c/diy-screenshot-fails

Hit exactly 1,000 screenshots in my camera roll before I realized I'd been taking terrible phone edits of the same photo for 6 months

I was trying to crop out a random hand in the background of a group shot and ended up with 47 nearly identical failed crops before I noticed the storage warning, has anyone else ever kept a bad screenshot loop going way too long?

2 comments

nathan_thompson62•14d ago

Just lost $30 on a bad screenshot "shop" app - here's what happened

I paid $30 for this app that claimed to let me crop and edit screenshots perfectly. Downloaded it and tried to crop a funny error message I got from my phone. The app literally added a black bar across half the image and I couldn't undo it. Then it kept crashing every time I tried to save. I messaged support and they just sent a generic robot reply. Anyone else get burned by one of those paid editing apps that promise way more than they deliver?

2 comments

derekp70•17d ago

Tried screenshotting with my thumb on the screen and got this weird double image

I was trying to grab a shot of a menu on my phone last night at dinner and my thumb was literally resting on the screen. The phone captured my thumbprint like a weird overlay over the text, making it look like I photoshopped a fingerprint onto it. I tried it again on purpose to see if it would happen and it actually worked, now I have a whole folder of these glitchy screenshots. Has anyone else gotten accidental art from bad screenshot technique?

2 comments

stella_lee•17d ago

Tried a cheap bulk photo crop tool for my vacation pics

I had like 200 photos from a trip to Chicago and needed to crop them all for a collage. Found a free online batch cropper that did them in 30 seconds flat. Anyone else use those one-click tools or just stick to manual editing?

2 comments

bencampbell•20d ago

Wasted $80 on a terrible photo editing app last month...

I was trying to fix a screenshot of my phone's home screen for a meme, and this app promised 'perfect cropping in one tap'. Ended up warping the whole image and adding a weird border I couldn't get rid of. The refund process was a nightmare too. Has anyone else fallen for one of those flashy editing apps with no real preview?

2 comments

jason_fisher4•21d ago

PSA: I wasted $40 on a photo editing app that just makes bad crops look worse

Bought this fancy app thinking it would fix my crooked screenshots, but all it did was add jagged edges and weird color tints. Anyone else blow money on editing tools that made things worse?

2 comments

stella_lee•21d ago

Am I the only one who thinks bad cropping can actually improve a photo?

I spent like 20 minutes last night digging through my camera roll and found this screenshot I took of a sunset I got back in March 2022. The original had this big ugly street lamp in the corner and my thumb partially over the lens. I cropped it super badly on purpose with my phone's built in editor, just chopping off everything except a tiny sliver of orange sky and some tree branches. And honestly? It looks way better than the full version. Everyone in this group seems to hate on bad cropping like it's the worst thing you can do to a picture, but sometimes a terrible crop job creates this accidental composition that tells a better story. The lamp in the original was distracting and the thumb made it look like a mistake, but the chopped version looks like some artsy minimalist shot. Has anyone else ever had a screenshot fail that actually turned out better than the real photo?

2 comments

ivan873•22d ago

Unpopular opinion: the day my phone autocropped a photo of my dog into a potato was actually a blessing

I spent like an hour trying to get this perfect shot of my golden retriever at the park last Sunday - sun hitting his fur just right, tongue out, the whole deal. Then my dumb phone decided to crop it down to just his nose and some grass. Everyone in this group probably hates when that happens, but I actually kinda dig it. It's so bad it's good, you know? Made me laugh harder than the original photo ever would. Maybe I'm alone here, but has anyone else had a crop fail that turned out way better than what you actually wanted?

2 comments

jake_kelly24•22d ago

PSA: Stop screenshooting your full phone screen when you only need one small part

I keep seeing people in here posting screenshots where they clearly just took a pic of their whole phone screen with another phone. Like zoom in or crop it at least. It takes 2 seconds on any phone. I noticed it because my buddy sent me a screenshot of a text thread and the screenshot had his whole homescreen with random apps and it took me forever to figure out what I was supposed to look at. Why do people do this?

2 comments

jade47•24d ago

TIL you can crop screenshots wrong on purpose and make it look artistic

I was trying to grab a pic of my tree trimming map for a client quote and accidentally cropped out the whole address. Ended up with just a blurry corner of a branch and the timestamp. My buddy said it looked like modern art and I sold it as a concept photo on some random stock site for $15 last month. Has anyone else turned a bad screenshot into something profitable?

2 comments

stellat87•26d ago

PSA: That screenshot cropping tool on my phone actually worked

I was super skeptical about those one-tap screenshot editors that claim to auto-crop stuff. Like, I thought they'd just mess up my pictures even worse than I already do. But last week I had a nasty screenshot of a receipt I needed to send my coworker Jim. The edges were all crooked and there was a giant thumb in the corner. I tried the auto-crop feature on my Samsung Gallery app out of desperation. It perfectly cleaned up the whole thing in like 3 seconds flat. Has anyone else had a tool they assumed was junk actually come through for them?

2 comments

parker_foster53•28d ago

That time I spent 3 years cropping screenshots wrong on my phone

I used to just take a screenshot and then use the basic crop tool in my gallery app. Thought that was fine until last month when I tried to crop a receipt for a refund and the text came out all fuzzy. My buddy who works in IT saw it and laughed, said I was zooming in too much on the jpeg and compressing it to death. He showed me how to use markup instead and keep the resolution. Now I see all my old posts in this group are probably pixelated garbage. Anyone else been doing phone editing wrong their whole life?

2 comments

xena_williams•28d ago

Warning: My bad screenshot crop cost me a real job offer last month

I was sending a screenshot of my portfolio work to a design studio in Portland and I didn't notice the bottom of the image had my messy desktop with a half-eaten bag of chips and three open tabs of cat videos. The recruiter replied saying they loved my work but couldn't take me seriously after seeing that. I checked the crop again on my phone and yeah, I had dragged the selection box wrong by like 2 pixels. Has anyone else lost an opportunity because of a sloppy DIY edit?

2 comments

the_nathan•29d ago

Just realized my screenshots have had my alarm clock in the corner for 6 months

Was scrolling through old pics and noticed a tiny sliver of my alarm clock in every screenshot since March. I crop everything now but somehow missed that piece every single time. Anyone else find random junk in their screenshots months later?

3 comments

juliam40•29d ago

My first DIY phone screenshot had my thumb in it for 3 days before I noticed

Was trying to crop out my messy desk in a photo of my receipt. Spent like 20 minutes zooming and rotating. Showed my friend Sarah the final version. She said "nice thumbprint" and I looked closer. Yep. My entire left thumb was right there in the corner. Totally missed it. Has anyone else spent way too long on a terrible edit and still messed up?

3 comments