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How to Edit Photos on an Android Phone
Google Play offers plenty of options for editing your photos on your Android device. But few can touch Google Photos' flexibility and its ease of use makes glowing up your photos a breeze.
And if you're just getting started with photo editing, Google Photos is the perfect primer for learning how the process works. It really is a one-size-fits-all photo editing app for Android. Here's how it works.
Free Google Photos Users Don't Get Access to the Entire Toolshed
Don't think that you're getting every tool that Google Photos has to offer for free. Google offers some exclusive yet impressive photo editing tools solely for Google One customers.
I'm talking tools like Magic Eraser here, with new tools coming year-to-year, like Magic Editor in 2023. If you'd prefer not to become a Google One customer for perks like extra photo editing tools, extra space, and more, you're not entirely out of luck, as there are impressive free photo editing apps for Android if you'd rather peace out now.
Using Google Photos to Edit Your Photos
Still here? Excellent! Going forward, I'll assume you're a Google One customer with full access to Google Photos' toolset: Let's begin.
Open Google Photos, tap the image you want to edit, then select Edit. Going forward, I'll assume that you're in "Edit" for the remainder of this guide.
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Notice the tools that appear below your image. This is where you'll find all the photo editing tools Google Photos has to offer. Let's go through each major tool and function in the toolbar below one at a time. First, let's look at how to crop your images.
To save edited images or photos, tap Save > Save as copy rather than Save > Save. This ensures that the original image or photo remains unaltered if you are not happy with the edit.
How to Crop and Rotate Photos
Let's assume I want to tighten up the photo of my dog Sherman by removing the floor and part of my bed. To do that, I need to tap Crop, then move the corners as appropriate. I always like to move the edges until they're nearly touching the subject of the photo.
Notice while you're here that you can also adjust the ratio by selecting the rectangular-pointing icon to the left of the cropping toolset. Further, tapping the small square with an arrow circling it lets you flip the image around. To change the angle of the image, move your finger from left to right on the dial to adjust the angle accordingly.
How to Edit Portraits
Swipe right to Tools to check out a suite of tools designed to improve your selfies. First, tap Blur. This allows you to blur the background by tapping on the focus on the image (i.e., your face) so you're front and center. Tap Depth to blur or unblur the background at your leisure.
Want to unblur your selfie? Tapping Unblur automatically sharpens the image, so you don't need to toss those blurry photos. Selecting Color Focus also makes the colors look less splotchy.
Similarly, if you spot the Portrait light option, tapping it tags the area in your photo where lighting could be improved. Select either Auto or adjust the lighting manually via the slider to change how the lighting appears.
Erasing and Camouflage Objects With Magic Eraser
Experience the magic of Magic Eraser by appropriately tapping Tools > Magic Eraser. It's Google Photos' most powerful photo editing tool as of June 2023, and it's capable of removing entire elements from your images. That's precisely what we're going to do.
Let's use my daughter posing with her soccer medal as an example. As soon as I open Magic Eraser and tap Erase, it detects elements I may want to remove. In this case, it's people. Select Erase all to automatically remove all suggested elements.
You can also blend certain image elements by tapping Camouflage in Magic Eraser. Let's assume I want to hide a piece of pizza that fell atop my dog Sherman's backside last weekend.
All I need to do is circle or scribble on the element that needs to be hidden. While the results can be mixed depending on what you want to hide, as far as hiding pizza inside a dog's fur goes, Camouflage is pretty darn effective.
Test it out: I think you'll be pleasantly surprised by how easy it is to use.
How to Adjust the Brightness and Contrast of Photos
If you prefer a more manual approach to photo editing, know that Google Photos has plenty of ways to adjust your photos. Let's start with the basics: changing the brightness and contrast of your image by tapping Adjust > Brightness.
Move your finger left to right on the slider to set the brightness. Notice how the icon changes color based on the color scheme of your Android device. This indicates that the option has been applied. If you don't want to use the brightness option, tap Brightness again to deactivate it.
Go to the right, and tap Contrast. It works the same way as adjusting the brightness. Try it out.
Tweak the White Points and Black Points
Staying in the Adjust section of Edit, select White point to adjust the whites in your photo. Adjust the blacks in your photo by selecting Black point.
Selecting Shadows or Highlights works similarly to adjusting the white and black points, except you're adjusting the shadows and the highlighted areas on your image. This is a more subtle way of brightening or darkening an image.
Change the Temperature of the Image
Continuing our journey in the Adjust section, let's look at how to adjust the temperature of an image. It may not sound important, but it comes in clutch when you need to adjust those outdoor shots that could look a touch better.
A recent beach photo of my wife and I could look a little more, I don't know, glowful? It was a cloudy day, so let's do that.
Tap Saturation to adjust the intensity of the color of your image. Alternatively, tapping Tint can balance the image's color or remove it entirely for an artsy black-and-white look. Tap Skin Tone if you find that the subjects' skin tones are a bit blotchy.
But what I really need to touch up here is the warmth. I've done that by tapping Warmth, then raising the level to 44. If this were a nighttime shot, I might want to consider selecting Blue Tone to adjust the coolness of the sky and the glow of the moon. Look below to see the impact of each option to get that vintage glow of the beach at sunset.
Put the Finishing Touches on the Edit
There are a few more features you can use to put the finishing touches to your edit. Tap Pop, and adjust the slider to make the image's textures stand out. Selecting Sharpen performs a similar function, and it's perfect for raising the quality of detail in those low-quality, fuzzy images. Vignette gives the image focus on a central focal point, giving it a film noir look.
One of the downsides to smartphone photography is that images can often contain digital noise, those random speckles of color particularly throughout an image. This usually occurs when snapping pictures in low-light conditions. Fix this problem by tapping Denoise to make your images look a little less 90s, and a whole lot more modern.
Photo Editing on Android, Simplified
Google Photos is a powerhouse photo editing app that makes photo editing a breeze on your Android device. When you're finished editing your photos and images, consider playing with the filters and adding markups like text and doodles to make them truly one-of-a-kind.
It's an ever-improving photo editing tool suite that, while vast, is approachable for anyone. Try it out, and feel yourself becoming a photo editing expert on your Android device over time.
