Text and photos by Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla
Snapheal 2.0 by MacPhun for the Mac is a smart and super easy photo editing tool that can process complex edits in a few simple steps. Ideal for retouching photos, getting rid of unwanted people and elements and even granular edits you'd expect from larger and costlier image editing suites, Snapheal 2.0 changes everything for novice photo editors who need a powerful and accessible editing tool.
Snapheal costs $20 (it is currently on sale for $8.00!) but it is certainly worth so much more, since it offers a long list of truly useful features. I used Snapheal to remove some people in a photo I took of the Cheltenham Badlands in Caledon, Ontario. (see original below). As with many landscape photos, you want to take the nature and not the tourists.
Removing the gentleman in the foreground on the left required selecting his outline with the brush tool and then choosing the Wormhole erase mode which erased the subject and his shadow in less than a minute. Snapheal 2.0 did such a great job that I didn't even need to go clean up that area in Photoshop afterwards.
The three persons in the background (a lady taking a photo and a couple on the right side) were a bit trickier since the background was less consistent (trees and leaves).
I selected both of the subjects and then invoked the Twister erase mode and it managed to not only remove them completely but did a proficient job of cloning the background. If the erase mode you choose doesn't do the trick you can easily undo and go back and play with the settings.
If this was a professional retouch job, there might be a bit of tweaking needed but as you can see above, it is like the persons were never there. Snapheal 2.0 is better at making people dissapear than the witness protection program.
Snapheal 2.0 works just as well for detailed work such as removing distracting blemishes and marks from photos. It has the ability to work wonders on portraits.
Snapheal 2.0's forte is dealing with blemishes and skin artifacts and it does so effectively with little effort.I was able to clean up a portrait with dried skin and some blemishes in less than 10 minutes and with impressive results. This would have been a touch-up job that could have easily taken hours just a few years ago.
The removal of unwanted blemishes on skin using Snapheal 2.0 is a breeze
Snapheal 2.0 is just as good as or even better than similar features in complicated and expensive photo editing apps, it is also simpler to use. I like the fact that it is a standalone application that does a short list of things really, really well.
Snapheal 2.0 even offers rewards for users called SnapJam which gives discounts once you share some of the work you've done with SnapHeal 2.0.
This is a fine example of a great Mac app, that takes advantage of what the OS can bring and gives users a powerful toolkit at an incredibly affordable price.
I highly recommend Snapheal 2.0 for anyone who takes a lot of photos and who needs a fast, powerful and easy to use tool that's also incredibly affordable.
Rating: 5 out of 5