Friday Happy Hour: Snapheal is the Photo Editor That Will Blow Your Mind & More
The co-creator of the photo editing tool Snapheal approached me this week about their newly updated app – so I did my own research, and it turns out that Snapheal 2.0 is pretty nifty. But I’m curious to get the professional photographer’s opinion, so check out what I found. All that plus some awesome photo competition winners and perhaps the last of the cool Olympic photo roundups for a while.
Snapheal: The photo editor that will blow your mind?
Snapheal is the photo editing app by MacPhun that claims to do “magic” to your photos by giving you the tools to get rid of unwanted objects and enhance everyday shots – in a snap! After initially releasing last December, Snapheal went into somewhat of a hibernation during the past few months to patch up a few bugs, improve their user interface, and provide more seamless integration with other photo editing software. This summer they’re back with Snapheal 2.0, which comes as an OS app and plugin for Photoshop, Aperture, and Lightroom. Here’s a brief video to show what the tool is capable of:
Snapheal received mostly positive reviews during its first pre-release in December, one of which came from Gizmag: “For everyday tweaks, Mac-wielding amateur photographers may do better with iPhoto, which offers more flexibility in applying and removing after-effects, though the selective retouches of Snapheal might prove useful in certain cases to users who don’t have more heavy-duty editing tools to hand…No matter. Snapheal lives or dies by the success of its erase features.”
To that end, Gizmag took the app for a test spin and showcased several attempts with the erase algorithm. Here’s a few before-and-after’s of what they found:
Cloud removal: success
Fly swatting: success
People problem: success, but time-consuming
One goose too many: success, after a few Snapheal hiccups
Is this something you could see yourself using, or is it for amateur cellphone-wielding photographers only? We’re curious, so let us know your thoughts by tweeting @photoshelter.
The Photo Brigade documentary photo contest winners
Congratulations to M. Scott Brauer, who won first place in The Photo Brigade’s documentary photography contest judged by Robert Caplin and Matt Eich from Luceo Images. The contest generated over 600 entries from all over the world. Brauer won a one-year Standard PhotoShelter account, a $250 Adorama gift card, and two tickets to Luminance 2012. His winning photo and the caption below.
PDN announces The Great Outdoors contest winners
PhotoShelter member and Michigan-based writer & photographer Aaron Peterson took away a win from PDN’s The Great Outdoors photo contest this year with his image of a sea kayaker on Lake Superior. Congrats, Aaron!
National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest 2012 winners
‘Tis the season for photo contests – National Geographic Traveler magazine also announced its Photo Contest 2012 winners this week, with French Canadian photographer Cedric Houin taking first place for his shot of a family “yurt” in the remote Kyrgyz lands of Afghanistan.
Check out the second and third place winners below, as well as the full winners gallery.
PimpYourCam puts the fun back in photography
“Life is colorful…Photography is having fun…PimpYourCam!” touts the team behind the new way to customize your camera bodies and lenses. Choose from several designs by the Berlin airbrush artist, or get a more customized design by filling out their “pimp-configuration” form (though beware it’s all in German!). Here are a few of our favorites:
Stunning examples of tilt-shift photography at the Olympics
If you’re tired of Olympic coverage, bear with us for just one more minute – BuzzFeed, famous for their extensive photo roundups, found 13 stunning examples of tilt-shift photography at the London Olympics. The subjects look freakishly similar to toy miniatures, so much so that we’re tempted to call the photographers’ bluff. But we’ll hold off and just enjoy their tilt-shift expertise for now.