At Pixajoy, we believe that photographs are some of the most valuable things a person can possess. They connect us to our past, remind us of our friends, family and the places we’ve been. They tell our stories and can help us remember all the happy moments we’ve experienced in this roller coaster we call life. 

Capturing joyful moments in print (to us) isn’t just about having something nice to look at or to post up for the ‘gram—it’s about obtaining a piece of happiness that you can physically keep and that will help you appreciate your life every day.

With this in mind, we’ve decided to come up with these 7 simple steps to help enhance your photos straight from your phone by using the Snapseed app (available for FREE on both Android and iOS devices).

Bump Up the Brightness.

It’s a proven fact that people generally like bright and cheerful looking photos. Easily breathe life into your photos and make them stand out (both on screen and in print) by increasing the brightness. To do that, you can use the Tune Image option on Snapseed (conveniently located under the Tools section on screen).

Once you find the Brightness function, simply swipe your finger to the right to brighten your photo or to the left to darken it. Be sure not to over do it though as there’s a possibility that you could lose details due to overexposure. 

Play with Saturation.

While washed-out photos may look soft and aesthetically pleasing to some, it doesn’t really draw much attention and can blend seamlessly into the background. The last thing you want is for people to say that your memories seem boring! In order to remedy that, you can add a pop of colour to your photos by playing with the saturation. To do that on Snapseed, simply use the Saturation option (also located under the Tools section on screen).

With some added colour, you can make your photos look more exciting or give it a fantasy-like twist. The trick is to add colours into your photos without going overboard as it can make your images look ‘fake’.

Create Contrast

Do you think your photos look a little flat or washed out? Well, by playing with the contrast setting, you can easily add more depth to your images by darkening shadows and highlighting all the important details!  

To add contrast to your images using Snapseed, select Tune Images under the Tools screen and scroll your finger up or down until you land on Contrast. Once you have Contrast selected, simply scroll your finger to the right until you’ve achieved your desired outcome. 

Amp up the Ambiance.

A sort of ‘catch-all’ function, you can instantly add more ‘oomph!’ to your photos by scrolling through the Tools Screen and selecting the Ambiance Tool. With the ability to automatically edit your contrast, brightness and saturation in one go, it’ll keep your photo looking perfectly balanced as you try to achieve your desired effect. 

Note: This is perfect if you don’t feel too confident about editing the brightness, saturation and contrast of your photos individually.

Hide Imperfections with Healing.

If you notice something marring your otherwise perfect shot, you can use the Healing tool to remove all the parts that you don’t want or like about the photo (such as blemishes, unwanted cars, pedestrians, etc). In order to do this, simply select the Healing function from the Tool section, zoom into the area you would like to cover up and tap or drag your finger over that spot.

It can be a bit tricky at first due to the fact that Snapseed will automatically choose the area from which to select to cover-up the unwanted portions of your photos; but with a bit of practice, you’re able to use the Healing tool to achieve your desired effect.

Compose Your Photo.

Sometimes the thing that stands between a good picture and a great picture is not the editing, but the placement of the subject within the frame. When that happens, you can use the Crop Tool to adjust the image so that your subject is aligned to one of the grid points of the Rule of Thirds (a basic composition guideline for photography).

Play with Perspectives.

Have you ever taken a photo that looks ‘almost perfect’, but you can’t quite place just where it is you went wrong? Chances are that the thing that’s holding it back from becoming a great photo is the angle. It only takes the angle to be the slightest bit askew to throw off the composition of a photo. 

Thankfully, Snapseed has a smart Perspective tool that can help you add more space to the photo (or elongate certain parts of the photo) in order to help you rectify the situation. You can access the Perspective function from the Tools menu. After that, simply drag your fingers across the screen in your desired direction. Once you release your hold, Snapseed will smartly fill in the gaps at the edges of the picture. 

And that concludes our Guide on how to Enhance your phone photos using Snapseed. Now that you know how to bring your photos onto a whole new level, make sure to print them out to showcase your gorgeous shots! 

Visit the Pixajoy website or launch our Pixajoy mobile app to turn your photos into heirloom quality photo books and photo keepsakes.