Photoshop is one of Adobe’s most appreciated and popular software solutions, suitable for a broad range of digital art creation and editing purposes. Its influence on the history of photography is immense, and since its invention, Photoshop has affected the way we perceive and process photographs significantly.

In February of 2019, Photoshop turned 31. Taking a look back to understand its journey so far, what can be said about its impact on photographers and their work today? Here are the 10 most essential ways in which Photoshop has changed and shaped the history of photography as we know it.

1.  Ease of operation

The term “photoshopped” has become so widely spread, that it’s basically considered synonymous to the term “processed” in terms of photo editing and manipulation. And yet, photo manipulation processes were popular and explored long before Photoshop was even an idea.

However, to make even the simplest changes to your photographs, you once needed a whole set of skills, specific physical tools, and immense patience. With the arrival of digital photography and PS, altering photos became a lot quicker, easier, and cheaper to do, as photographers no longer had to make entire rooms the dedicated spaces where they would review and develop films.

2.  Perception of human history

With the rising popularity of Photoshop, we became familiar with the fact that photographs can be easily altered to match reality, although not showing it. Therefore, it’s no surprise that Paperwritingpro.com specialists emphasize that Photoshop created a massive shift in the way we see current events, causing us to question our knowledge of history as well.

3.  Perception of “ideal” human appearance

Hollywood stars and fashion models are real people, too. However, their (often heavily) altered faces, skin, and curves on magazine covers led us to believe that beauty equals perfection. Beauty became an unrealistic goal, and although we can’t blame Photoshop for such turn of events, this is one of the not so favorable effects of its frequent uses.

4.  Highlighting the beauty of nature

There are so many exquisite places on the Earth’s surface. Thanks to Photoshop, the results of capturing stunning landscapes and rich, fantastic wildlife can be tweaked to enhance the beauty of the versatile, heavenly nature of our beautiful planet.

5.  Advertising game-changer

The visual appeal of the ads created today is often a result of advanced Photoshop usage. From adding, removing, and relocating parts of photographs, graphics, and text, whatever your ad needs to shine, Photoshop can do it for you.

6.  Tool for personal expression

Photographs are not merely documentation of the world that surrounds us. They are also a way an artist expresses their own, individual perception of life. With Photoshop, this vision can be changed to fit a photographer’s specific sensibility and a message they want to send through their work.

7.  Imperfections are no longer final

Not all photographing conditions are ideal. Luckily, the lack of good light or a bad hair day your model is having don’t have to mean your photographs are to be thrown away for good. With a few tweaks in Photoshop, photographers can now fix issues they weren’t able to address at the time when they were taking the shots in the first place.

8.  Reviving the past

Retouching old, often damaged and unclear pictures is a long, demanding process. Photoshop, however, offered a lot more control over this procedure and made it significantly simpler than it used to be in the past.

9.  Creating comical and fantastical scenes

Adding, altering, and removing elements from photographs can be done with the goal of creating funny or imaginative results. The arrival of Photoshop made these processes easier, and their results mind-blowingly realistic.

Conclusion

The wide variety of options Photoshop offers designers, illustrators, and photographers around the world is what made it the tool of choice for so many creatives. When it comes to photography adjustment and manipulation, however, the significance of Photoshop is both practical and historical. Its development and use have changed the way we see the world and helped edit and adapt millions of different photographs around the globe. Yet, the most crucial influence PS has had on photography is this: It opened our minds for more and enabled the introduction of fresh perspectives and new artistic expressions.

This is a guest post submitted by Jacob Dillon.

There’s an old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words. Photoshop could then be observed as a proofreading tool that enhances the way we express our ideas through images. From private family photo albums to promotional content on social networks, people use Photoshop to improve the visual appeal and value of their photos. In this article, we will have a look at some of the most popular ways to use Photoshop, today.

1. Adding content through layers

Among the variety of tools that Photoshop has to offer, layers are perhaps one of the simplest and easiest to use, but at the same time, provide a high level of efficiency and flexibility. Layers allow you to add new content that’s autonomous in terms of editing so any changes you make won’t affect the objects outside the active layer. For the e-commerce industry, layers allow you to add a price tag to a certain image which you can change any time the price changes without editing the entire image. Simply, make the price tag as a separate layer and change it when needed.

2. Filters

Instead of manually enhancing your photos, you can use filters to make your work more interesting or improve any potential issues. Filters can help us sharpen up some blurred content but they can also stylize the photos and make them look more cartoonish or provide a 3D effect. In short, filters can make the images look more exciting, thus attract more attention.

3. Removing objects

Imaging going out to the beach with your friends and capturing a perfect selfie only to see that it was photobombed by someone or something you don’t want to share with the rest of the world. Photoshop allows people to remove these unwanted guests from their photos with ease. Simply select an object and cut it, and your troubles are gone. To cover up your tracks it’s a smart practice to use the patch tool and nobody will notice the changes you made to the background of your photo.

4. Fixing blemishes

We all want to look as beautiful as we can in our photos. One of the most popular uses for Photoshop includes removing any imperfections that might show up on our skin. There are many tools one could use in order to remove acne or blemishes. The list includes patch tool, healing brush, or spot healing brush-for minor fixes. Each tool does essentially the same thing, the use differs on the size of the area you wish to treat.

5. Create gifs

Another popular use of Photoshop includes producing GIFs that you can later upload online or share with your friends any way you like. Photoshop allows the production of GIFs in more than one way. You could add a series of images that would represent frames. You can decide how long each image will last, to make your content appear just the way you want it. Alternatively, you could import a video and choose which frames you wish to include in your gif.

6. Add textual content

Memes are a popular means of expression, nowadays. People use it for satiric, political, humanitarian, and many other purposes. Photoshop allows people to add text easily and just the way they want it in terms of font, color, size, and position. Furthermore, the combination of image and textual content has powerful marketing potential. Business owners combine graphic designers and online services like ProEssayWriting that create compelling textual content for flyers or other types of marketing materials.

Conclusion

Now that you know which are some of the most popular ways to use Photoshop you can try to learn as much as you can about each one. Who knows, perhaps this article becomes a spark that will bring light to your professional career.

This article is provided by Becky Holton. She is a journalist and blogger. She is interested in education technologies and is always ready to support informative speaking. Follow her on Twitter.