Hey everyone, I'm Marina from Yes to Tech, and welcome back to my channel. Wondering
how to create a glowing outline in Canva? In this Canva tutorial, you’ll learn how
to add a glow outline effect around your photos in Canva. If you want to add a white outline
effect instead, make sure to watch my video on ‘how to outline a picture for thumbnails
on YouTube’. I’ll leave the link to it in the description box below.
By the end of this video, you’ll know exactly how to use Canva to easily add a glowing effect
around your photos to take them to the next level. If you're excited about this video,
make sure you like this video, subscribe for easy tutorials on how to stand out online,
and hit the bell to be notified every time I post a new video, and with that said let's
jump right in.
First off, if you don’t have a Canva account yet, just click on the link in the description
box below to sign up for free. Once you’ve logged in to your Canva account, use the search
bar, or the suggested designs on your Canva homepage, to locate the design type you’d
like to add an image with a glowing outline to, such as an Instagram post. Once that option
populates, click on it.
You can either add a glowing outline effect to one of Canva’s photos or to one you uploaded
yourself. To select one of Canva’s photos, click on ‘photos’ from the left-hand side
panel, and either use the search bar to locate a photo of your choice, such as ‘blogger’,
or scroll down this section to locate a photo you wish to add a glow outline to.
To upload one of your photos, click on ‘uploads’ from the left-hand side panel, ‘upload media’,
select where you want to upload media from, including device, Facebook, Google Drive,
Instagram or Dropbox, locate the file which you wish to add a glowing outline to, and
then click on ‘open’. I’ll use this ‘female blogger taking a selfie on smartphone
while drinking coffee’ photo as a starting point, so I’ll click on it to add it to
my Canva design as a stand alone photo rather than as the design’s background.
By not having this photo as the design’s background, it’ll make our life easier when
duplicating it to add the glowing outline effect. If you so wish, you can resize and
reposition it to make the photo larger and centralized.
Since we want to create a glowing outline just to the blogger, and not to the entire
photo, let’s first remove this photo’s background. To do so, click on the photo,
and then on ‘effects’ from the white panel up top. Click on ‘background remover’
to remove the background of your image with one click. This is a Canva Pro feature, which
you can try out for free by clicking on the link in the description box below.
Once the photo’s background has been removed, either use your keyboard keys or click on
duplicate from the white panel up top to make a copy of the photo. This copy is what we’ll
be using to create the glowing outline effect.
As such, click on the photo’s copy, and then on ‘effects’ from the white panel
up top. Scroll down until you reach this duotone section, and then click on ‘see all’.
Choose any duotone effect of your choice, and click on it to add it to your photo’s
copy.
If you wish to use your brand colors as the glow outline rather than the colors provided,
click on the filter in the middle of a duotone effect, and then click on the highlights color
picker to add your first brand color, and on the shadows color picker to add your second
brand color, and then on ‘apply’.
Click on position from the white panel up top, and send the photo’s copy which has
the duotone effect added to it backwards. Drag the circles around the image to make
sure that the duotone effect peeks from behind the initial photo.
To make this duotone effect look like a glow, rather than just a colored background, click
on ‘adjust’ from the white panel up top. Increase the blur up to a level 15. Now that
you have created a glowing outline effect in Canva, continue customizing this design
so that it looks the way you wish. For more details on how to customize a design in Canva,
make sure to watch my video on ‘how to use Canva’. I’ll leave the link to it in the
description box below.
Once you’re done creating a glowing outline around your photo in Canva, and customizing
your Canva design, rename your design up top, and then click on the ‘download’ button.
Make sure that the file type is set to either JPG or PNG, if you want this white background
to be transparent, go with PNG and then click on the ‘transparent background’ checkbox,
which you can do with a Canva Pro account, which you can try for free by clicking on
the link in the description box below, and then click on ‘download’ again.
If you're serious about creating a glowing outline in Canva, make sure to check out our
FREE cheat sheet with 9 brilliant tools that you should use below this video to learn more
about how to save time and boost your productivity in your online business.
Make sure you comment below and let me know if you’ll be using the duotone effect in
Canva to add a glowing outline around your photos. If you liked this video, make sure
you give it a thumbs up and subscribe to my channel down below for easy tutorials on how
to stand out online, and stay tuned for our next video which is about how to create an
outline around your text in Canva. As you wait for my next video to go live, check out
these two videos I have right here, and I'll see you in my next video.