Like the title says, the new Snapseed has a problem.
A big problem.
As mentioned previously, Google updated their Snapseed app not long ago. It’s a big update to a good app, but it has a fatal flaw.
As it’s readily available from the lock screen, I most often shoot with the iPhone’s built-in camera app. This means that I tend to import photos into apps and edit them, rather than shoot from the app itself.
Also, I’ve recently-ish been playing with editing film camera photos on the iPhone. These have been fledgling attempts and I’ve only shared one thusfar, but more are in the pipeline, perhaps.
If I want to use Snapseed for this—and why not? it’s a decent editing app—I’ve got a problem:
Here’s the picture I imported to Snapseed:
It was shot down in the Hill Country back in December with the Nikon FG and 50mm f/1.8 E Series on Agfa Vista Plus 200 film.
I exported an edited photo from Lightroom to a sync folder, and put it on the phone via iTunes.
I opened this in Snapseed 2.0 and gave it an edit. I was happy with the results and saved my work. Later that day, I imported the edited photo into Lightroom, or thought I did.
The edits weren’t there, so opened up Snapseed and saved the photo again. Here’s what that looked like in the iPhone’s Camera Roll:
Two edited photos? Wha?
Here’s what that looks like in Lightroom:
Why can’t Lightroom see the edits?
I tried with Image Capture…
No edits there either.
How can I get this from the phone to my computer? Well, like most apps, Snapseed will let you export to other apps, including email…
So email to self works, but you lose any exif data Snapseed might save in the process.
Today at work, during a few 3-5 minute breaks, I checked quite a few other apps to see what other options I have. Because emailing is kindof a PITA.
So Enlight can see edits and use them as a starting point for a new image.
And VSCO cam can see edits and use them as a starting point for a new image.
Even Diana app can see edits and use them as a starting point for a new image.
And all of the pictures created by these apps are easily seen by Lightroom.
Then I wondered about EXIF-fi, and EXIF editing app. It too can see edits and add EXIF data to them (though you have to save a copy to save the edited EXIF).
This is a real pain, though, since to get a photo from Snapseed onto the computer requires either an email or a trip through another app.
Can you say ‘broken?’
(IF Google acknowledges this, I wonder if it will be recognized as a bug, or a feature?)
After work, I had a thought… maybe if I shoot with the Snapseed camera…
I’ll save you the suspense: it didn’t work.
Luckily, Google released a bug-fix release today. Here in a few minutes, or maybe an hour or two, I’ll post my findings with that.
In the meantime, make dua for a better outcome.
