, you can control the level of detail and brightness in the brightest parts of the photo. By changing the Shadows, you can lighten or darken the shadowed regions, which can significantly impact the overall mood and depth of the photo.

Note: The middle one is the original photo. The left is to – highlight, and the right is + highlight.

Note: The middle one is the original photo. The left is to – shadows, and the right is + shadows.

Warmth: Warmth” refers to the presence and dominance of red, yellow, and orange shades in an image, as opposed to blues, greens, and teals. The “Warmth” adjustment allows you to alter the overall tone of a picture towards either a cooler or warmer feel by shifting the color balance towards blues or yellows.

Note: The middle one is the original photo. The left is to -warmth, and the right is + warmth.

To view the original photo while editing, you can tap and hold on the screen icon or thumbnail of the image. If you are satisfied with your editing adjustments in Snapseed, please save your edited image by tapping the checkmark symbol.

White Balance

The White Balance tool in photo editing improves your image by adjusting the color temperature and applying various color tints. It helps you get accurate and pleasing color in your photos. In Snapseed, there are two options when you tap the white balance icon: Temperature and Tint.

Temperature: It can make your colors cooler (bluer) or warmer (more orange) for your images. Please swipe left or right to adjust the setting.

Below, you’ll find images showcasing the impact of the temperature adjustment on your pictures.

Note: The one on the left is the original photo. The right one is to + temperature. It swiftly enhances the sunset colors.

Note: The one on the left is the original photo. The right one is to – temperature. It swiftly enhances the sky colors.

Tint: It adjusts your photo by adding various color tints, which can be used to make colors more affluent and more vibrant.

Note: The one on the left is the original photo. The right one is to – tint. It swiftly enhances the leave colors.

Note: The one on the left is the original photo. The right one is to + tint. It swiftly enhances the leaves’ colors （like magenta tones).

Details: The Details filter allows you to enhance the fine details and improve the sharpness of your photo. To increase the amount of sharpness, swipe to the right. Swiping to the right will also increase your image’s overall level of detail.

Structure: Increase the level of detail in your photo by swiping to the right. The Structure tool enhances the texture of objects throughout the image while preserving the integrity of object edges.

Note: The one on the left is the original photo. The right one is to -Structure. It decreases the amount of details in your image.

Note: The one on the left is the original photo. The right one is to +Structure. It increases the amount of details in your image.

Sharpening Tool: Swipe to the right to increase the sharpness of the details in your photo. Swipe to the left to decrease the sharpness of the details in your image.

Note: The one on the left is the original photo. The right one is to +Structure. It decreases the amount of details in your image.

 Curves

The Curves tool adjusts hue, brightness, contrast, highlights and shadows in your images. You could add an anchor point by clicking on the baseline, dragging up the baseline vertically to brighten the image and down the baseline vertically to darken the image.

To adjust image contrast with a refined S-curve adjustment on the baseline. Improve highlight and deepen shadows. The left increases the image’s contrast, and the right decreases the contrast.

What are the differences between the Tune Image and the Curve Tool?

Use the Curves tool for more precise color and contrast adjustments than Tune Image. If you want to make minor adjustments to the image, the Curves tool is the best choice.

There are also some options in the curve section: RGB, Red, Green, Blue and Luminance.

Red: Dragging up the baseline for red color and down the baseline for cyan.

Green: Dragging up the baseline for green and down the baseline for magenta.

Blue: Dragging up the baseline for blue color and down the baseline for yellow.

What are the differences between the RGB curve and the Luminance?

When it comes to RGB, adjusting the values of the red, green, and blue channels allows you to change the hue and saturation of an image. The luminance curve, on the other hand, is simply the brightness of an image.

If you have no idea how to adjust these settings and don’t want to spend much time making some adjustments to the images, 30 templates are the best choices.

Tonal Contrast

The Tonal Contrast tool is a powerful feature that enables you to enhance the contrasts in different tonal ranges of a photo. It allows you to bring out the details and textures in the high, middle, and low tones, adding depth and dimension to the image. 

When you upload an image to Snapseed, the Tonal Contrast tool provides preset settings that you can use as a starting point for adjusting the contrast.

• High Tones –  Add contrast specifically to the highlights in an image
• Mid Tones – Add contrast specifically to the middle gray tones in an image
• Low Tones – Add contrast specifically to the shadows in an image
• Protect Highlights – To prevent the loss of detail in the highlights when increasing contrast in the high tones of an image.
• Protect Shadows – To prevent detail in the shadows from being lost when increasing contrast in the low tones of an image.

Composition Edition

In this section, we will explore how Snapseed editing tools can elevate the composition of your photos. Using the Crop, Rotate, and Perspective tools, you can transform an ordinary snapshot into a stunning, professional-quality image.

Open your photo in Snapseed, then tap Tools.

Crop

The Crop tool in Snapseed allows you to trim the edges of your image, similar to cutting off the borders of a printed photo with scissors.

Cropping serves the purpose of removing distracting elements or empty spaces from the edges of the frame. It also helps improve the overall composition by emphasizing the essential aspects of the photo.

Select the Tools section and tap on Crop. You can choose from various aspect ratios such as Original, Square, 4:3, and more.

Below the image is the “Square“, which could eliminate unwanted elements in this image and make this image look simple.

Rotate

The Rotate tool in Snapseed is particularly useful for straightening horizons in landscape photos. Drag your finger over the image. As you do so, the photo will rotate accordingly. You can use the gridlines displayed on the screen to assist you in achieving a straight rotation.

Perspective

The Perspective tool in Snapseed provides additional methods to straighten elements and address perspective issues in your photos.

The image below has vertical lines that don’t appear parallel. To fix it, you need to select Perspective.

To correct the vertical perspective in Snapseed, you can drag downward over your photo until the lines become parallel. To correct the horizontal perspective, you can drag left or right to straighten any horizontal lines that appear distorted or slanted.

Achieve Flawless Edits by Polishing Your Photos

This section will introduce you to two powerful Snapseed photo editing tools to help you create flawless images.

Healing

The healing tool helps get rid of unwanted objects from your photos. To zoom in on the object you want to remove in Snapseed, use a pinch-out gesture with two fingers.

If you are unsatisfied with the outcome of your editing in Snapseed, you can tap the Undo button at the bottom of the screen.

Portrait

With this Portrait tool, you can effortlessly brighten faces, achieve smoother skin tones, and make eyes sparkle, helping to create stunning and captivating portraits. 

Select the Tool and Tap the Portrait. You can choose from several template options at the bottom of the image, such as spotlight 1, spotlight 2, etc. You can use these templates to adjust your photos quickly and directly.

This section allows users to adjust skin tone, and you can choose one of them to meet your needs.

If you don’t want to use the templates to adjust your images, Snapseed offers an option for making some adjustments freely.

Face Spotlight

Face Spotlight – By skillfully brightening the subject’s facial features, you can accentuate their expressions and highlight the finer details. You can check the image below to find some differences.

Skin Smoothing

Skin Smoothing – Effortlessly create a polished and flawless look for your subject’s skin, ensuring a smooth complexion that enhances their natural beauty.

Eye Clarity

Eye Clarity – Make your subject’s eyes sparkle.

Selective Editing Tools

In this section, you will uncover the remarkable potential of selective photo editing. Selective editing tools allow you to edit various elements of your photo independently.

The capability to selectively edit your photos holds immense power. You can elevate your Snapseed editing skills to a new realm by mastering these tools.

Brush

The Brush tool allows you to control and selectively adjust brightness and color in your photos. It is ideal for situations where specific scene areas require brightening or darkening. There are four options: Dodge & Burn, Exposure, Temperature and Saturation.

To selectively brighten or darken particular areas of your photo, use the Dodge & Burn brush.

After some adjustments, this is the final results.

Selective

With the Selective Tool, you can edit individual colors within your photo. After selecting a specific color area, you can adjust its brightness, contrast, saturation, or structure, allowing for precise and targeted editing.

In the Snapseed Tools, locate and tap on the Selective tool. Then, tap on the specific area of color in your image that you wish to adjust. This action will add an adjustment point, represented by a small circle, to the selected area.

Swipe up or down on the screen to get the four adjustment tools in Snapseed. The tools are arranged from top to bottom, with the settings representing Brightness, Contrast, Saturation, and Structure. Drag your finger left or right on the screen to adjust the corresponding setting.

To view your image without the adjustment points in Snapseed, tap the Eye icon. This will hide the adjustment points, allowing you to see the image in its final edited state. Once satisfied with your Snapseed edit, tap the checkmark icon to apply the changes and save your edited image.

Masking

Masking in Snapseed allows you to apply any edit to specific areas of your image selectively. Using masking in Snapseed, you can bring out fine details in a textured subject while keeping the rest of the image unaffected. And You also turn the whole image into black and white and keep the main subject in color.

Let’s check how to make my image excellent with masking tool

1. Please upload your image to Snapseed and select the  Tune Image.
2. Set the Saturation to -100, then tap the checkmark.
3. Choose the Edit History icon and view the edit.
4. Tap Tune Image, then tap the brush icon.
5. Please use the brush tool to paint over the specific area you want to appear in black and white while leaving the rest of the image in color.

Images below show the steps:

Note: To remove a red highlight, use the Mask tool in Snapseed:

1. Tap the down arrow at the bottom of the screen to set the value to zero, making the Mask tool work as an eraser.
2. Start brushing over the red highlight area to remove it. You should see the red highlight being erased as you brush over it.
3. Continue brushing until the red highlight is wholly removed.

Vignette

The Vignette tool in Snapseed lets you subtly darken or brighten your image’s inner or outer parts.

Tap the vignette tools in Snapseed and swipe up or down on the screen. This action will open the options for adjusting the Outer and Inner Brightness. These tools allow you to control the brightness of the areas within and outside the vignette area, giving you precise control over the desired lighting effects.

Snapseed Filters

That’s just a brief overview of filters suitable for different photography types. However, it’s important to note that you may still need to make additional adjustments to your images based on real-world situations.

Snapseed offers a wide range of filters that allow users to change the mood and color of their images quickly and directly. These Snapseed filters enable you to enhance your images and make them stand out. If you want more filters, the VSCO is also the best option.

HDR Scape

The HDR Scape tool’s purpose is to enhance the detail in a photo.

The left one is the original image.

Glamour Glow

This Glamour Glow tool gives an old-school romantic era vibe to your photo.

The left one is the original image.

Vintage

You can evoke nostalgia by giving any image the appearance of color film photos from the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s. You can also customize the filter in Snapseed: Swipe up or down on the screen and select a tool from the menu. From there, you can swipe left or right to adjust the specific settings of the selected tool. (Brightness, Saturation, Style Strength and Vignette Strength). There are 12 vintage filters to choose from in Snapseed.

The images below show the steps.

Note: “Style Strength” refers to the intensity or amount of a particular style or filter applied to an image. Vignette Strength” refers to the intensity or degree of the vignette effect applied to an image. The vignette effect darkens or brightens the outer edges of the image, drawing attention to the centre. 

Black & White

Improve the captivating beauty of the subject’s lines with the timeless elegance of black and white filters.

Other Features

Lens Blur

Emulate the swings and tilts of a large format camera to create blur and draw attention toward a subject. 

Blur Strength: Swipe to the right to increase the intensity of the blur effect.
Transition: Swipe to the right to increase the distance of the fade between the in-focus and blurred areas.
Vignette Strength: Swipe to the right to darken the edges of the image and add a vignette effect to the blur.

FAQ

What are the unique features of Snapseed?

Snapseed users can edit pictures by swiping gestures to select various effects and enhancements.

Do professional photographers use Snapseed?

The Snapseed app is a free photo editing tool from Google offering powerful editing filters you can use on a smartphone or tablet and professional photographers can use it.

How many people use Snapseed?

More than 9 million users.

Can Snapseed remove the watermark?

Yes.

What is the advantage of the Snapseed app?

The free tool can save, share, and export your final edited Snapseed photo.

Is Snapseed user-friendly?

Snapseed is known for its user-friendly interface and provides users with a wide range of options to enhance and improve their photos.