Snapheal Pro Mac Software to Remove Unwanted Objects and Fix Blemishes

Snapheal Pro is a standalone app as well as a plug-in for Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, and Aperture. In addition to making a model's skin look perfect, the app has basic image-adjusting tools that you can apply to selected areas. Snapheal Pro is a no-brainer to use on your images for sharpening, exposure correction, toning, and blurring. (It works a lot like the Spot Healing Brush tool set to Content-Aware in Photoshop.)

I ran tests using Snapheal Pro on six different images. I fixed the easy ones, such as a ball on a lightbox, with one tool in seconds; however, the most difficult image—a cathedral with a scaffold erected at its left—was a different matter altogether. I simply couldn't make it work. The cathedral wall kept appearing as part of the fix.

Even with images that had a uniform, clear-blue sky, Snapheal Pro left behind a visible ghost of the removed object. This happened consistently, regardless of which of the three quality levels I selected. When I tested the same images using Photoshop CS6, ghosting occurred as well, but when I used the Patch tool set to Content-Aware, there was no ghosting. The Patch tool also gave an instant, perfect result on the cathedral image. Unfortunately, Snapheal Pro only has a brush and a basic Clone & Stamp tool.

To be honest, I expected Photoshop to outperform Snapheal Pro: After all, it's an image-editing powerhouse, while Snapheal Pro is an inexpensive tool. But Snapheal Pro does come with many fine retouching tools with masking capabilities.

Snapheal Pro exports to many different formats, and you can send a Snapheal Pro image to Intensify or FX Photo Studio (both Macphun apps; the latter lets you apply filters to your images) for additional editing.

Company: Macphun Software
Price: $39.99 (Upgrade: $19.99)
Web: www.macphun.com
Rating: 4
Hot: Speed of healing; immediate results on not-too-difficult images
Not: No Patch tool as in Photoshop

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