Are you considering using Photoshop as a tool for your company? Do you find Photoshop too intimidating or think it will be too difficult to use? Are you wondering what is Photoshop used for? If you’re stumped on one or a few of these questions, you’ve come to the right place. There are many cool things you can do using Photoshop, from making GIFs to editing photos. This article will teach you the basics of what Photoshop is and some of Photoshop’s features. We will also tell you what you can do with Photoshop to help your business.
What is Photoshop?
Even if you have never edited an image on your computer, you have probably heard of Photoshop. Adobe Photoshop is an editing software application created by Adobe Inc. for both Windows and mac0S devices. It is most known for being an image editing and photo retouching application. Many people use the application on their computers, but it is also available for mobile devices. Photoshop can help you create, enhance, or edit pictures, artwork, or illustrations. When it comes to what you can do with Photoshop, the possibilities are truly endless!
How Much Does Photoshop Cost?
Adobe Photoshop requires a subscription, but the price varies depending on the exact product you buy. Any Photoshop subscription allows you to access the application on your desktop or laptop and mobile device. If you’d like to test Photoshop out before buying it, you can access a 7-day free trial when you purchase through their website.
You can purchase Adobe Photoshop Single App for $20.99 per month.
Adobe also offers a “photography” bundle, which has both Photoshop and Lightroom and Lightroom Classic for only $9.99 per month. Lightroom is another editing app that a lot of photographers utilize.
Business owners can get Photoshop for $24.99 per month, or the entire bundle of apps for $59.99 per month.
Students and teachers can purchase Photoshop for a discounted price of $19.99 per month. They can also save over 60% on the entire Creative Cloud library of apps.
Who Uses Photoshop?
Photoshop is usually used by designers, web developers, graphic artists, photographers, and creatives. These professionals use the application every day for image editing, retouching, website mockups, image compositions, and adding special effects.
What Can You Do With Photoshop?
There is a lot you can do with Photoshop – more than we could list here. Some of the basic things you can do are:
Edit Photos
The most basic and common Photoshop feature is editing. Through the Photoshop application, you can:
- Enhance colors, add contrast, or adjust the sharpness or blurriness of a photo.
- You can enhance the color of a model’s eyes, switch the hue on a sweater or add patterns to items.
- Change the color of a picture from black to white.
- You can spot color, adding bursts of color to a black-and-white photo.
- Fix old photographs to make them look more modern.
- Crop images.
- Retouch an image.
- Some photos may have specks of dust, unwanted people, or items in the background, or clothing stains. Retouching can get rid of these unwanted parts of an image.
- You can use the software’s “clone” tool to copy a matching area of the same picture and put it on top of the unwanted area.
- You can also add someone to an existing image.
- Combine multiple images into one.
- This is also known as “layers”. Layers are something you may not have used before. They are a way of stacking designs, then removing or hiding them to see how your work looks.
Create Art
Using Photoshop, you can also create paintings, cartoons, book covers, and any kind of art imaginable. You can make a photo look exactly like a painting. By blending brushes or layers, you can combine an endless amount of colors to create a beautiful painting. You can also add oil textures, charcoal, and ink to your image to give your painting an old-school look.
Graphic Design
Through Photoshop, you can design awesome illustrations or graphic posters. If you are interested in graphic design, this is a great application for you.
Website Design
Photoshop can be a great tool to create a mock-up of your website. A mock-up is a fake website design that is created so that you can see how the design looks altogether. This is great for your business if you want to create a visually appealing website.
Create GIFs
GIFs are common on social media. They are short clips that usually show memes or movie clips. Learning how to create a GIF is not only really impressive, but a great skill to learn.
Video Editing
Many people edit their videos in Photoshop. It’s not ideal for creating blockbuster movies, but for small clips, it is a great application! It is very convenient for perfecting YouTube videos for your company, for example.
How to Use Photoshop to Help My Business
Now that you have an idea of some of the basic Photoshop features, there are many ways you can use these features to help out your brand.
Create Great Looking Photos to Sell More Products
Photography is important for your business’s website or for print marketing. If you have great looking photos, you will have a greater chance of selling whatever your business is offering. As we’ve seen earlier, photo editing can vary from touching up photos to color correction.
When it comes to your business, the way your products are photographed is very important. Low-quality photos are one of the biggest reasons why people don’t buy products. Always make sure that when you are selling your products you include more than one photo. Also, make sure to take pictures of it from all angles. If you are a service-based business, show how you do your service in action, by including photos of employees. Just putting photos up is not enough. Photoshop can help take your photos from good to great. You can easily enhance your photos with Photoshop’s editing tools.
Create Web Graphics for Your Website
If your website needs a new redesign, look no further than Photoshop to help you out. Photoshop can help you create great banners, icons, badges, buttons, and any kind of page element you need to make your website amazing. It can also help you with creating thumbnail images for your products.
Image Optimization
Image optimization is the process of creating web-friendly graphic files for the kind of image that you are working on. You can crush down the size of your image to make sure that it keeps its high quality but loads quicker. This is great for keeping your website looking great and working fast.
Print Materials for Your Business
If you are tight on money or do not want to hire a freelance designer, you can easily create print materials for your business using Photoshop. You can even create your own business cards, brochures, and stickers. If you do decide to go this route, you will be saving time as well as money. You will need to know a few more basics of Photoshop before attempting to make your own print materials, such as trims, bleeds, image resolution, etc. But once you master these, you’ll be ready to start creating your own print materials!
Social Media Graphics
You can also use Photoshop to create graphics that you can post on any of your social media platforms! Social media graphics are things like your social media avatar images, banners, etc. You can even create your Twitter account’s header photo, which is the wide banner that appears at the top of your account. To make a header photo, make sure that you create a 1500×500 image.
Video Editing
Photoshop can do basic video editing. This is great if you have a YouTube channel and need somewhere to edit your videos. YouTube is a great place to market your content and show off your business. Video is currently a very successful format for advertisements online. It is a great way to show off your products and services.
Is Photoshop Hard to Learn?
Truthfully, when you first get started on Photoshop, it might be pretty tricky to navigate everything. There are a lot of tools you probably have not seen before. This is why it might be great to consider completing an online course or following a learning guide. YouTube videos can also be pretty helpful, but they can be frustrating because you can’t ask a question.
What is the Quickest Way to Learn Photoshop?
There are many ways to go about learning Photoshop. Learning Photoshop can be just like learning a new language. You can certainly use Google, online forums, or YouTube to learn some of its features. Although these may be the most accessible ways, they also tend to be the hardest for a lot of people. Other ways to learn Photoshop include working hands-on through a book, program, or course in order to get down the essentials.
FAQs about Photoshop:
- What are the basic features of Photoshop?
- How much does Photoshop cost?
- What are “layers”?
- What is Photoshop used for?
- How can I use Photoshop for my business?
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