If you are active on social media these days you are going to be spending a lot of time on images. Gone are the days when you could blast out a 140 character tweet and leave it at that!
10 years ago when I was running the Wedding Crafter, I spent hours struggling with Photoshop. Now Photoshop is a terrific tool but it’s neither quick nor easy (not to mention being pretty pricey too) and for those non-photographers who don’t need its functionality, it’s overkill.
Luckily there are now some great tools around to help out wedding business owners who want to look great on social media without investing a fortune or spending hours on every Facebook post. Here are some of the most popular.
Canva
Canva works on the basis of templates which let you combine images and text to create images which look professionally designed.
Canva is free for the basics and offers premium elements which cost $1 each. Just pay as you go. The free elements cover pretty much everything you’ll need – especially if you upload your own photos. I’ve been using it for around 2 years and never actually paid for anything. I use it for creating my top tips graphics (and also the heading image for this post).
It takes a little while to master Canva but don’t give up – the results are worthwhile.
Pic Monkey
Pic Monkey is geared more towards photo editing and then adding text, logos etc. You can crop, apply filters, remove wrinkles(!), add graphics, banners & text – and loads more. Among the many things you can add, there is a whole section of wedding related graphics.
It also has a collage maker which is super easy to use and lets you add a colour/text block as well as photos. Fabulous for putting together a mini mood-board.
There is a basic free version, but the paid version is only £5 per month (less if you pay for a year upfront).
Landscape from SproutSocial
If all you want to do is to size your photographs for the different social media platforms then this nifty free tool is quick and easy to use. Just upload your image and choose the networks you want to create images for. It will take you through each in turn and let you zoom, crop and position.
You can create profile and page header images as well as images for posts and it covers all the main networks.
Paint.net
The above options are all cloud based. If you want to be able to work on your images when offline, then check out Paint.net.
Sometimes referred to as “Photoshop Lite” it’s got most of the functionality of Photoshop without the hefty price tag and I’ve found it easier to learn.
Not as easy or intuitive as Canva or Pic Monkey but if you want more extensive editing features including layers – and the ability to undo things that don’t work – then give it a try.
Pic Collage
If you are looking for an app to create quick and easy collages to share from your smartphone or tablet, then there are lots to choose from. Instagram has it’s own collage app – Layout. But if you want something a bit more sophisticated then try Pic Collage – it’s one of the most popular.
Do you have a favourite tool for creating great images for social media? Please share in the comments or on our Facebook page.
