Brent Cross, London 'Brent Viaduct'
Brent Cross, London 'Vintage Roundel'
Brent Cross, London 'Suburban Heartland'
Brent Cross, London 'Sunrise Commute'
Brent Cross, London 'Way Above the Chimney Tops'
Watford, Hertfordshire 'Evening Kick-Off'
Watford, Hertfordshire 'Bacon Roll £2.50'
Camera: Fuji X100 all edited with Snapseed for Mac
I've been using Nik Software's plug-ins for some time now in conjunction with Apple's Aperture software and have become a huge fan. The combination ( plus Pixelmator 2 ) has enabled me to ditch Photoshop for good. Better tools, a simple clear process and no need for layers. Nik's U-Point technology enabling subtle editing with out need for masking or mucking around with histograms.I know some people like that kind of thing, but I prefer to spend time creating the content not sitting in front of a screen.
Realising the booming market for iPhone photographers Nik distilled some of the key features from their plug-in suite and called it Snapseed, and I've been using it since release. It's a quick and easy way to make corrections to exposure and apply filters to get punchy striking images and then share.
So now rather than the common route of being adapted from a full size computer and optimised for iOS it's gone the other way and is available for the Mac via the Mac app store.
So is it any good ? Well on first impressions I'd say yes. It provides a quick and dirty way of creating the same results as the iOS version albeit on a bigger screen. It is pretty much identical in interface and editing options available as well as sharing options, however, and this is the big 'but' , it will only save to Jpg and there's no choice on file size either. I'd guess this mean's that they are positioning strictly at the consumer, much like Photoshop Elements works for Adobe, holding back features to ensure the market for the full price version exists. It is however a lot of fun and in many cases simple is best and I'd recommend it with small warning of the restricted save options.
