Cleanup.pictures vs. SnapEdit

Ever take that perfect photo, except for that one person in the frame that you just can’t get out of the frame? Previously the options to fix the image was to spend time in Photoshop (or your favorite image editing software like GIMP) and well not all of us are photo editing experts. but times change and now we have more options to remove unwanted objects, people and items from photos.

I went looking through some vacation photos and came across this photo from a few years ago when I had a chance to visit and spend an afternoon at Seven Mile Beach on Grand Cayman. The only problem there are a few people in the photo that I really did not want. Thought it would make a great photo to test these two services with.

Cleanup.pictures

Cleanup.pictures offers a freemium level that lets you use the web based app but you can only download low resolution images. If you want to download higher resolution images you need to pay $3.00/month. I was not sure if that was paid yearly or monthly. I suppose if you need to do a lot of image work it might be worth the cost.

Using the web app is easy enough, just upload the image you want to remove items from (or people in my case), resize the brush and paint over the items and people you want to remove. The app does the rest. I must admit it is pretty impressive. Below you can see the final version of my image above. I could only download a 720p version since I did not signup to download a higher resolution version but even at 720p Cleanup.pictures did a good job of removing the people.

SnapEdit

SnapEdit works very similar to Cleanup.pictures, you start by uploading an image and you can resize the brush and on the image the parts you want to remove. SnapEdit also has an auto feature where it will attempt to identify the parts of the photo you might want to remove. In my image it identified the two people on the far left and the umbrellas on the far right. It did not however identify the third person on the left in the water or the people further down the beach. I decided the just use the brush tool, since the people on the far left not only needed to be removed but also their reflection off the water. I did not use a very fine brush but as you can see in the image I downloaded it did a good job of removing the people and even the reflection.

Downloads of a decently high resolution are free up to 1920x1900. If you want higher, it appears you would need to install their mobile apps and do the editing on your device. Since I was on my computer that was not an option.

Below you can see the final image I was able to download.

The Winner Is?

I have to give the win to SnapEdit for a few reasons. First the auto feature could be really handy to at least help get people working with the image without having to use the brush. Second, SnapEdit wins because you can download a higher resolution image that Cleanup.pictures. It is disappointing that you would need to download the SnapEdit app to download higher resolution images, but I guess that is how the hope to make some cash. If you only have a few images you want to do I can’t see downloading the app. I am sure the people that spend a considerable more amount of time taking images and editing them on their phone might use it a lot more than I would.