How To Whiten Teeth in Snapseed

Not all of us have pearly white Hollywood teeth – and that’s perfectly normal. However, if you’re aiming at Instagram stardom, you mustn’t let your imperfections show. If you’ve taken a very good photo for Instagram and the only thing that’s keeping it from greatness are your not-so-white teeth, there’s nothing to worry about. You can fix this very easily using Snapseed, Google’s powerful photo-editing app.

Although owned by Google, Snapseed doesn’t come preinstalled on Android smartphones. Instead, you have to download it from the Google Play Store. The app is also available for the iPhone and other iOS-powered devices and can be downloaded for free from the App Store.

In this article, you will discover three ways to whiten your teeth in photos using Snapseed.

Getting Started

Once you have downloaded and installed Snapseed on your phone, run it and tap anywhere on the gray screen to open the photo you want to edit. You can also tap on the “Open” button in the top-right corner to browse for the photo. Once you’ve found it, simply click on the photo and start editing.

For the purposes of this tutorial, we will be using a photo of a beautiful young girl standing somewhere in a park and holding a striking yellow sunflower in her hand. Her teeth are slightly yellow, likely due to poor lighting, but it wouldn’t be that big a problem if the flower didn’t accentuate this shortcoming.

Unlike some other similar tools, Snapseed doesn’t have a built-in “Teeth Whitening” feature. However, with some patience and creativity, you can achieve a similar effect. Let’s look at three methods to do so.

Method 1: Eliminate All Color

Some may see this as an easy way out, but by making your photo black-and-white, your imperfect teeth won’t be noticeable. Like Instagram, Snapseed comes with a set of pre-defined filters that you can apply with one tap. To access them, open the photo in the app, make sure that the option “Looks” is selected at the bottom, and move the slider above to the right until you reach the black-and-white options.

Popular black-and-white filters that will disguise the imperfect color of your teeth include “Structure” and “Fine Art”. If either of them appeals to you, tap on it and then tap on the checkmark in the bottom-right to confirm your choice. If you want to preserve the color in your photo, tap on the “X” sign in the bottom-left, go back to the initial screen, and proceed with the next method.

Method 2: The Dodge & Burn Effect

In this method, we will use the Brush tool, which you will find in the Tools tab on the main app page. Select the Dodge & Burn brush, which is first from the left and use the up and down arrows at the bottom of the page to adjust the intensity of the tool. Because burning at maximum intensity (10) would make your teeth unrealistically white, we will set the intensity to 5.

With the settings finalized, here’s what you need to do next:

1. Pinch the image to zoom in on the teeth and use the blue rectangle in the bottom-left corner of the screen to navigate the photo.
   
2. Start moving gently with your index finger across each individual tooth from top to bottom until it’s just the shade of white you want it to be. Be careful not to go over the edge and accidentally whiten the lip. However, if you do accidentally whiten the lip, you can set the brush identity to 0 (“eraser”) and erase your mistakes, as if you were drawing with a pencil.
3. Once you’re happy with the changes you’ve made, tap on the checkmark on the bottom-right.
4. Tap on “Export” to save the image to your phone’s Gallery or a destination of your choice.

If you’re careful and pay attention to the tiniest details, the final image should look like the one below.

Method 3: Negative Saturation

You can achieve just as impressive results with negative saturation. The process is pretty much the same as with the Dodge & Burn effect: you go to Tools, tap on Brushes, and pick Saturation. Because positive saturation would make your teeth even yellower, we’re opting for negative saturation instead. For optimal results, you should set the intensity to -5.

The rest of the process is also the same – pinch to zoom in, carefully apply the brush to each individual tooth, and be careful not to catch part of the lip. In case you do, just set the intensity to 0 and erase it, before readjusting it to -5 and carrying on. With negative saturation, it’s important to go very slowly, one stroke at a time. Otherwise, you may apply too much of it and your teeth and gums could turn blue.

If you do everything right, after saving and exporting, your photo should look like the one below.

How Do You Make Your Pearly Whites Shine?

Do you know of some other way to whiten teeth in photographs using Snapseed? Perhaps you know of some other app that’s great for this purpose? Share your tips and app picks in the comments below!