Intermediate
40 mins
Teacher/Student led
Learning Goals
Learning Outcomes
+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.

Teacher Class Feed

Load previous activity

    1 - Start ~4 mins

    Today you will edit a photo in Canva: crop it, resize it and change how light or dark it looks. First, see how one crop can change what a photo shows.

    Look at Version 1 first. Who is on the beach, and what are they doing? Then look at Version 2.

    Version 1Version 2
    Five people in wetsuits and bright tops lie face down on surfboards on a stony beach, with nobody else near themThe whole photo: the people on the boards are a surf class practising on the sand, and their instructor kneels in front of them, talking them through it

    Photo: a surf class at Famara beach, Lanzarote, by carvajalphotos, via Pixabay.

    Key point

    Nothing was added or faked. Version 1 is part of Version 2 with the instructor and the rest of the class cropped out, and that changes the story. An edit can change what people believe about a photo, even when every part of it is real.

    Talk about it
    • Version 1 on its own: what would you think was happening? People sunbathing on their boards? Friends messing about on the sand?
    • Version 2: what do you now know that Version 1 hid?
    • A surf school wants a poster about its classes. Which version is fair to use? Would it be fair to use Version 1 with the caption “Too lazy to go in the water”?
    • A crop is only one kind of edit. Making the same photo dark and grey could make a sunny day look cold and lonely. What else could change how a photo feels?
    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.

    WordWhat it meansFor example
    PixelsThe tiny squares of colour a digital picture is made of. More pixels means more detail.The practice photo is 1280 pixels wide and 683 pixels high.
    ResolutionHow 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.
    CroppingCutting away the edges to change what is in the picture.Version 1 on the first step is the practice photo cropped down to the people on their boards.
    ResizingMaking the whole picture bigger or smaller, without cutting anything out.The practice photo made half as wide and half as high: everyone is still in it, just smaller.
    Aspect ratioThe shape of the picture: how wide it is compared to how high.The practice photo is wider than it is high. In many apps, pulling one side only makes the people 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
    123learn · Online learning platform

    Unlock the full learning experience

    You're previewing this lesson. Get full access to this lesson and hundreds more — each one ready to teach, with interactive activities, printable resources and pupil progress tracking built in.

    Hundreds of curriculum-aligned lessons
    Interactive activities in every lesson
    Printable resources & progress tracking
    Get started
    Copyright Notice
    This lesson is copyright of 123Learn.ie 2017 - 2026. Unauthorised use, copying or distribution is not allowed.
    🍪 Our website uses cookies to make your browsing experience better. By using our website you agree to our use of cookies. Learn more