How to Use the Adobe Photoshop Express App

We’ve been showing you how to use all of Adobe’s mobile apps, and today we’ve got another addition to the line-up: the Photoshop Express App. In the app store you’ll also find it has a subtitle – Photo Editor Collage Maker, which tells you a bit about what to expect from this app.

You’ll want to download a different Adobe app depending on what kind of actions you want to take with your images. If you’re interested in editing them to look their best and putting together collages, then this is the app for you. For composites, try Photoshop Mix, and for the most robust editing, Lightroom should be your go-to.

But here’s everything you need to know about Photoshop Express, so you can get started on editing your first image on the go!

 

Key functions

Here are the key functions you’ll want to use in Photoshop Express:

• Looks – these are essentially filters which will change the mood of your images
• Image Corrections – these tools will be familiar if you’ve used the Photoshop desktop version, allowing you to control and correct your image to look its best
• Blend Effects – add creative textures and overlays to allow different moods in your images
• Dehaze – this allows you to remove fog and haze! It might be a very niche use, but there aren’t many photo editing apps out there with this function
• Reduce Luminance Noise – if your images have a lot of grain due to being shot in low light conditions with a higher ISO, this function will help clear them up
• Text styles – allowing you to add text to your images, this is great for turning your images into marketing graphics for social media
• Perspective correction – if your image is crooked or taken at an angle – for example, looking up at a building from the ground – this tool can straighten it out
• Blur – this tool applies blur on a radial (circular) mask. Great for blurring out backgrounds in those social media snaps
• Split tone – use color tints to stylize your highlights and shadows, creating a more dynamic image
• Collage – Create a collage of images in a few quick steps, and choose your preferred layout. Another great tool for social media!

 

Choosing an image

When you first open Photoshop Express, you’ll see a page full of your own images from your internal storage. This is a bit different to other Adobe apps, where you have to import your chosen images first, so you can see how this version is a bit quicker to use already. At the top of the screen, the ‘All photos’ dropdown can be accessed to select specific folders if you’re looking for something buried beneath your recent camera roll images.

At the bottom of this screen you’ll also see the collage button, a blue circle with a box split into three areas. This will allow you to select the images you want for a collage.

For now, let’s just choose one image to work on. Simply tap the image, and it will load up ready to use – just like that!

 

Making edits

At the bottom of the screen once your image is loaded, you’ll see all the different ‘looks’ you can choose from. Go ahead and try scrolling through them – with one single tap, you can apply the filter and see how it looks, or move on to a different type of editing by selecting the ‘Normal’ option (which leaves your image unedited). You’ll notice headings at the top, including the first one ominously titled ‘FREE’. Stick with these if you don’t want to pay extra!

There is a slider on your screen which opens up when you select a filter. Use this to determine how strongly the filter is applied.

Moving on, you’ll find more options along the bottom of the screen. Switch to these to access, in order:

• Two interlocked circles: blend effects
• A square with extending edges at top and bottom: crop
• Two sliders: corrections, such as clarity, sharpness, luminance, color, dehazing, grain, fade, exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows, whites, blacks, temperature, tint, vibrance, and saturation
• A band-aid shaped like a cross: remove blemishes, by tapping on the area affected
• An eye: correct red eye or pet eyes by tapping on them
• A capital T: add and edit text, including changing the font and color
• A heart in a circle with a straight edge: add ‘stickers’ to your image, such as flowers, food, splashes, and more
• A square surrounded by a peaked border: add a border or frame to your image

You can go through all of these different edit stages until you have perfected the image the way you want it to look. Make sure to save your changes before exiting!

 

Making a collage

Finally, let’s take a look at the steps required to make a collage. This time, hit the collage button before you choose your image, and then select all that you may want to use.

This opens up your collage creation screen. You’ll have a choice of layouts at the bottom which suit the number of images you have select – just tap on them to try them out, as you can always change it back whenever you want.

To edit the placement of your images, long press on the one you want to move and then drag it over to the new position. It will swap with whichever image was originally placed there. You can also move the image around within the frame by dragging, and you can drag the borders between the images to make the individual frames smaller or larger.

There’s a lot of editing potential in the first stage, and you can also edit in the following ways:

• Icon of a box containing four dots: choose the dimensions of the collage
• Pencil: add, remove, replace, or edit images
• Double square: edit the borders

 

After going through all of these tools, you should have a good grasp on how to use the Photoshop Express app. It’s great for creating social media content on the go, and providing a new look to your old images!