Photoshop is a powerful image editing software that has revolutionized how we perceive and manipulate digital images. It is an essential tool for various industries and professions that rely on visual media, including graphic design, photography, advertising, and media production. An important aspect of receiving professional Photoshop training to change careers is learning what kinds of fields and industries that training will help you find work in. Each industry will have different requirements and expectations for prospective employees, and you should consider these expectations when you start your training. This is true for students who know what kind of work they want to do and those who aren’t sure what path to take after learning Photoshop skills.

What is Photoshop?

Available within the Adobe Creative Cloud, Photoshop’s primary functions include editing, enhancing, and creating digital images from scratch. Professionals across nearly every industry use Photoshop to design anything from graphics for social media to the interface of an entire website!

You can use Photoshop to adjust lighting and colors, or create a single image from your favorite components of existing photos. It comes with several retouching tools, enabling you to remove anything that makes your image less than perfect. Photoshop also contains rudimentary animation capabilities, meaning users can create GIFs as well. 

Read more about what Photoshop is and why you should learn it.

What Can You Do with Photoshop Skills?

Photoshop allows you to edit, add, or remove almost anything to create your perfect final image. However, Photoshop is used for so much more than enhancing images. Because the program allows users to combine multiple images, designers in any industry can use Photoshop to demonstrate how a proposed design would appear on a product. This helps clients clearly visualize a final product and quickly make changes, saving time and money. Although you can’t code a website in Photoshop, you can create mockups of components that designers will add to a website later. Photoshop contains powerful compression tools, ensuring the images on a website aren’t pixelated.

Common Industries That Use Photoshop

Photoshop has been around for over three decades. It has undergone numerous updates and improvements over the years, making it the go-to choice for professionals who require precision, flexibility, and creative freedom in their work. When deciding to invest your time in learning Photoshop, it’s essential to consider what types of jobs you’ll be able to land once you complete your training. Understandably, creative industries like advertising and graphic design require their workforce to use Photoshop regularly. 

Graphic and Digital Design

Along with other tools, Graphic Designers use Photoshop to create designs for anything their clients may need, like brochures, website banners, and even billboards. They collaborate with their clients to understand their needs, develop concepts, and make revisions until the final image matches what the client has in mind. Not to be confused with graphic design, digital design is another area where Photoshop skills are necessary. People in these roles typically combine visual and interactive elements to create engaging user experiences on websites, games, and other digital platforms.

The job outlook for Graphic Designers is predicted to slow over the next ten years, primarily due to the increased need for professionals trained in creating more dynamic imagery. Luckily, careers in digital design are expected to be highly in demand throughout the next decade. Even more exciting, Digital Designers can usually find work in multiple industries or become freelancers and go into business for themselves.

Marketing and Advertising

Since a significant component of advertising and marketing is ensuring a product looks appealing to potential customers, Photoshop is a prominent tool in these fields. Marketing professionals may use the software to create logos, posters, and other assets, as well as retouching and manipulating photographs to use in ad campaigns. It is also extremely useful in social media marketing since eye-catching posts are a major avenue for businesses to reach new and existing customers.

If you want to apply your Photoshop skills to a marketing career, you’ll want to familiarize yourself with other standard job requirements, like data analysis or search engine optimization (SEO). In general, careers in the advertising industry are secure (jobs in this area are predicted to rise by about 10% in the next decade) and have plenty of room for advancement. Marketing Managers earn over $70,000 a year, on average, and more senior positions are generally paid around $95,000. 

Photography

Photoshop is an essential tool for professional photographers, enabling them to enhance and manipulate images efficiently. The tool allows photographers to correct color and exposure, remove blemishes and imperfections, and make complex composites from multiple images. Photographers may use Photoshop to create a seamless background or remove unwanted objects from a photo, adjust the brightness and contrast of an image, or even add creative effects like blur, vignettes, or textures. Photographers may also use Photoshop to create promotional materials to showcase their work, such as flyers, brochures, or portfolios.

Photographers can work in a surprising number of different industries. Of course, there are wedding photographers and those that work in entertainment, but there are plenty of opportunities in lesser-known areas. For instance, some photographers work in the scientific field, taking and enhancing images of microscopic discoveries for textbooks and research papers. Others can work in food or hospitality, taking photos of meals and hotel rooms for travel websites and promotional materials. Photography jobs are predicted to rise by 9% in the next few years, faster than the average growth rate for other careers.

Video Editing

It may sound surprising, but Photoshop can also be used to edit videos. The program offers tools for adjusting colors, cropping and resizing, adding text and graphics, and applying filters and special effects to video footage. Editors can use the timeline feature to control the duration and order of video clips, add audio tracks, and create animations. Photoshop's layering tools allow users to edit individual elements within a video frame, making it a flexible tool for editing. Keep in mind that video editing is not Photoshop’s primary function, so if this is a skill you’re especially interested in, you may want to devote additional time to learning tools like Premiere Pro and After Effects. 

Video Editors can work on various projects, from major films and television series to educational videos used in public schools. Careers in video editing are expected to grow by 12% in the next ten years, and they typically earn around $62,000 per year. Video editing also overlaps a great deal with motion graphics design, which is another exciting profession that uses Photoshop, among other programs. 

Learn Photoshop Skills with Noble Desktop

Noble Desktop’s Photoshop classes meet various scheduling needs and learning styles. Whether students attend in-person or virtually, they’ll learn from expert instructors in small groups. All courses include a free retake within one year, giving students additional practice if needed.

Noble’s quick Adobe Photoshop Bootcamp guides students through projects like adjusting colors, creating composite images, and removing components to improve a final image. The Graphic Design Certificate teaches Photoshop and two other Adobe programs– Illustrator and InDesign. The UI Design Certificate teaches using Photoshop alongside Figma and other Adobe tools to design web and mobile interfaces. Participants will also create a portfolio they can show to potential employers. 

Key Takeaways

• Photoshop skills are in high demand across a range of creative professions.
• It goes without saying that Photographers regularly use Photoshop to edit images, but the program has video editing tools as well.
• Graphic Designers can use Photoshop to create graphics and layouts for print and digital advertising.
• Photoshop is frequently used by marketing and advertising professionals to design visually engaging content that effectively communicates their brand’s message.
• Noble Desktop provides comprehensive Photoshop training both in-person and online.