TOP PICKS | 18 TOOLS
Best Photography and Photo-Editing Apps for Students
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ChatterPix Kids - by Duck Duck Moose
Photo app lets students share learning by making anything talk
Bottom line: With its playful premise and ease of use, ChatterPix can be a go-to creative app for elementary school classrooms.
Grades: K–7
Price: Free
Coach's Eye - Video Analysis
Robust video analysis for sports, science, fine arts performances
Bottom line: Cool video-analysis tool is great for the sports field and beyond, but prepare for an onslaught of hidden costs to access all features.
Grades: 2–12
Price: Paid The app is $4.99 each when purchasing one to 19 and $2.49 each for 20 or more.
Photo Grid - Collage Maker
A few navigation flaws, but a fun way for kids to get creative
Bottom line: Flexible tool with some frustrating but harmless navigation issues.
Grades: 3–8
Price: Free
Adobe Capture CC
Magical design tool extracts colors, patterns, and more from images
Bottom line: The rare combo of "wow" factor and utility, this tool help students recognize and use the designed world around them.
Grades: 6–12
Price: Free A free Adobe Creative Cloud account is required to access all features.
Pixlr - Photo Collages, Effects
Easy photo-editing tool sparks creativity, teaches basic art techniques
Bottom line: Experimenting with the tool's open-ended features involves kids in the creative process.
Grades: 3–12
Price: Free
Canva - Photo Editor & Design
Create snazzy designs in seconds with flexible, cloud-based tool
Bottom line: A flexible, accessible way to get kids -- especially design novices -- creating digitally in your classroom if you have stable internet and time to get students set up to be successful.
Grades: 4–12
Price: Free
Photo Editor by Aviary
Cool creative tools for shutterbug teens
Bottom line: It's a good tool for teens interested in creating digital images and developing apps.
Grades: 6–10
Price: Free You can buy sticker and effect packs via in-app purchase (up to $1.99 each). Also, you have the option to print to Walgreens in some versions of the app.
Adobe Photoshop Express
Top-notch photo editor helps perfect pics for creative projects
Bottom line: This is a powerful, free creation tool from the industry leader in photo editing.
Grades: 6–12
Price: Free
Adobe Photoshop Mix - Cut out, combine, create
Impressive photo-editing app focuses on compositing, blending imagery
Bottom line: While it's tackling a slightly niche design need (blending, layering, compositing photos), Photoshop Mix is an incredible tool that makes these processes shockingly simple on mobile devices.
Grades: 6–12
Price: Free
Fotobabble
Talking photo-maker a powerful storytelling tool; not so private
Bottom line: Powerful media-creation tool makes "talking photos" that can creatively support teens' learning goals.
Grades: 6–12
Price: Free
iPhoto
Easily and elegantly edit, organize, and share photos on mobile devices
Bottom line: A great way to edit, organize, and publish photos in the iOS ecosystem.
Grades: 6–12
Price: $4.99
Sumopaint
Impressive, easy-to-use tool for creating and editing images
Bottom line: Sumopaint can spark students’ creativity, encourage them to be artistic, and provide them with new, image-related tech skills.
Grades: 6–12
Price: Free, Paid The basic online image editor is available for free. A Pro account removes ads and includes over 35 pro filters and tools for a lifetime fee of $9. A Pro Plus license for $19 includes the desktop app for offline use.
Stellar photo app promotes sharing, creativity but has risks
Bottom line: An absorbing, endless gallery of images that's fun to browse but tricky for classroom use due to privacy and content concerns.
Grades: 7–12
Price: Free
Clips
Create and share videos with cool effects, tons of language options
Bottom line: This slick video creation app is fun, empowering, and accessible in lots of languages, but be careful with sharing.
Grades: 8–12
Price: Free
PicCollage - Photo Collage Maker & Picture Editor
Versatile, intuitive, engaging collage maker yields impressive designs
Bottom line: With some privacy setup, and possibly upgrading to the paid version, this can be an excellent design tool for creating custom collages, teaching graphic design, layout, and photo editing.
Grades: 8–12
Price: Free, Paid In-app purchases available from $0.99 to $2.99, including sticker packs and the ability to remove watermarks and ads.
PicMonkey Photo Editor
Reliable photo editor built for design and social sharing
Bottom line: A great, social media-friendly option for teaching teens design, layout, and photo editing, but the paid version is more competitive with other tools.
Grades: 8–12
Price: Free, Paid There's a free version that has basic functionality and ads. The ad-free and more functional Premium and Supremium versions are $3.99 and $8.33 per month, billed annually. Premium has storage for 50 images while Supremium has unlimited storage and more organizational options.
ArtStudio - Draw, Paint and Edit Photo
Easy, amazing art with high-quality lessons, creation, and sharing
Bottom line: ArtStudio provides exciting digital tools and helpful information for high school artists.
Grades: 9–12
Price: $4.99
PicsArt Photo Editor & Collage
Top-notch photography app crams in professional functionality
Bottom line: PicsArt Photo Editor & Collage offers teens and adults extensive, flexible, real-world functionality in a tight mobile package.
Grades: 9–12
Price: Free
