TOP PICKS | 20 TOOLS
Best Photography and Photo-Editing Apps for Students
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ChatterPix Kids
Photo app lets students share learning by making anything talk
Bottom line: With its playful premise and ease of use, ChatterPix can be a fun, creative app for elementary school classrooms.
ToonCamera
Photo- and video-editing tool captures the world with a cartoon lens
Bottom line: Engaging tool may require a focused prompt to get kids thinking about how to use the available options.
PhotoGrid - Video & Pic Editor
A few navigation flaws, but a fun way for kids to get creative
Bottom line: Flexible tool with some frustrating but harmless navigation issues.
Pixlr - Photo Collages, Effect
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.
Canva
Create snazzy designs in seconds with flexible, cloud-based tool
Bottom line: With stable internet access and enough time to get started, this is a flexible, accessible way to create beautiful designs in your classroom.
Flickr
Popular sharing site potentially useful as a classroom photo resource
Bottom line: Make use of some incredible photographs in your classroom, but don't let students wander astray on the site.
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.
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.
Photoshop Express Photo Editor
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.
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.
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.
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.
InShot Video Editor
Social media-aimed creation app has cool features, some pitfalls
Bottom line: For students, there's a lot of fun to be had and valuable editing skills to be gained, but teachers will need to do all the instruction and deal with the ads.
PicCollage Grid & Photo 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.
PicMonkey Photo Editor Design
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.
VSCO
Popular photo tool behind "VSCO girl" phenomenon is worth a look
Bottom line: It offers more polish than many competitors and is less of a popularity contest than Instagram.
ArtStudio - Draw and Paint
Easy, amazing art with high-quality lessons, creation, and sharing
Bottom line: ArtStudio provides exciting digital tools and helpful information for high school artists.
Gimp
Free, full-featured photo and image editing app impressive, daunting
Bottom line: It's a great choice for students and teachers with needs beyond simple tweaking, cropping, and color correction, but requires significant self-directed learning.
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.
Snapseed
Extremely powerful photo editor will equally delight pros, amateurs
Bottom line: It successfully walks the fine line of photo-editing features, offering satisfying experiences for those making quick edits and those crafting perfect images.
