How to use the new web-based editing tools in Google Photos

Google Photos isn’t just a place to store and organize your photos and videos: both the web interface and mobile apps come with a host of image editing tools so you can fix and enhance your images before sharing them with the rest of the world. world.

Google regularly updates these editing tools and a major update has just hit the web. There are new features here (some of which were previously only available in the Android app), including preset color profiles and more granular control over existing features, such as adjusting brightness and contrast.

All you need to do to try them is open your browser and navigate to Google Photos. Open an image, click the edit button in the top right corner (it looks like a series of sliders) and you’ll be in the editing interface, which will appear as a sidebar on the right side of the screen.

There are four (five, if you’re a Google One subscriber) different editing panels to work with, and we’ll tell you what each one is about. (And yes, some of the editing options are exclusive to Google one subscribers; those options will be marked on your screen with a 1 in a circle).

Suggestions (the star icon) is a new feature similar to what was part of the Android Photos app. List the adjustments that Google Photos thinks will improve your image. Different suggestions will appear for different images depending on their content. For example, Improve applies a series of optimizations, while Warm and Cool adjust the overall temperature of an image.

If you’re a Google One subscriber, your selection of options will be broader. Some of those features include Blurthat blurs the background; pop color, which highlights foreground colors; and Dynamicwhich applies HDR processing to highlight details in darker and lighter areas.

Simply click on any of these suggested options to see how they change the look of the image, and click again to remove the processing and return to the original look. It’s a useful way to let Google’s analytics algorithms make the decision on how to make your photos look their best.

The Crop tab (the arrows and corner markers icon) is where you can crop an image and rotate it. Previously, cropping was available in the editing interface, but what’s new are preset aspect ratios that you can choose from, meaning you can get the shape and size of the image you need more quickly.

Select any of the aspect ratios. If it’s not quite right, use the handles in the corners of the selection to adjust it.
Click and drag inside the crop selection window (the cursor changes to a hand icon) to modify where in the image the crop focuses.
Click and drag along the bar below the image, marked with a series of angles, to change the rotation of the image.
Click the rotate button on the left of the bar to rotate the image 90 degrees counterclockwise.
Click Restart to undo all the changes you have made in this tab and return to the original panning and rotation.

The center tab, Tools (the hammer and wrench icon), only appears if you’re a Google One subscriber and if Google Photos finds these tools relevant and useful to the image you’ve opened. It’s new and really increases the editing power of the Google Photos web app.

You’ll see different tools for different images: a portrait of a face may offer a tool called Portrait Light, for example, which allows you to introduce an artificial light source, while a landscape photograph may give you a Sky tool where you can add a “style” like Radiant or Storm.

Simply click on the tool you want to use. Typically a slider will appear below the photo allowing you to change the intensity of the effect.

Note that there may also be some crossover with the Suggestions tab, so you might see some of the same options on both tabs.

In the Adjust tab, you get a long series of sliders that allow you to change a number of different characteristics of the image, from its brightness to how skin tones are displayed.

This tab is not new, but it has been slightly redesigned and some new features have been added. include HDR (to keep very dark and very bright areas of an image visible; unfortunately, it’s only for Google One users) and White Point (to adjust the white balance in the photo). Again, it adds to the variety of editing you can do right in your browser.

Click and drag any of the sliders to make adjustments – the blue line shows where you are above or below the original settings.
Any changes you make are instantly previewed in the image on the left.
Once an adjustment is made, the icon next to the slider turns blue. Click this icon to undo your changes and reset the value to its default value.

For example, you can use Highlights to reduce the brightness of lighter areas of the image or Shadow to brighten darker spots.

The tab on the far right is Filters (a small star inside a rectangle), and this carries over from the previous interface. These filters transform the look of your image with a single click; They’re similar to filters you may have played with on Instagram.

Filters come with a thumbnail image that shows a preview of their effects. Click any filter to see how it changes the look of the image.
Click and drag the slider below the image to change the intensity of the selected filter.
Click None to remove the filter and restore the image to its original appearance.

When you are done with all the editing, click Save (top right) to save changes. If you want to save the updated image as a new file, leaving the original in place, click the three dots next to Save button and then save copy.