Whether you like to apply changes that affect your photo's quality, feel, and look—or you want to add information on top of your photos, the Microsoft Photos app in Windows gives you all kinds of options for getting your photos and videos looking their best.

Edit a photo

With the Photos app, you can easily crop, rotate, adjust look and feel, add a filter, and write or draw on your photo to communicate and provide context.

In the search box on the taskbar, type Photos . From the list, select Photos . Then select the photo you’d like to change.

  1. Select Edit image ( Ctrl + E ) Shows an icon with a mountain drawing, and a pencil angled across one corner. at the top of your screen.

  2. Select either Crop , Adjustment , Filter , Markup , Retouch , or Background to start editing.

  3. Use these features to tweak the light, color, look, and feel of your photo.

Shows the crop option selected for editing a photo in Windows 11.

Tip: To cancel all the edits that have been applied to your photo, select Reset on the top left of your screen.

Crop

Crop, flip, or rotate photos to trim out the unwanted parts manually or use preset aspect ratios. You can also rotate a photo left and right by 90 degrees or by incremental degrees—or flip an image by 180 degrees.

  1. While viewing an image, select Edit image from the top of your screen.

  2. Select Crop and then, from the tool bar at the bottom, select an option:

    • Rotate clockwise Shows an icon with an arrow in the clockwise direction. or counterclockwise Shows an icon with a counterclockwise arrow.

    • Use the preset aspect ratio Shows an icon with a small square inside a larger square.

    • Flip image vertically Shows an icon with up and down arrows. or horizontally Shows an icon with left and right arrows.

    • Freely rotate your photo using the slider

Shows an image being cropped in Windows 11, with the transparent original behind it.

Adjustment

Adjust light and color to set the mood and quality of photos.

  1. Select Edit image from the top of your screen.

  2. Select Adjustment and then, from the adjustment panel on your right, adjust light and colors sliders.

  3. You can click and hold or press the spacebar to view the original photo.

Shows the light and colors options for editing photos in Windows 11.

Filter

Use filters to refine the tone of images or add special effects to transform photos using only one click. To get started, open a photo.

  1. Select Edit image from the top of your screen.

  2. Select Filter and then, from the Filter panel on your right, select one of fifteen available filters. No worries if you don’t want to apply any filters—you always have the Original option available.

  3. You can click and hold or press the spacebar to view the original photo.

Shows the filter options for editing photos in Windows 11.

Markup

Markup photos: Sometimes, there's more to the story than what pictures can convey on their own. Add a personal touch to your favorite moments by drawing on your photos.

Shows markup options for photos in Windows 11, including pen colors and widths.

To get started, open the photo or video you'd like to mark up.

  1. Select Edit image from the top of your screen.

  2. Select Markup and then, from the toolbar, select one of three drawing tools (2 available pens, and one highlighter).

  3. Select the type of line (plain line, line with single arrow, line with double arrow) and the color and size from the pen options.

  4. Go ahead and draw right on your image, and no worries if you mess up—you can always erase markings you don't like with the Eraser tool. Or clear your whole drawing by selecting Clear all ink strokes next to the Eraser tool.

Shows the markup tool menu with pen colors, line widths, and arrow options.

Generative Erase 

To retouch photos to remove blemishes or unwanted parts:

Important: This feature uses AI to infill the removed area and may not be perfect or what you expect. The process is done locally on your device. This means that your data never leaves your device. For more about our responsible AI journey, the ethical principles that guide us, and the tooling and capabilities we've created to assure that we develop AI technology responsibly, see Responsible AI.

  1. Select Edit image from the top of your screen.

  2. Select Generative Erase and then, drag the Brush tool over the area that you'd like to correct. 

  3. You can adjust the Size of the tool to match the size of the area to be corrected.

  4. You can select if Auto apply for Generative Erase is Off or On.

    1. When Auto apply is On, the area selected with your brush tool is erased directly after you finish selecting the area.

    2. When Auto apply is Off, you have more brush tool options:

      1. Add mask allows you to select an area, or multiple areas for Generative Erase. Once you've finished selecting the area to be erased, select Erase

      2. Remove mask allows you to deselect an area or multiple areas from the mask you created. Select Erase to complete the erase of the selected areas.  

      3. Select Clear if you'd like to deselect all of the areas that are currently selected.

Screenshot of the generative erase tool being used on a photo of a dog to erase the dog toy from the picture.

Background

Sometimes you may need to separate a subject from the background in a photo and then either apply a blur effect on the background, replace it or completely remove it.

Important: AI is used to separate the background, but the separation process is done locally on your device. This means that your data never leaves your device. For more about our responsible AI journey, the ethical principles that guide us, and the tooling and capabilities we’ve created to assure that we develop AI technology responsibly, see Responsible AI.

Photos app Background Edit

  1. Select Edit image from the top of your screen.

  2. Select Background. The image background will be automatically selected but you also have the option to turn On the Background brush tool to display more options.

    • Use Add to add more areas as part of the background.

    • Use Subtract to remove parts of the selection that you don't want as part of the background.

    • You can also change the Brush size or Brush softness.

  3. Select Blur, Remove or Replace.

Blur

Select the Blur option, then use the slider to adjust the Blur intensity, then select Apply to blur the background.

Two dogs standing on top of a chair. The chair and the rest of the background are blurred, but dogs are not.

Remove

Select the Remove option, then select Apply to remove the image background.

Two standing dogs with transparent background

Replace

Select the Replace option, then use the color palette to select the background color. Alternatively, you can specify the RGB values for the desired color. Select Apply to replace the image background with the selected color.

Two standing dogs with a white background

See Also

Remove the background of a photo with Paint 3D

Group photos by faces

See all your photos

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