Nik's Snapseed comes to the iPhone

Nik Software, the developers of some very popular and high quality desktop photo editing plug-ins has just updated their iPad app Snapseed, to a universal app, meaning it will now run on the iPhone or iPod Touch.

In addition to the iPad, iPad 2, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPod Touch 3rd Gen, and iPod Touch 4th Gen support, this update adds camera capture within Snapseed, the addition of standard aspect ratios for cropping, performance optimizations, and various bug fixes and user interaction improvements.

If you already have an iPad, and own Snapseed, then you'll be familiar with the apps intuitive interface, but if your new to Snapseed, then you'll find the app very impressive, and controls very easy to master.

How to use Snapseed: To use Snapseed, simply load or take a photo, then select one or more of the following 11 options, like…

• Auto Correct - Automatically analyzes your photo and adjusts color and exposure to perfection.
• Selective Adjust - Make precise selections and enhancements to specific areas of your photos in seconds with Nik Software’s revolutionary U Point technology.
• Tune Image - Use Ambience to create depth and vibrancy that uniquely adapts to colors and textures. Adjust White Balance, Saturation, Contrast, more.
• Straighten & Rotate - Rotate 90° and/or straighten photos with simple gesture controls.
• Crop - Easily crop photos to remove distracting parts of your photo.
• Black & White - Give that classic Black and White look to your photos with this darkroom-inspired filter.
• Vintage Films - Make any photo look like a vintage color film photo from the 50’s, 60’s or 70’s. Includes nine different color casts, plus tons of controls.
• Drama - Add breathless style with a custom effect specifically tailored to your photos, ranging from subtle enhancements of textures to wildly creative and artistic effects.
• Grunge - Give your photos a totally unique, hip, and dingy look with the Grunge filter.
• Center Focus - Draw attention to the subject of your photo blurring the surrounding background with a few simple gestures.
• Organic Frames - Add stylized borders to your photos for the perfect finishing touch.

…then having selected one of the above, simply slide your finger up or down, to reveal that features menu, select the feature from with in that menu that you want to adjust like brightness or contrast, and then swipe your finger from left to right to increase or decrease the intensity of that effect, before applying. You can continue to apply as many or as few of the features/effects from the above list as you like before saving at full-res.

My thoughts on Snapseed: Snapseed is a powerful yet simple app that offers a wide range of features that should satisfy any iPhoneographer, These features including an excellent variable film grain tool, an impressive multi spot selective adjustment tool, and some nice vintage and grunge looks, and whilst not the cheapest of apps, in my opinion, it is worth every penny (cent), and comes highly recommended.

App Store Link: Snapseed; Price: £2.99/$4.99/€3.99

Comments

[Mr Timney]

I am not impressed with the iPhone version thus far. I hate the UI it is not user friendly at all. The Automatic/Selective Adjustment/Tune Image functions should have all been in one. Straighten & crop should be in one. And then with all the other effects I dislike the fact that Grain & textures are combined to a specific selection & not separated into their own. And the frames & borders are pathetic! everyone is almost identical, what the heck is with that decision? Awful. So I am personally not impressed at all with Snapseed & find it extremely over priced. It is not worth any more than $1.99 & is a complete ripoff at $4.99. We already have better apps with better features, function & more visually appealing filter effects. So I personally wouldn't recommend this app to anyone, let alone the over priced $4.99, thus pure disappointment. The app adds little if anything new & nothing you must or need is in this app. So while some might have liked it on the iPad which I never tried previously, this new Universal update for all platforms is a disappointing effort from Nik Software.

[Yoshiyahu]

Few people don't already have other editing apps that cover at least some of this ground. With such reviews, what would interest me is knowing whether this is worth my time and money if I already have Iris, Filterstorm, Photoforge, etc. How does it compare to the other apps? Knowing that we have another app that does the same sort of thing as all sorts of other apps isn't really helpful.

[Glyn Evans]

@Yoshiyahu, if you use the apps you list, and you are happy with them, then Snapseed probably won't be for you.

[AlanH]

Having used Snapseed on my iPad since its introduction and just today have installed it on my iPhone, I thought some readers my find my comments useful. To start on a positive note the one function that I REALLY enjoy using that no other app that I'm aware of has is the Selective Adjustment tool which uses Nik's UPoint technology. The ability to make pin-point adjustments without the need for masks is a godsend! On the downside, however, I cannot believe that some form of sharpening is not present!! And, I fully agree with Mr. Timney's comment regarding the frames; they're all pretty much the same and none are particularly interesting and certainly not unusual. And, another thing I don't like about some of the effects is that you simply hit a randomize button and stop when you see something you like; I'd much prefer have the ability to select what I want to use.

@Yoshiyahu - If you already own Iris, Filterstorm (especially the latest version), and Photoforge 2, I doubt you'd find much benefit to Snapseed; other than the Selective Adjustment capability that I spoke about above. I own and use all three of those apps on both my iPhone and iPad on nearly a daily basis.

Hope this helps.

[Geoff]

Well after reading the above comments I won't be getting the app,mainly for the fact that $5.49 Australian I s way way to steep.I have iris,photoforge2 and filterstorm,that will do.
That price is CRAZY.

[Constance]

Guess, I'm the odd (wo)man out here. I just downloaded it this afternoon and I really like it. Somehow it seems very user friendly and I like the selective adjustment a lot. It's found a spot in my favorite photography apps folder.;)

[David Wood]

Wow. Some people here are good examples of the famous Oscar Wilde quote: "A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing."

The Selective Adjust tool alone is worth the price of admission. The interface is intuitive and powerful, and those of us who use Nik software on our desktop computers will find it easy to use. There's no need to flail around in this app, trying to achieve the desired effect. It's all at your fingertips. Above all, Nik Software has a proven track record. I have no doubt that this app will continue to gain enhancements much more rapidly than one-person developers can manage to do. And while I await them, it's already at the top of my preferred list of photo editing apps.

[taaan]

Just buy this app for my iPhone 4.
This app is very awesome for some people have few app like me. it s very simple and useful.
thank you for your review.

[Digital Artist]

This is a must for the iPhotographers toolbox.

Everyone has a few other app's in the toolbox that might be close to what this app does but Nik is known for cutting edge directions so I am sure we will see a whole lot more added to this entry.

For what it offers it is fantastic...

Kudos to the Nik team!!!

[Mr Timney]

Wow 3 Nik developers/employees posting comments of Praise. Hmmm No that is not suspicious at all LOL

[Glyn Evans]

Hi Pat, these are all legit comments.

[Gordon Fraser]

I bought the ipad version and have yet to try the new update out on my iphone. I will say that the filters they have in snapseed are much more to my tastes than those in filterstorm/iris/photoforge. The only thing that was annoying me about the app was that I'd have to go to another one to crop to 8 x 10 or 1 x 1 (and the fact I had to get the shots to my ipad to process instead of leaving them in phone). It sounds like they fixed that now. I can't care less for borders or frames so I didn't even notice they are all the same. The selective area adjustment is also great....I agree it's expensive but I am one of the folk who thinks it's been worth it.

[Fredrik Nilsson]

I downloaded the app today and I must say that I like it. The price might be too high (compared to similar apps), but besides that I have nothing else to complain about.

The UI reminds me of the one in PS Express. My guess is that the pro/anti people are, more or less, divided the same for both of these apps.

[Pawel]

Thank You for this post. Snapseed is beautiful app. Regards.

[Mar]

I like it a lot. Imo, Photoforge2 is the best, and Snapseed is in a good second place along with King Camera etc. My most favorite feature is Ambiance for subtle enhancements. My least favorite is sliding up/down to select effect, and right/left to select the strength, it's unique and confusing.

It has 1500 grunge effects!!! OMG. With 5 different textures, and random placements for each texture.

I think priced at 2,99$ would be great as an introductory price for the universal version, if dev wants to be in the top must-have iphone photo apps anytime soon.

[Greg Mills]

At $5 it's still well within the "I'll try that" range for me especially for a photo app from a company like Nik.

I think the interface is outstanding. I can easily see this becoming my go to app for quick photo corrections. I wish it had something like a curves or levels tool that would allow me to adjust the midtones without blocking up the shadows or blowing the highlights. All I could find was a simple a Brightness adjustment. The only thing I really didn't like was the rotate tool. It rotates the photo on center without any ability to reposition the rotated image before applying the crop.

So yeah, there are some things I think could be improved but overall it's a great app. Well worth $5 (chump change compared to Nik software for the PC).

[Greg Mills]

Oh there was one other thing that I forgot to mention. Does anyone see a way to zoom an image to look at the detail?

[JAG]

Impulse buy after reading the great comments for Snapseed's iPad version. I thought, this has got to be good. The price was high compared other great photo editors, but, this had the promise of becoming my best go-to editing app. Well, I downloaded it and after a few minutes, I concluded this was perhaps worth a try at .99, and if you had few other editing apps. I have plenty of editing apps (some have long since been replaced and deleted) and compared my top four (PhotoForge 2, Filterstorm, Photowizard, and Iris), Snapseed falls way short. Editing features are limited, UI is not as intuitive, frames are just plain, no sharpening, and grunge filters are just bad and boring. This is one app to consider if you are new to iphone photo editing and if the price were .99. Otherwise, just skip this.

[psikat]

From the various posts and reviews, I knew that the USP of this app is the UI and that we would have seen most the trickeries before in other apps.
And the UI is worthy of the asking price :-)

[xwhiteboy777x]

I'm really curious about the selective adjustment feature but that's about it. I've said it before and I'll say it again...this price will drop eventually. Five dollars is not completely unreasonable or anything but for those that are concerned with saving a few bucks, I'd say...wait.

Unless I find out that this app is a definite must have and can offer me something that no other app will offer, I'm just gonna sit back and watch appshopper.com.