Less is more: subtle Snapseed editing (Blog #41)

Hi! Welcome to my latest blog, which this week is another editing exercise using Snapseed. Snapseed has to be the best photo editing app ever for anyone whose photography is done on their smartphone and who, like me, prefers to perform quick edits on the go rather than labour in front of a computer screen trying to master, for example, Lightroom. I know Lightroom has a mobile version, which I must admit to having installed on my smartphone, but Snapseed wins every time.

To me, the point of editing is to subtlety enhance your captured original photograph. I know some photographers like to distort and alter their photography so much so that it can be quite overpowering. Less is more is the way to go.

If you want to witness some awesome Snapseed editing, then I suggest you check out NavEdits on YouTube. He really is a Snapseed magician. But there are times when all you want to do, indeed need to do, is apply one or two quick, simple edits.

(Photo 1)

I am going talk about one photograph in particular, which I took whilst walking along the wonderful Alnmouth beach in Northumberland. (Photo 2)

(Photo 2)

This is the original, unedited image, which I took on my now old Huawei P20 smartphone, with camera settings of f/3.5, shutter speed 1/2890, ISO 50, and focal length 3.6mm. I utilised the groyne as a diagonal leading line, guiding the viewer's eye towards the shoreline. Composition is obviously important so I used the grid on my screen to get as close to the rule of thirds as I can. You don't always have to use this rule, but as much as I like to experiment with other compositional formats, the rule of thirds is a good one to fall back on.

I carried out a series of edits using the Snapseed app. I cropped, sharpened and generally improved the overall brightness of what was initially quite a drab image in terms of colour. I sometimes like to bring out the structure of things, but am careful not to overdo it. Finally, I prefer my images to be warm, so I tinkered with the white balance to achieve the look I wanted. As you can see, I watermarked my final image before posting it on my social media feeds. Since posting this I have changed my watermark, which now reads '© Mike Young 2024'.

None of the edits were overdone, which is what you should aim for. 

I shoot all of my photographs and nearly all of my videos using my phone. I enjoy playing around with the best of my photos on Snapseed. Even some of the worst ones can be made to look acceptable.

There is no one workflow that suits everyone's tastes, however, if you are new to photo editing and new to Snapseed then I recommend you spend time edited one photograph, perhaps one that you consider to be beyond salvation. Snapseed is a non-destructive editing app so any edit you apply that you don't like, you can simply undo and try again.

Thanks for dropping in. I hope to see you next time, but in the meantime you can follow me on my various social media channels, which are listed above.

© Mike Young 2024.