iPad Photo editing software

[Glenn Brooks]

I’ve had a lot of trouble posting and displaying photos taken with my iPhone. Images taken with a flash, and those of black objects - such as locomotives - are usually to dark to make out any decent detail. Since retiring, I almost exclusively use my iPad for such work. Never touch a desktop or laptop anymore.

So finally went googling and downloaded a photo editing app that seems to work very well for Apple products. It’s called Snapseed, and is published free by Google. Iam still experimenting with properly lightening up overly dark images. However the dozen or so images I’ve posted in threads do clearly show the detail I was hoping to convey.

So, anyone wanting a pretty terrific all purpose photo editing app could download Snapseed and try for yourself.

For example, here are two photos of the cab of a Virginia and Truckee 4-4-0, on display at the anevada State Railroad Museum in Carson City.

The first photo is how my iPhone captured the Johnson bar detail. It is very dark and almost impossible to see any detail of the backhead.

The second photo is a copy of the original, but using Snapseed to lighten up the contrast. A noticeable difference. And much easier to see the actual detail inside th cab.

Glenn

[neanderman]

SnapSeed is really good, and is also available for Android phones.

[Steggy]

It’s called Snapseed, and is published free by Google.

Almost anything published free by Google would set off an alarm bell around here. What you have is likely spyware.

[mihit]

It’s called Snapseed, and is published free by Google.

Almost anything published free by Google would set off an alarm bell around here. What you have is likely spyware.

Sent from your Commodore 64 through a VPN and anonymising proxy?

Most camera/tablet cameras are designed for taking photos of people's faces and plates of food, and so come up short for most else!

[Glenn Brooks]

It’s called Snapseed, and is published free by Google.

Almost anything published free by Google would set off an alarm bell around here. What you have is likely spyware.

Hey BDD, I usually enjoy your comments. But, No, this is not “Spyware”. It’s a free photo editing app published by Google. Part of their suite of software designed to help each of us make better use of digital data. The app has been evaluated by many independent reviewers, and apparently downloaded by well over 1,000,000 users. No one has reported any malware problems.

We are all just trying to help each other out here. That’s why I posted my review.

Glenn

[mihit]

Hey BDD, I usually enjoy your comments. But, No, this is not “Spyware”
... No one has reported any malware problems.

I completely understand his sentiment, and it might not be MALware, but is almost definitely SPYware (synonymous with anything Google)
If you read the Terms and Conditions you will probably find you have granted Google Inc unlimited access to how, when and where you use the app, and likely all your photos - they can lift them from your device and use them for any purpose, without telling you, and without paying you.
If you haven't turned off "geotagging" then they will know exactly where any photo was taken too.

The implications are far-reaching, and whilst they MAY (that's a big MAY - they're pretty up front about selling your information to advertisers, god knows what else), MAY not be doing anything nefarious NOW, the fact is they very easily COULD.

While most people ignore/accept this as the price of convenience ("nothing to hide...") , and many wanting the world to know where they've been and what they had for dinner (Facebook etc) there are some of us more concerned about our data, and our privacy, and who actively detest the mass harvesting of it.

Some light reading:
https://www.salon.com/2014/02/05/4_ways ... a_partner/
https://www.pcworld.com/article/2986988 ... isers.html
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ ... news-feeds
https://itvision.altervista.org/why-win ... sucks.html

[jcfx]

Glenn, I assume you know that tapping the screen when your in camera mode on either iPhone or iPad will
let you adjust exposure and focus to a degree with contrasty scenes like the examples you posted.

For example frame the scene and tap the darkest part such as the boiler in the posted picture and you'll see
yellow square zoom in showing you the target area the camera is metering, the lighter areas will blow out,
tap anywhere in between light and dark of the scene and the exposure will change, keep doing it till you like
the balance and snap the picture.

Think of it as being like a spot meter on a film camera.

A tap and hold will lock exposure and focus, the square will appear, and pulse with the words AE/AF Lock .

[Glenn Brooks]

Jcfx, thanks. Actually I did not know about the on screen features you describe. Many thanks! I will,explore and see if this helps. If so, will be very handy, as anything black in color, e.g. most locomotives, are usually extremely difficult to capture in a digital image, particularly indoors with artificial light. So very good to know.

Glenn

[Steggy]

It’s called Snapseed, and is published free by Google.

Almost anything published free by Google would set off an alarm bell around here. What you have is likely spyware.

Hey BDD, I usually enjoy your comments.

We are all just trying to help each other out here. That’s why I posted my review.

I'm trying to be helpful as well by pointing out what anyone who is professionally involved with computers already knows about Google.

But, No, this is not “Spyware”. It’s a free photo editing app published by Google. Part of their suite of software designed to help each of us make better use of digital data.

All Google software is "spyware," no matter how much anyone tries to state otherwise. Google is a company whose primary purpose is to mine your data to benefit their cash flow. There's nothing free about a "free" Google application (app) of any kind. You will pay for it in invasion of privacy, as well as being exposed to cracking (not hacking, which computer professionals consider to be an altogether different activity) and having information "borrowed" for dubious purposes.

This admonishment also applies to using the Google search engine, which is not only biased in what it returns, but is designed to carefully analyze your searches patterns so targeted advertising can be pitched. Aside from the advertising angle, the data Google culls from your search patterns can do a lot to identify you and where you are located.

The app has been evaluated by many independent reviewers, and apparently downloaded by well over 1,000,000 users. No one has reported any malware problems.

I'll be blunt about it. Most "independent reviewers" don't know their derrieres from a toilet seat about what goes on inside a computer. That can also be said about the majority of the one million users who have allegedly downloaded and installed the app. If most reviewers actually knew enough about operating system internals and all that technical mish-mash to accurately assess the security risks involved in using a piece of software, they'd have much more lucrative jobs than writing about some code downloaded from a questionable source on the Internet.

Pardon me for being a curmudgeon, but in my daily activities that involve computers I've had to undo more than a little damage caused by using Google's "free" stuff. As the old saying goes: TANSTAAFL—There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch!

[jcfx]

Jcfx, thanks. Actually I did not know about the on screen features you describe. Many thanks! I will,explore and see if this helps. If so, will be very handy, as anything black in color, e.g. most locomotives, are usually extremely difficult to capture in a digital image, particularly indoors with artificial light. So very good to know.

Glenn

Glad to to be of assistance, the metering does work with the built in flash to a degree, I never use the flash unless it's very
dark, I also find the sensitivity of the camera sensor to be decent in low light conditions, even more so on newer iPad and iPhones.
It's digital not film so experiment away !