How to Add a Neon Glow Effect to Your Photos Using Snapseed
Reading Time: 5 minutesA neon glow effect is the perfect way to add a pop of color to your image and make it look artistic. Here’s how to achieve this using Snapseed.
Snapseed is a free photo editing app developed by Google for both iOS and Android. It allows users to edit and enhance their photos with various tools and filters, including options for adjusting an image’s brightness, contrast, color, and sharpness, as well as more advanced editing tools like curves and selective adjustments.
Using these out-of-the-box features, you can create a neon glow effect in your photograph. Let’s show you how.
How to Create a Neon Glow Effect Using Snapseed
Adding the glow effect in Snapseed requires a mix of multiple tools from the app. It is worth noting that the process may vary each time depending on your sample image. Therefore, it is best to understand the concept while editing your image to make the most out of the technique each time you use it.
Follow the steps below to add a neon glow effect to your photos using Snapseed.
1. Adjust Your Image
Firstly, you must make minor tweaks to your image to prepare it for the glow effect. We’re going to add a blue neon glow to an elephant’s tusks, so we’re going to decrease the Warmth to make the image slightly blue. Consider the parts you want to glow as a light source and try to lighten up the nearby area.
- Open Snapseed and tap anywhere to add your image.
- Open Tools and select Tune Image.
- Perform minor tweaks like decreasing the Exposure, increasing the Contrast, adjusting Highlights, increasing Shadows, and so on. Tap on the tick mark once you are satisfied with the edit.
- Go to Tools > Details. Increase the Structure and Sharpening to the maximum. Tap on the tick mark to finalize your edit.
- Go to the Edit stack option and select View edits. Use the Stack brush and selectively paint over the area you want to glow. It will keep the details intact when you add the glow effect.
- Go to Tools > Selective and brighten up the parts you want to glow and darken the rest. Tap on the part you want to glow, then adjust the Centre size by pinching in on your screen. Increase the Brightness, Structure, and Contrast of the region.
2. Create and Add the Glow Color
Now we’re going to create a solid color layer and impose it on a selected area.
- Go to Tool > Curves. Here, while the RGB channel is selected, bring the left pointer all the way up. It will create a solid white color layer. Tap on the tick mark to finalize the edit.
- Go to Curves again. Because we’re making a blue neon glow color, bring the right slider down for the Red and Green channels to make a solid blue color. But you can also make a different color. Tap on the tick mark to finalize your edit.
- Tap on Export and again Export to save the solid color image.
- Go to the Edit stack option and open View edits. Delete the last two curve layers from here; you won’t need them anymore.
- Go to Tools > Double Exposure. You can learn more about using the Double Exposure tool in Snapseed in our detailed guide.
- Tap on the Open Image button and add the blue solid color image you’ve just exported.
- Set the Style to Overlay. We’re increasing the Opacity until the tusks are blue. Tap the tick mark.
- Go to the Edit stack and open View edits.
- Tap on the last Double Exposure edit and open the Stacks brush.
- Now, neatly paint the area that you want to glow. You can pinch out to zoom into the image for cleaner outlines. Set the Exposure to 25-50%. Paint over the area that should be illuminated by the glow, and set the Exposure to 100%.
- Repeat the last six steps a few more times for a more vibrant color.
3. Make the Neon Glow Effect
After adding the glow color, it’s time to make the glow stand out compared to the rest of the image.
- Go to Tools > Curves and bring down the curve for the RGB channel and the Luminance level. It will make the rest of the image darker.
- Go to the Edit stack, open View edits, and use the Stack brush to selectively darken the background and any area you don’t want to glow.
- Open Tools, select HDR-scape, and increase the Filter strength, Saturation, and Brightness.
- Use the Stack brush from View edits again to selectively paint over the area you want to be glowing.
- Lastly, fine-tune the image by going to Tools > Tune Image. Make any final adjustments to make your image look as natural as possible.
You have successfully added a neon glow effect to your image. In order to use all the above settings effectively, see our Snapseed photo editing tips guide.
Alternative Methods to Create a Glow Effect Using Snapseed
There is more than one way to add the neon glow effect to your photo using Snapseed since it is one of the best photo editors for smartphones. However, every technique uses the same concepts mentioned in this article. For instance, in the below example, there are many more white elements that you can utilize for a selective glow effect.
After adding your picture to the app, follow the below steps:
- Go to Curves and open the RGB channel.
- Bring the bottom-left pointer to the right without changing its vertical position. Similarly, bring the top-right pointer to the left to create a black-and-white silhouette image.
- Go to Curves and tweak the Red, Blue, and Green color channels to get the glow color you want.
You can export and use this image instead of a solid color layer when using the Double Exposure tool; it will give you better results in some cases. Note that this method only works when you have a good amount of white elements in the picture that you want to glow.
The only downside to this technique is that you have to give up on some details. To add a good neon glow effect, it is necessary to darken the remaining image, which results in losing a few details.
However, to keep as much of the detail as possible, choose a glow color that compliments the natural tone of your image. And keep a low intensity for the glow so you don’t have to darken the remaining image that much.
Make Your Images Pop With a Neon Glow Effect
If you understand the concept, adding a neon glow effect to your photos using Snapseed is straightforward. In general, you want to brighten up the areas you want to be glowing and illuminated. In contrast, darken the remaining parts for a natural look. Treat your image’s glowing element as a light source and edit the nearby details accordingly.
The process is more time-consuming and less neat in comparison to doing the same thing in Photoshop. However, if you are on the go or can’t access your computer, Snapseed will help you create a unique neon glow effect on your smartphone.