We’ve all been there: an otherwise excellent digital photo, marred by an intrusive landmark or random stranger who stepped into the frame at an inopportune moment. Pro users with deep pockets make short work of such problems with Photoshop, but what about average users? Snapheal introduces “three unique patented technologies” in a Mac app that makes erasing unwanted objects as easy as one, two, three. Developer MacPhun states, “It does magic to your photos.” It’s a bold claim we happen to agree with.
Snapheal includes tools from six different categories: Erase, Clone & Stamp, Retouch, Adjust, Crop, and Rotate/Flip. The first is what most users will drop 20 bucks for, offering three different Eraser modes for seamlessly removing objects. Wormhole is recommended for small objects and removing skin blemishes, Shapeshift works best on large objects, and Twister tackles most everything else.
After processing, Compare view will show you a before (left) and after (right) look at Snapheal’s magic.
Almost everything is done from the main app window, which keeps things simple and the menus sparse. iPhoto and Aperture images can be imported using a lightning-fast iLife-style browser, and Snapheal can load others from disk, including RAW, JPEG, and TIFF files. Photos can even be imported straight from an iOS device or digital camera, a nice time-saving option when you just want to do a quick fix.
The process is simple: click Select, adjust your Brush size, and paint over the area you want to remove—don’t worry too much about accuracy; the app is smart enough to figure out what you’re trying to select in most cases. Choose an Eraser mode based on the criteria above and click Erase. While Snapheal is processing, you’ll be treated to a few “amazing facts”—trivia that pops up in the status bar to make the time pass more quickly, like “60 percent of statistics are made up.” (Hats off to the developer for this bit of clever coding.) Smaller objects process in seconds, but larger objects may take a minute or more.
If your first attempt isn’t quite magical, simply undo and try the next Eraser mode. Some images we threw at Snapheal worked like a charm, but it ultimately depends on how much free space is around the objects you want to remove, which is how the app fills in the void left behind. If you’re satisfied, save to one of five different formats (TIFF, PNG, OpenEXR, JPEG, or JPEF-2000). Edited images can also be shared via email, Facebook, Tumblr, Flickr, or Twitter with ease, as well as a one-click export to iPhoto. Sadly, Aperture gets no love here.
Of course, Snapheal has plenty more to offer in addition to erasing, with easy-to-use image editing tools for novice users that are also powerful enough for pros. The app takes advantage of OS X Lion niceties like full-screen mode, but strangely omits standard screen-hiding options (Command-H does nothing). We’re hoping to see additional keyboard shortcuts for power users in future versions, but Snapheal is already worth far more than its price tag.
The bottom line. Snapheal will frequently seem like magic as it does the heavy lifting of moving digital bits around with minimal effort from the user. It’s also fun to use: you’ll find yourself removing objects or even people from photos simply because you can. Particularly for a version 1.0 release, Snapheal is amazingly fast, slick, and stable.
Mac OS 10.6 or later
Robust set of tools for manipulating digital photos that strips away the complexity of expensive applications like Photoshop. Fast iPhoto, Aperture, and direct-from-device image importing with a wide variety of sharing, export, and save options. App includes quick links to several how-to video tutorials (internet connection required).
A few UI quirks, such as the inability to hide Snapheal (app window can be minimized, however). No keyboard shortcuts for most tools (i.e., no way to deselect by holding down the Option key with the Select tool). No preference setting.
