You Can Teach Yourself to Use Any Photo-Editing App: Here’s How

With an abundance of photo editing apps and tools available, it can be hard to learn how each one works. I’ve learned and used many photo editing software, and these are my foolproof tips to teach yourself how to use any photo editing app.

1 Watch YouTube Tutorials

YouTube is one of the best free resources you can find to learn almost anything you could possibly think of. Whether it’s coding camp, how to fix your car, or how to change the colors of images in Photoshop—it’s all free and there’s an abundance of YouTubers creating these videos.

The great thing about the large number of content creators making tutorial videos is that you’ll have lots of choices to find the teaching style that works best for you.

YouTube offers long tutorials that cover in-depth topics and may take around an hour to learn. But many creators post short snippet tutorials with YouTube Shorts—and TikTok and Instagram Reels—for bite-sized learning. Both have helped me with plenty of different photo editing apps, and I love the variety available.

2 Follow the In-App Tutorial Suggestions

When you install or use a new photo editing app for the first time, most of these apps provide in-app tutorials in the form of small popups.

These can seem annoying at first, especially if you think you know what you’re doing already. Or if you don’t take the time to read the popups, you might just see them as annoying ads. But they’re there to help you, and you should use them.

Typically, the in-app tutorials give you a whistle-stop tour of where you can find the important tools in the app. This is helpful because although many photo editing apps are similar, the small differences between them can make navigating the tools frustrating. Taking one minute to learn where the basic tools are—from the very people who made the app—can save lots of guessing later.

Some apps may provide a quick step-by-step tutorial with the same popup format to help you create your very first photo edit in the app. This lets you not only learn where the tools are, but also show you the results those tools provide. These in-app tutorials typically make you click through each suggested button in order to finish the tutorial and remove the popups.

Finally, many apps, especially Adobe and Canva, have a learning section on the homepage. This includes video and image tutorial guides for common editing styles, trending ideas, and innovative ways to use the app. These features also often include brand new tools for the app to keep you up to date with everything you can do.

Canva has Canva Design School for online tutorials, but there’s also Canva Live Learning for more exclusive tutorials.

3 Pay for Online Tutorials or Classes

Similarly to YouTube’s video tutorial offerings, if you’re happy to part with some cash and get more tailored and in-depth tutorials, you can sign up for an online class.

There are great Coursera courses for graphic design and many other topics, or Udemy courses for content creation, all of which cover some tutorials for photo editing apps.

My personal favorite online schools for learning how to use photo editing apps are Domestika and Skillshare, both of which are affordable and varied in the software and content covered. They also often have great deals with discounts or even free course access.

I used a variety of online classes to learn how to paint in Procreate. It’s a skill I’m happy to have learned.

4 Experiment

The best way to learn how photo editing apps work, and what you can do with them, is simply by experimenting. Press all the buttons, test all the brushes and filters, and see what you like or don’t like.

Nothing can go drastically wrong by experimenting with photo editing apps, so long as you don’t overwrite any original photos with your experiments. You don’t have to edit images with an audience in mind, just have fun and see what you can create.

5 Look for Inspiration

Many well-known photographers or creators have signature editing styles, so you can often tell their work from others. Go through your photo editing app’s tools and see if you can replicate your favorite editor’s style.

This may be with filters, presets, blending modes, color profiles, vignetting or borders, the size and shape of a cropped image, or maybe even extra things like text or doodles over photos.

You don’t have to replicate their work with the idea of stealing their style. Just replicate them to learn techniques, and from that, develop it into your own style. Remember: imitation is the biggest form of flattery.

6 Read Written Tutorials

While you can find fantastic video tutorials and in-app tutorials for any photo editing apps you come across, you might learn best from written tutorials. This lets you learn at your own pace, and you can scroll up or down to check the steps, along with seeing accompanying screenshots to follow the steps perfectly.

Not to boast, but here at MUO, we have plenty of great written tutorials covering a wide range of photo editing tools, including how to make smartphone photos look DSLR-quality. We cover both mobile and desktop editing tools, across a range of operating systems, as well as both free and paid options. You’ll find what you need easily.

Go to our Search function and type the name of the photo editing software you want to learn. No doubt, you’ll come across plenty of written articles to teach you anything you’d like to know.

7 Learn the Terminology

Finally, learning terminology is a great way to boost your photo editing learning. Knowing the correct terms for the app will help you when it comes to searching for tutorials or asking for help.

While most apps use similar terminology, that’s not a hard and fast rule. For example, some apps, like Adobe software, typically use “Artboard” to describe the area in which your photo is being edited. Other apps may call it a “Canvas” or a “Workspace.”

The tools themselves sometimes have different names, especially with the introduction of generative AI tools. To find out the name of specific tools, hover your cursor over any tool icon in the software, and the name will float in a tooltip.

Along with learning the terminology, I strongly suggest learning the native keyboard shortcuts and hotkeys. My favorite one is cmd/ctrl + Z, because I make a lot of mistakes in my experiments and that one gets me back to where I came from quickly.

Like learning the tool names, most apps will show the shortcut configuration when you hover over the tool in the toolbar or within a menu. Often, when following written or video tutorials, they’ll also give keyboard shortcuts as well as longer ways to navigate tools, so you can learn both at the same time.

Over the years, I’ve learned many different photo editing apps, from Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Express to Canva, Luminar Neo, and many browser-based tools. These tips and tricks are what I use to learn new editing apps fast. Utilize the information available for free, and if that’s not quite good enough, don’t be afraid to pay a small price for more exclusive learning.