Learning More about processing photos

Learning more photo applications and doing more with photos

I bought the upgrade from SnapHeal to SnapHeal Pro today and mainly because it works as a plug in from Aperture. Aperture is where I do all my photography work so it is the best place to get access to the 3rd part apps – As a plugin. Same with the Photomatix Pro the HDR application and also Intensify Pro. I am not always going to put a photo through all of the plug ins available, but there could be times when I start work with three bracketed exposures in Photomatix Pro and then use SnapHeal to remove something from the image to finish off. I can do things like adding a vignette in Aperture, but I get better controls over the final look in Intensify Pro.

SnapHeal

When you get into using SnapHeal you will be amazed at how it does such a great job of removing things from an image. You really can take things out of a photo and not know that there was ever anything there. I showed what the app can do to my wife and her face lit up with incredulity. It is really easy to use, you just brush the area that you want to delete after changing the brush size to best suit the size of the object. There are a couple of settings that you can change, but basically all you need to do is to click on the button Erase and ‘poof’ it is gone. It really does seem like magic when you use this application.

Get in line

I have found that if I need to erase something that is a straight line, all I need to do is to click on a start point and then move to the end of the line, hold down the shift key and click again.

Not just for the erasing of objects in photos

Sometimes it is necessary to work on the image little bit more manually and you can do that within Snapheal Pro by using the clone tool. You can also use tools for brushing the mask on and brushing the mask off and you can even do selection of the shape with a sort of Lasso tool. You get the choice of going polygonal or freehand. Mostly Snapheal is famous for its ability to raise objections in a photograph but it also has retouching and adjustment tools. These can be applied to either the whole photograph or to the area that hasn’t been masked with the masking tools.

Saving and sharing

Before you decide that you have finished your work you may choose to have a look at your work as before and after any changes. If you hold down on the icon that looks like and eye in the toolbar you can toggle changes that you have made on and off. There is another icon which will allow you to see both of your before and after images side-by-side.

When I have completed all of the work on a photograph there are a number of things I can do with it. You can just click on save and it will go back into Aperture if you have launched into it as I plug-in. Or you can use one of the sharing options available if you have opened up the application as a stand-alone.