Intermediate

40 mins

Teacher/Student led

+75 XP

Pupils work on their own device

What you need:
Chromebook/Laptop/PC
Canva account (school email)

Editing Images with Canva, Part 1: Crop, Resize and Adjust

Students set up a canvas in Canva, place an image, crop and resize it, and adjust it with filters, brightness and contrast. This lesson counts towards outcome 3.8: students use these editing skills to build their digital montage in the montage lessons that follow.

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1 Start
2 The Words Editors Use
3 Hands-on: Open Canva and Place an Image
4 Hands-on: Crop and Resize
5 Hands-on: Filters, Brightness and Contrast
6 What You Covered
Quiz

1 - Start ~4 mins

Look at Version 1 first. Who is on the beach, and is it busy? Then look at Version 2.

Version 1	Version 2

Photo: "Strandhill, County Sligo, 2016 08" by serrini, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Key point

Nothing was added or faked. Version 1 is part of Version 2 with the rest of the class cropped out, and that changes the story.

Canva account

Your practice photo

Open the practice photo, which is Version 2. Then right-click it and choose Save image as.

👇 Mark your steps as done as you complete them.

+5 XP

2 - The Words Editors Use ~5 mins

Here are five words you will meet in any image editor.

Word	What it means	For example
Pixels	The tiny squares of colour a digital picture is made of. More pixels means more detail.	The practice photo is 2400 pixels wide and 1280 pixels high.
Resolution	How much detail a picture has, which depends on how many pixels it has. More detail makes a bigger file.	A tiny part of a photo, stretched to fill a big screen, looks blurry, because it has too few pixels.
Cropping	Cutting away the edges to change what is in the picture.	Version 1 on the first step is the practice photo cropped down to two surfers.
Resizing	Making the whole picture bigger or smaller, without cutting anything out.	The practice photo made half as wide and half as high: every surfer is still in it, just smaller.
Aspect ratio	The shape of the picture: how wide it is compared to how high.	The practice photo is wider than it is high. Pull one side only and the surfers look stretched.

Crop and resize are different

Cropping cuts away part of the picture. Resizing keeps all of the picture and makes it bigger or smaller. People often mix these two up, so check which one you mean before you use the word.

👇 Mark your steps as done as you complete them.

+10 XP

3 - Hands-on: Open Canva and Place an Image ~8 mins

Canva runs in your web browser. You need a free Canva account, signed up with your school email.

Follow the steps below to make a canvas of a set size and put the practice photo on it.

+15 XP

4 - Hands-on: Crop and Resize ~12 mins

Cropping changes what is inside the frame. Resizing changes how big the whole picture is. You will try both in the steps below.

+15 XP

5 - Hands-on: Filters, Brightness and Contrast ~9 mins

A filter changes the mood of the whole photo in one click. Brightness and contrast help you fix a photo that is too dark, like this night sky.

Before	After

+15 XP

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This lesson is copyright of Coding Ireland 2017 - 2026. Unauthorised use, copying or distribution is not allowed.

Editing Images with Canva, Part 1: Crop, Resize and Adjust

Teacher Class Feed

1 - Start ~4 mins

2 - The Words Editors Use ~5 mins

3 - Hands-on: Open Canva and Place an Image ~8 mins

4 - Hands-on: Crop and Resize ~12 mins

5 - Hands-on: Filters, Brightness and Contrast ~9 mins

Unlock the full learning experience

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