Every month we explore a different creative digital theme – In February 2026 it’s time to go back to basics as we learn simple image editing workflows!
Throughout this month we’ll bring you video explainers to help you get started with the free and paid photo editing applications listed below. We’ll even include a visit or two to our favourite AI-powered image generators! Here’s what we’ll cover in the explainers:
- Resize images
- Rotate and crop images
- Apply basic colour correction
- Add text to an image
- Create single-colour images to use as backgrounds
Our workflow explainers are suitable for BEGINNERS, so if you’ve never opened an image editing application before, welcome aboard!
Which applications are we going to use?
If you’re starting out there’s no need to spend a penny – We’ll be using the excellent, FREE GIMP to introduce all five of the topics above.
If you’re looking for something more powerful, PaintShop Pro offers a gentle learning curve and includes lots of built-in ‘extras’. You can download a 30 day demo version now if you’d like to play along. This application can then be purchased for a one-time fee:
Photoshop needs no introduction. We’ll cover the beginner workflows above using this industry-standard software. If you’re a brand new user you can download a free demo from Adobe. Photoshop is part of the subscription-based ‘Photography plan’, which costs around 12 pounds a month in the UK and 13 dollars a month in the US at time of writing. It’s also part of Adobe’s wider ‘Creative Cloud’ suite of applications, for which a subscription will cost you around 60 pounds / dollars a month.
We’ll start the first series of video explainers in a few days’ time!
