Adobe Photoshop Classes in NYC or Live Online

About Photoshop

According to Adobe, Photoshop is the most commonly used graphic design tool on the market, with more than 90% of creative professionals having used the application. This ubiquitousness is owing to its ease of use, accessibility, and versatile tools for editing photographs. Whether you are looking to start a career in graphic design or just planning to edit your vacation photos, learning Photoshop is an important step to accomplishing these goals.

What can you do with Photoshop?

Photoshop is the industry-standard photo editing app, but you can do much more with it than just manipulating photos. It’s very versatile and used by photographers, designers, videographers, and more to edit photos, create graphics, design websites, and build animated GIFs... just to name a few. Whether you are planning to edit photographs as a professional Graphic Designer, pick up side work taking pictures at weddings and other events, or just work on editing your own photographs for social media, learning Photoshop is a vital tool in the process.

However, Photoshop is still a specialized design tool, so it may not be the best editing application in all circumstances. While Photoshop is an excellent tool for digitally altering images, it has limitations, particularly when compared to vector-based graphic design tools. Before we get into the common ways people use Photoshop, you should know the difference between pixels and vectors, as it applies to graphic design software.

Pixels versus Vectors

Adobe Photoshop is primarily pixel-based, and the most commonly used vector-graphics design tool is Photoshop’s sister application, Adobe Illustrator. This program is often taught alongside Photoshop in graphic design seminars because the programs are built to complement one another. The primary difference between the two is the ways in which the programs construct and display images. 

• Pixel-based (or raster) graphics: When you capture an image on a digital camera or scanner, it is converted into pixels (small square blocks with a single color). The more pixels you capture, the more information (detail) is in the image file. This means that pixel-based images give users far more control over the image's finer details, allowing them to modify the color, shade and gradient of individual pixels. If you are looking for a tool to make incredibly detailed changes to an image, Photoshop is the tool you are looking for. However, the drawback is that Photoshop can’t add or remove pixels, meaning the image is locked at its original size and resolution. The number of pixels limits how far you can zoom in before seeing the pixels or how large you can print the image at good quality, meaning Photoshop isn’t ideal for resizing an image.

• Vector-based graphics: Vector graphics are not made of pixels. They are composed of paths (Bézier curves) that, behind the scenes, are mathematically described as perfectly clean lines, points, and curves. Unlike pixel-based images, vector graphics can be enlarged to any size without losing quality, so they are ideal for graphics such as logos and icons. This also makes vector-graphics tools the most common applications for building things like product packaging or branded merchandise designs since you only need to design the iconography once before rescaling to fit any project. The drawback to vector-based graphics is that they are far more limited in the level of detail they can provide, especially when lines and curves meet one another in an image.

Photo Retouching

Photoshop is best known as a photo editor. It is, in fact, so well known as a photo editor that the act of editing a photo has become colloquially known as “photoshopping,” regardless of whether or not you are using Adobe’s Photoshop application. You can do standard image improvements such as adjusting contrast, brightness, color, and sharpness or more advanced things such as moving elements from one background to another, removing unwanted elements, and adding in new elements (like a better face in a group photo). What you can do in Photoshop is only limited by your imagination and Photoshop skills.

Graphic Design

Photoshop is one of the standard apps every Graphic Designer knows. You can use it to create graphics for many uses, such as social media, web, emails, video, and print. The graphics can contain photos, text, logos, icons, etc. Photoshop can open and export a wide variety of graphic file formats so that you can use it across many industries. Companies are very attentive to the style and quality of content that they put their names on, so they tend to employ and contract professional Graphic Designers to ensure that their promotional materials and released products are of the highest quality possible.

Photoshop is ideal for combining text, graphics, and images into coherent designs for projects like posters, billboards, and other single-page, static projects. It is also a vital tool in advertising since it offers users unparalleled control over the minute details of a design project. Whether you want to add text to an image, alter the lighting of a photograph or fully remove blemishes from a product, Photoshop offers you the tools to produce the design that fits your exact needs.

Web Design

Because many designers know Photoshop, they use it when designing websites and web graphics. Adobe has added many web design features in the past few years. While some web and UI designers are now using other apps such as Figma and Sketch, Photoshop is still used by many web designers and will probably continue to be used for quite some time. It is also commonly used to produce digital assets for web design projects. While a professional Web Designer won’t be able to work with Photoshop alone, learning how to use the tool can improve the depth and quality of their work.

Animated GIFs

Animated GIFs are popular on social media, HTML Emails, and more. Increasingly, more and more people are primarily accessing the internet on mobile devices like tablets and smartphones. This has had numerous side-effects, some large and some small, for the way we browse the internet and animated GIF production is one of the smaller side-effects. Historically, most GIFs animations were made using Flash, but that program didn’t run on mobile platforms and died in 2021. Since then, most modern internet GIFs are made using Photoshop.

Why Learn Photoshop?

There are a lot of reasons why someone might consider learning Photoshop. It is one of the most accessible and versatile graphic design tools on the market, and it has numerous useful functions even for non-professionals. No matter how frequently or seriously you intend to use your Photoshop skills, there is a training program suited to fit your needs. 

Photoshop Careers

Photoshop is commonly used in a wide variety of professional settings, usually by Graphic Designers who are tasked with creating vibrant and evocative digital designs for companies and clients. While most Graphic Designers will know how to use more than a single tool, Photoshop is more commonly used than other graphic design tools in a few professions and industries.

• Photographers: Unsurprisingly, many professional photographers are trained in using Photoshop and regularly make significant alterations to photographs as part of their employment. This includes photographers working in print media studios and advertising agencies, and private photography studios editing clients' photos to suit their needs and desires. Even someone like a wedding photographer will want to learn the basics of Photoshop to correct the natural errors that often occur when taking pictures. The level of training photographers require will vary depending on factors such as industry and the assignments a photographer will be working on.

• Advertising Agencies: Many advertising agencies employ Graphic Designers trained in Photoshop to help construct traditional advertisements and touch up aspects of pixel-based advertising assets. Some of this work will involve building elaborate advertisements like posters and billboards, wherein Photoshop is utilized to design almost every aspect of the final product, to smaller projects where Photoshop is used to digitally alter specific elements of the project, like changing the lighting or coloration of a shot that will be included in a commercial or brochure. Graphic Designers working at ad agencies will need to know skills beyond Photoshop to find regular employment, but there are several jobs open that require specialized Photoshop skills. There are, however, also jobs open for employees who aren’t masters of Photoshop but do have proficiency in the program.

• Print Media: For better or worse, Photoshop is most commonly associated with legacy print media institutions like magazines and newspapers since they regularly hire photographers to take and edit photos that will be part of their spreads. Newspapers and magazines regularly edit photographs to ensure that they look good on the printed page, advertisers still utilize Photoshop to create and alter printed promotional materials, and even things like movie posters and book covers often utilize Photoshop as a tool for finalizing the project.

• Social Media Marketing: Photoshop has become a popular tool for digital and social media marketing campaigns, primarily for creating GIFs and building shareable images. These kinds of online marketing assets are easy to create. Photoshop lets designers create templates and dozens of different designs easily, allowing them to build a range of different prototype designs. This ease of use makes Photoshop a versatile tool for Digital Marketers and Social Media Marketers, and it gives them greater control over the content that they share with their audience. In addition, since Photoshop has become the go-to tool for creating animated online GIFs, Digital Marketers hoping to share this content will want to learn how to use Photoshop to create GIFs and memeable content for their brand.

• Advocacy Organizations and Political Campaigns: Graphic design is, fundamentally, a process of mass rhetoric in which designers use the tools available to them to create images that speak to a mass audience. This is why Photoshop is so commonly used in advertising and it is why it is used commonly in non-commercial persuasion campaigns, such as those undertaken by advocacy organizations or election committees. Any group aiming to persuade a large audience is likely to be able to take advantage of tools like Photoshop to create memorable, evocative imagery that audiences will associate with your cause and may share with their friends and colleagues. If you want to work outside the commercial art industry, you may want to consider finding work at a non-profit organization or on a political campaign.

Non-Professional Reasons to Learn Photoshop

• Accessible Graphic Design skills: With over thirty years spent iterating on its design, Photoshop is one of the most accessible and beginner-friendly graphic design tools available. Adobe provides users with free introductory tutorials, and students looking to become proficient with the basics of the interface can take advantage of Noble Desktop’s free Intro to Photoshop seminar. These are just a few of the many free tools available to help students learn the basics of Photoshop, and students looking to prepare for more detailed training can take advantage of these courses to get ready for more advanced training.

• Edit your own Photographs: Photography is a relatively common hobby, particularly as smartphone cameras are becoming increasingly advanced with each generation. If you regularly take photos that you want to store, organize, or share on social media, learning Photoshop is a great way to make this process easier and more efficient. Even learning the very basic functionalities of the program in a course like Noble’s Photoshop in a Day can go a long way to helping you create more memorable, shareable, and elaborate photos for your personal albums and social media accounts. Students with a little Photoshop knowledge can take a course like Photoshop Animated GIFs to learn how to transform their photographs into impressive and memorable GIFs.

• Expand your Artistic Horizons: Learning Photoshop is a great way for artists and creatives to express themselves in new ways, thanks to the tools offered by the application. Suppose you are an artist looking for a new canvas. In that case, learning Photoshop is an excellent path to follow since you’ll be able to blend traditional photography skills with rapidly developing digital technologies. Whether you want to make art professionally or you just find it a good use of leisure time, learning any level of Photoshop skills can help expand your creative tool kit and help you create more evocative and vibrant artistic creations.

Adobe Creative Cloud

Another advantage to learning Photoshop is that it is heavily integrated with many of the other programs in the Adobe Creative Cloud. The Creative Cloud is Adobe's collection of about twenty creative design applications, each with specific functionality that allows creatives to build vibrant and evocative visual designs. Photoshop is the most commonly used tool in the Creative Cloud, and learning it is a great entry point into graphic design skills as a whole. Every creative tool you learn will make learning subsequent tools easier, particularly when they are as closely linked as Adobe’s various programs like Illustrator and InDesign.

If you intend to become a professional Graphic Designer, you must learn more than just Photoshop. However, since Photoshop is so commonly used, picking it up first is a great way to lay the groundwork for future graphic design training. Learning Photoshop will help you master basic skills that can make learning tools like InDesign and Illustrator easier and open up some of the more advanced uses of those tools since the programs are designed to complement one another at a professional level. In addition, students looking to use these tools frequently can bundle subscriptions to all twenty Creative Cloud applications together and receive a significant discount on their monthly fee.

What You’ll Learn in a Photoshop Class

If you enroll in a Photoshop training program with Noble, you’ll receive hands-on instruction from graphic design experts. Students enrolled in these classes will work on practical, real-world design projects and learn all of the important professional uses for Photoshop. On top of this, many of Noble’s classes are career-focused courses that aim to prepare students for future employment as Graphic Designers. To achieve this goal, these classes come with professionalization services, including one-on-one career mentorship sessions.

• Photomanipulation: Unsurprisingly, students enrolled in a Photoshop course will spend most of their time learning how to use the tool to manipulate images and edit photographs. Students will learn basic Photoshop functions, like retouching elements of a photograph, adjusting color, brightness, and contrast, and utilizing layers for making detailed alterations. In more advanced courses, students can learn how to remove background objects, sharpen photos, and utilize shadows, blends, filters, and more to create added visual effects for their designs. These courses will teach students how to use Photoshop to construct new and intricate designs.

• Graphic Design: Noble’s Photoshop classes aim to teach students how to use Photoshop to create elaborate and evocative graphic designs. While Photoshop can be used for basic photo retouching jobs (and you’ll learn how to do these), the tool is primarily used for creating complex and multi-layered visual designs built with mass audiences in mind. Noble’s classes take this approach to teach Photoshop, and students will learn how the application can be paired with other graphic design tools and principles to create the kinds of professional-grade photo edits you expect to see in magazines and on posters.

• Theories of Composition: A part of learning graphic design is learning theories of composition and design that artists use to shape the meaning of their pieces and communication with their audiences. This can be as simple as understanding the basic principles of color theory and when you want to make an image warmer or cooler. It can also be as complex as understanding detailed principles of typography to know when you want to use text and what fonts and styles you should be using with that text. 

• Complementary Creative Cloud Applications: Many of the more advanced, career-focused courses offered by Noble teach far more than Photoshop. The Graphic Design Certificate program is a course focused on taking students with no prior graphic design experience and preparing them for careers in that field. Students will also learn to use tools like Illustrator and InDesign to create additional aspects of graphic design layouts and projects, including vector graphics illustrations that can be included alongside Photoshop-constructed assets. These courses aim to produce well-rounded Graphic Designers, so students looking to start a new career will want to consider enrolling in one of these programs.

• Portfolio-building Seminars: An important part of preparing students for careers in graphic design is giving them the tools to succeed once they enter the job market. Noble’s classes all aim to help students in this regard by training them with practical, hands-on exercises that will give students completed designs and photo manipulation projects that they can add to their professional portfolios. In the career-focused training programs, time is dedicated to this process, and students are given hands-on instruction in the process of compiling and preparing a design portfolio.

Conclusion

As you can see, Photoshop is an essential app for most creatives to know and be able to use. Whether you are interested in a career in graphic design or a hobbyist photographer looking to take their work to the next level, learning Photoshop can be an important step in the process. Because it does so much, it can sometimes seem daunting to learn, but don’t worry about learning everything Photoshop can do. There are several different training programs available, so you’ll be able to find a course that teaches the collection of skills you are looking to learn. Suppose you are hoping to start a new career as a Graphic Designer. In that case, you’ll have an immersive, professional development certificate program that is built to prepare you for the job market. If you want to learn how to edit your vacation photos for Instagram, there is a beginner-friendly introductory course you can take over a weekend. No matter what you want or need, Noble Desktop has a course built with you in mind.