Edit images with Canva’s Magic Studio
Use Canva’s AI to change image colors, move objects, or remove image elements altogether.
2024-11-13
While Canva is a popular tool for creating marketing assets, designs, and documents, it also offers some powerful not-so-obvious photo editing tools.
In this tutorial, you will learn how to:
- Import and edit images
- Use Canva’s tools to enhance and modify images
- Export and share edited image
Step 1: Importing images
To import your image, simply click the Create a design button in the top right corner of Canva. At the bottom, you’ll see Import file.
Follow the prompts to upload your image.
Click Use in new design, then select Custom size.
Canva should size the new file the same size as the image you’re uploading. Double-check and adjust the file size to match your uploaded file.
Step 2: Editing and enhancing
Stylize your images
Canva can help you stylize pictures to use them in marketing materials. A popular effect is Duotone. Click on the image, then click Edit image.
A menu will popup on the left side. Select Duotone.
Find a color scheme that matches your brand or desired look. You can even adjust the intensity of the colors with the slider.
Anything you make in Canva autosaves. There’s also a back button in the top menu if you ever want to revert back to an original version.
Removing elements of your photo
Where Canva gets really powerful is the ability to remove elements from your photo without compromising the image.
In this example, we’ll remove the man in the distance so that we have an unobstructed view of the sunset.
Back in the Edit image section, select Magic Eraser.
Select Brush. Brush over the object, person, or element of the image you want removed. Then click Erase.
Ta-da! Your new image:
Expand your image
Another AI-powered editing tool is the ability to expand your image beyond its current borders. If you upload an image into a larger file, you’ll have some white space around it.
Click Edit image and find Magic Expand.
Select whether you want Canva to expand the image in a specific way. For this example, we’ll ask Canva to expand to reach the limits of the file size.
AI is still a work in progress so Canva will offer you a few versions based on its attempts. If one of the first four attempts don’t work, you can click Generate new results so Canva can try again.
Move elements in the image
Click on your image and click Edit image. Find Magic Grab and click.
Canva will scan the image to find distinct elements that it can easily grab. It will default to Click objects rather than Brush. When you hover over a clickable image, it will turn purple. Click the object you want to move.
Canva will detach the subject you wanted to grab and now you can move that element around the image.
For this example, we can enlarge the subject so she takes up more of the frame.
And we can also move her lower down so her eye line meets the horizon.
Step 3: Exporting and sharing
Once you’ve made your desired edits, click Share in the top right corner. A menu will pop up. Close the bottom, you’ll see Download.
When you click Download, Canva will suggest a file type. For images, it’s almost always PNG or JPG. If internet speeds are a concern, JPGs are often smaller than PNGs. Otherwise PNG is your best choice since it handles complex images and colors better than JPGs.
Keep the size at the original size which will be the default in the Download menu. This ensures you’re not making the image too big and pixelating it.
Click Download.
In this brief tutorial, you’ve learned how to stylize your image, and use AI to remove elements of your picture, expand the image, and move elements around.
This tutorial was created by Jonah.