Google Photos for web gets superb editing tools

Google One users can now take advantage of a variety of additional editing options straight in their browser thanks to the most recent update to Google Photos' online platform, the company said. Users can now take advantage of a wider range of editing tools to enhance their images, including sophisticated filters and some of Google's distinctive editing capabilities. Since you could already use Google photographs on your phone to do rather extensive edits to your photographs, the only real change here is that some of those capabilities are now accessible from your computer as well.

The new features allow you to alter backdrop blur, sky contrast and/or color, lighting placement in portraits of people, background desaturation to draw attention to your subject, and general HDR brightness and contrast. In contrast, the web version of Google Photos only has a narrower subset of capabilities. There are still more things you can do with Google Photos on your phone, including more sophisticated alternatives like Magic Eraser. However, there is now a choice if you want to make adjustments on your computer that go beyond applying a fast filter or adjusting the brightness or contrast.

• Click Portrait light to adjust the position and brightness of light to portraits of a person.
• Click Blur to adjust background blur.
• Click Sky to select from several palettes and adjust the color and contrast in the sky.
• Click Color focus to desaturate the background, but keep the foreground in color.
• Click HDR to enhance brightness and contrast across the image for a more balanced photo.

Keep a look out for the new editing capabilities if you're a Google One subscriber because they should be available soon. Remember that in order to utilize this, your computer must have at least 4GB of RAM and a "updated browser". Google didn't make it clear what version of Chrome it specifically meant, although we assume it's a recent one.

If Google One is unfamiliar to you, it is a monthly membership service that provides more storage for Google Photos, Drive, and Gmail in addition to several other advantages including access to Google experts, family sharing, and special member bonuses. The list now includes the latest web editing tools from Google.