Facebook is one of the most popular social media platforms, with over 2.9 billion monthly active users as of 2022. With so many people using Facebook to share photos and videos, having tools to edit and customize those images can be very helpful.
The Basics of Photo Editing on Facebook
Facebook does provide some basic built-in photo editing tools that users can utilize right within the app and website. Here are some of the key features:
- Cropping and rotating
- Adding filters and effects
- Making color adjustments like brightness, contrast, saturation
- Adding text overlays
- Drawing on photos
- Adding frames and stickers
These editing options are available both when uploading a new photo to Facebook and when viewing previously posted photos. The tools can be used to quickly refine an image before sharing it to your profile or timeline.
Accessing Facebook’s Photo Editor
There are a couple ways to access the built-in photo editor on Facebook:
- When uploading a photo, click “Edit” after selecting the image to open the editor.
- For already posted photos, click the downward arrow at the top right corner of the photo and select “Edit Photo” to open the editor.
The photo editing tools will appear at the bottom of the screen. You can scroll through the options and see a live preview of how your edits affect the image.
Editing Options in Facebook’s Photo Editor
Let’s take a closer look at some of the key editing capabilities within Facebook’s built-in photo editor:
Cropping and Rotating
The crop tool allows you to change the composition of your photo by selecting a custom aspect ratio or using a freeform crop. You can drag the corners of the crop box to remove any unwanted parts of the image.
The rotate buttons can turn the photo clockwise or counterclockwise by 90 degree increments.
Filters
Facebook includes a number of filters to quickly alter the look and feel of a photo:
- Black and White
- Cool
- Warm
- Pop
- Faded
- Vintage
- Bright
- Film
- Chrome
- Instant
- B&W Contrast
- Washed Out
The filters can be a fast way to get a distinct style for landscapes, portraits, and more.
Adjustments
To fine tune the look of the image, you can tweak these adjustments:
- Brightness
- Contrast
- Saturation
- Warmth
- Sharpness
Increasing brightness and contrast can make an image more vivid, while dialing down the saturation can create a more muted, pastel-like effect.
Text
Add text captions, quotes or other words directly on your photos. You can select the text font, color, size, and placement.
Drawings
Get creative by drawing directly on the photo canvas. Choose from different brush sizes, colors, and opacity levels.
Stickers
Facebook has an array of stickers featuring emoji, flags, seasonal themes, and more that can be overlaid onto an image.
Frames
Frames add stylized borders around the edges of the photo, from simple white frames to distressed edges to colored backgrounds and patterns.
Comparing Facebook’s Editor to Third-Party Apps
Facebook’s built-in photo editor provides a fast and easy way to apply filters, adjustments, text, and more to spruce up your images directly within the app. However, the editing capabilities are fairly basic compared to more robust photo editing apps.
Here’s an overview of how Facebook’s editing tools stack up against some third-party photo editor apps:
| Facebook Photo Editor | Adobe Photoshop Express | Snapseed | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cropping | Basic cropping | Advanced cropping options | Selective cropping tool |
| Filters | 12 preset filters | 40+ filters | 29 filters |
| Adjustments | Basic adjustments | Robust adjustment controls | Precise adjustment sliders |
| Text Tools | Basic text | Layered text options | Advanced typography options |
| Drawing Tools | Basic drawing | Full brush controls | Selective drawing tools |
As you can see, standalone photo editing apps provide far more filters, effects, adjustments and tools to truly customize your images. The additional capabilities include features like:
- Selective adjustments (like only adjusting brightness in part of the image)
- Layering text and graphics
- Specialized tools like healing/clone brushes
- HDR effects and tone mapping
- Noise reduction and sharpening
- Lens correction
- Advanced color editing
So while Facebook’s built-in editor is useful for quick, basic edits, third party apps offer greater creative control for anyone who is more serious about photo editing.
How to Use a Third-Party Photo Editor with Facebook
If you do want to harness the power of an advanced photo editor, you can still integrate it into your Facebook workflow using these steps:
- Open the photo you want to edit in your editor of choice on your mobile device or computer.
- Use the app to crop, apply filters, adjust colors, add text, apply effects, and anything else you want to customize the image.
- When done editing, save or export the photo to your device camera roll.
- Go back to the Facebook app/website and upload the edited photo from your camera roll as you normally would.
This allows you to take advantage of powerful editing tools while still easily uploading the finished product to Facebook. Some editing apps also support direct integration with Facebook for seamless sharing.
Top Photo Editors to Use with Facebook
Here are some of the best third-party photo editor apps to use with Facebook:
1. Adobe Photoshop Express
Adobe Photoshop Express provides professional-quality editing tools in an easy-to-use mobile app. It includes filters, color adjustments, text tools, cropping/straightening, and more. The edits are non-destructive, so you can tweaks filters and settings even after saving.
2. Snapseed
Snapseed from Google features precise adjustment sliders, brush tools for selective editing, and a variety of filters. The user interface makes it easy to edit on mobile devices.
3. PicsArt Photo & Video Editor
PicsArt provides artistic filters, collages, text tools, and drawing functions. There are also community-created effects and templates you can browse, remix, and share.
4. Adobe Lightroom CC
Adobe Lightroom CC allows powerful raw photo editing with color correction tools, gradients, lens corrections, noise reduction, and more. Great for an end-to-end photography workflow.
5. Pixelmator
Pixelmator is a full-featured image editor for Mac and iOS. It offers nondestructive image enhancements, brush tools, layer editing, and much more. Integrates nicely with Apple ecosystem.
Conclusion
While Facebook does have some basic built-in photo editing capabilities, advanced users would benefit greatly from utilizing a dedicated photo editing app. Third party editors provide far more creative control over the look of your images.
You can easily use apps like Photoshop Express, Snapseed, PicsArt, Lightroom, or Pixelmator to edit photos before uploading them to Facebook. This gives you the best of both worlds – powerful editing tools and easy Facebook integration.
So explore downloading a standalone photo editor to start taking your Facebook images to the next level!