#snapseed tutorial

Snapseed has a built-in HDR filter, but it's easy to make your own so that it's more customized to your particular image.

First, you’ll launch Snapseed and open your chosen image.  Personally, I like this look best on landscape photos, especially sunsets with something detailed in the foreground (like grass, or in this case, rocks).

In the Tools menu, select “Details”.  I amped up Structure to +85.  See how the edges look sharper?

My image was underexposed, so I used Curves to brighten it just a smidge.  In the curves menu, the default editor is RGB (or, all colors).  You can change this so you’re only editing one color at a time (red, green, or blue), but you can also change it to a mode labeled “Luminance”. I used one anchor point to drag this up a little bit to add some light.  You may or may not need this step, just play around with what looks best to you!

Next, I used Tune to make a whole bunch of edits at once.  I wanted more intense colors, so I brought the saturation up a little (be careful not to overdo this one).  Ambiance basically balances the light in your image by adding more light to shadows and darkening highlights.  I used this and the Shadows/Highlights tools to really bring out the different areas.  

At this point, my photo was looking a little blue, particularly in the foreground, so I used White Balance to increase the temperature.  

And you’re done!  Any of these steps can be tweaked to fit your image or the look you want.  You could even add a step at the end to make it black and white for a really dramatic look.  Don’t forget to save your steps as a “Look” to use it again in the future!  Plus, it’ll still be customizable because when you apply a custom look, you can always go back and edit the individual steps.

In Instagram, we’ll follow a similar process, but some of the tools are named differently.

Again, you’ll open your image and go to the Edit menu instead of filters.

I applied the following edits:

Contrast: +50

Structure: +100

Warmth: +15

Saturation: +30

Highlights: -70

Shadows: +60

Sharpen: +100

Lux: +80

Lux seems to be the same tool as Snapseed’s Luminance.  You can get to it from the icon that looks like a little sun at the top of the screen.

And you’re done!   It’s hard to get the exact same effect in Instagram since we can’t layer edits, but without a dedicated, built-in HDR filter, I think this is a pretty good substitute.

If you tried this out, I’d love to hear how it went!  Happy shooting!