Photoshop vs. Photoshop Express: When to use each app.

When to use Photoshop.

Photoshop is the world’s leading image editing app. It’s used by creative professionals like photographers, designers, architects, and artists. The desktop version can handle large, complex files that contain multiple layers and a lot of information. Photoshop has many more tools and features than Express, and a skilled photo editor can perform extensive, comprehensive transformations in Photoshop. Express can enhance a photo, but Photoshop can completely transform it.

Layers

Photoshop files are organized into layers, which allow you to preserve information and work nondestructively while making dramatic changes to an image. Layers are the powerhouse vehicle for most Photoshop editing capabilities. They’re the secret sauce behind digital double exposure photos, composites, surreal photomontages, and landscape photos constructed of several exposures.

With layers, you can combine several versions of a photo into one final amazing image, or break an image into layers to work on different elements individually. Make layer masks (i.e., a layer that hides part of the layer underneath it) to change everything from lighting to sky color to level of blur, and then easily go back to the original image if you need to.

Interoperability

Photoshop is part of Adobe Creative Cloud and works with other Creative Cloud applications, like Adobe Illustrator and Premiere Pro. Images you create in Photoshop can be video backgrounds in Premiere Pro, movable objects in Adobe Animate, or the building blocks of graphics in Illustrator. Likewise, visual elements from those apps can seamlessly be pulled into Photoshop.

When to use Photoshop Express.

Photoshop Express is a mobile app for iOS and Android and is available in various app stores. It works with your mobile device’s camera roll. The app is built for smartphone photography, and its editing tools are made for fast changes on your phone. It’s ideal for applying quick edits like filters and overlays and effects like text and light leaks. Users can change opacity and tonal coloring, as well as edit exposure, shadows, brightness, saturation, and more.

A fast app for social networks.

Many of the features in Photoshop Express are templates, which makes it easy to pick up and use. It’s ideal for making quick social media content when all you have is a mobile device. If you need to do a small retouch, like getting rid of red-eye or blemishes, you can make that fast fix on your iPad or iPhone. You can also apply filters that change color and lighting or turn color photos to black and white.

Import Express files to Photoshop.

If you want to make more extensive edits on your image, you can import your Photoshop Express files to Photoshop or Adobe Lightroom. What starts as a simple change to a mobile image can end up as a more comprehensive transformation on the desktop apps.

However, given how large Photoshop files tend to be, you usually can’t import Photoshop files into Photoshop Express.

Learn more about fast edits.

Retouch in a flash.

Explore Photoshop Express retouching features, such as content-aware healing and skin smoothing.

Try quick desktop edits.

Go beyond the mobile experience and do easy edits on desktop with Adobe Photoshop Elements.