Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2011/06/16/app_of_the_week_ios_snapseed/

Snapseed

Tap'n'tweak your pictures

By Cliff Joseph

Posted in Personal Tech, 16th June 2011 10:00 GMT

iOS App of the Week I decided to dip back into photography apps this week, following the news that the iPhone 4 is now the second most popular source of photo uploads on Flickr – just a whisker behind Nikon’s D90 DSLR.

Snapseed

Snapseed: finger-friendly image manipulation

Snapseed is a brand new photo editing app – it's designed specifically for the iPad – that addresses a weakness I’ve found in many similar apps.

Like most photo editors, Snapseed allows you to quickly adjust settings such as brightness, contrast and saturation. However, most of the editing apps I’ve used in the past can only apply these settings to the entire image.

Snapseed

Control points define editing zones

Snapseed provides greater editing precision by allowing you to add "control points" to your photos, and to then adjust the brightness, contrast or saturation within a limited radius just around a specific point.

Pressure points

You can use a two-finger pinch to adjust the radius around the control point, and then adjust the relevant settings simply by flicking your finger right or left across the screen.

Snapseed

Filter tips

You can add multiple control points and adjust different settings with each one, and I also like the Undo command, which allows you to step back - or redo - multiple recent edits.

Snapseed

Get creative

RH Recommended Medal

The app also includes a selection of standard filter effects, such as vintage film, dramatic lighting, and a "grunge" effect that makes it look like someone’s spilt coffee on your photo and then jumped up and down on it a few times for good measure.

However, it’s the ability to use control points to fine tune specific areas within an image that has allowed Snapseed to elbow all the other photo apps off my iPad at the moment. ®

We make our selection of the best iOS smartphone and tablet downloads every Thursday. It you think there's an app we should be considering, please let us know.

'Droid fans, Android App of the Week is published on Tuesday.

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