Yearly Archives: 2012

Snapseed for OS X

Photographs, Technique

A great effects app comes to the desktop.

I wrote about the use of the iOS app Snapseed here and have had lots of fun with it since on my iPhone 4S. Nik Software has now released a like-featured OS X version, althjough it’s four times the price of the iOS version at $20. Go figure.

Snapseed in the Mac AppStore.

It’s 57mB (twice the size shown above) and downloads in a couple of minutes. As I catalog all my snaps in Lightroom, I went to LR3->Preferences->External Editing and added Snapseed as an export option. Thereafter it’s a simple matter to export a RAW original to a JPG in Snapseed – Snapseed does not support TIFF or PSD files, so exports to it are converted to JPG. Likewise, it can save in JPG only, albeit respecting the full size of the original – meaning 3056 x 4576 for a RAW file from my Panasonic G3.

The timing of the app’s release could hardly have been better as I had just snapped a worker at the Transbay Terminal construction site on Howard Street in San Francisco with a backdrop of massive I-beams and the original needed a little something to confer the industrial feel I wanted. An export to Snapseed saw the original thus:

Original exported into Snapseed.

A few quick tweaks in the ‘Grunge’ panel were followed by a touch of CenterFocus/Vignette/Blur, and with the addition of a Grunge Frame I had what I wanted. Saving the file seemed to place it in the Lightroom directory, judging by the filename, but I could not see it in the Lightroom Grid view, so decided to save it to the Desktop and import it thence to LR3. I suspect I’m doing something wrong and will look into it – with PS CS5, for example, a ‘Save’ places the file right next to the original in the LR3 Grid display.

Here’s the result:

At the Transbay Terminal site, SF. G3, 45-200mm @ 78mm.

The simple user interface, the quality of the many effects and the general speed and ease of use make this a bargain, even at $20, compared to $5 for the iOS version. Sure, you could do all of this in iOS, laboriously exporting and reimporting the picture, but life’s too short for that. This is no substitute for the industrial strength of Photoshop, but try doing all of the above in under one minute in that behemoth of an application. Snapseed is proof that a few carefully selected effects in a well engineered product suffice most of the time.

Here’s another before/after of an image also snapped yesterday.

The original:

The shoe. G3, kit lens @35mm.

After:

After Snapseed.

In this example I used the ‘Tune Image’, ‘Drama’ and ‘Frames’ settings. ‘Tune Image’ includes selective options, though I did not use those here. Snapseed has done a great job of enhancing drama and bringing up detail in the bricks, highlighted by the setting sun.

Update March, 2013:

Sadly Google, which acquired Snapseed along with Nik Software, has discontinued the OS X version. Quite why not keep it available, when the support and development costs are zero, beats me but doubtless Google is Doing Evil, consonant with its missing moral compass:


Recent App Store search for Snapssed for OS X.

Apple scoop!

Photographs

You read it here first.

I’m pleased to be the first to bring readers this global scoop with my spy photograph of Apple’s new product, snapped on San Francisco’s Market Street yesterday. This will be announced, along with iPad3, in Q1/2012.

The Apple Shoeshine stand. G3, kit lens @20mm.

I have it from two reliable sources that Sir Jony Ive has said it still needs a bit of work, but remains confident that the final version will be available for sale in April. As you can see, the prototype has taken quite a beating, having been in development for over a decade. It will have the unique distinction of being the first Apple product to be made in America, using American labor, in a generation.

Rumors of a competing Microsoft version abound, but the last three prototypes collapsed, significantly delaying time to market. Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer, who insisted on personally testing what was intended to be the final version, is recovering well from his injuries. While still in a coma, and given to frequently screaming “Developers!, Developers!, Developers!“, his vital signs seem fine. We wish him well.

No details on pricing of the Apple version yet, but expect little change from $10,000, which will make it competitive with the much missed Apple Lisa.

Ruchi

Dining

Southern Indian food.

Ruchi, located in the SOMA district of San Francisco, is not much to look at, outside or in. Almost under a freeway overpass, it serves Southern Indian food. The plain interior has a few mediocre photographs taken in Andhra Pradesh and you order at the counter, with the food delivered to your table. Yet I must say the whole experience was thoroughly worthwhile. The people working in the restaurant are most charming, as gentle and well mannered as one could imagine. And the food I ordered, the Lamb Thali, was simply delicious, suffused with a thousand fragrances and gently spiced.

474 Third Street.

The Lamb Thali.

The crowd is 20% Suits, 80% software types, and the noise level is low.

The whole thing, with a Maharaja pilsner, ran me $17.

As usual, lunch inspired me and I lucked out with a snap of the only attractive Parking Warden in the United States, around the corner from the restaurant:

G3, kit lens.