A Standard for Design

Adobe Photoshop.

I have been using Adobe Photoshop since version 3. Oh yes. Long time. I may be showing my age there a little. I have been in print and web design for well over 15 years now, on a professional level. I use it daily, and I have also taught it, along with various other programs (Quark, Office, etc.).

Whenever I find a non-professional person who wants to use Photoshop, they are typically overwhelmed by what it is, it's purpose, and overall what it does.

I am going to demystify Photoshop for everyone that uses Photoshop casually, and is thrown by it's meaning, and with how elaborate the program has become.

There are two types of graphic file types. There are graphic file types that are pixel based (which are the majority of files you see and deal with on a day-to-day basis) which is also called a "raster" file. Then there are what is called vector based files. Without getting too crazy with what the differences are, I'm going to borrow the quote from Wikipedia regarding the explanation for a vector file. "Vector graphics is the use of geometrical primitives such as points, lines, curves, and shapes or polygon(s), which are all based upon mathematical equations, to represent images in computer graphics."

More than likely, if you are not using graphics on a professional level, you will more than likely never have to deal with a vector based graphic file. Simply because, if you want to utilize images in any fashion, they are all pretty much raster files. As a matter of fact, if you have a vector file that you want to bring into Photoshop, you will have to convert it to raster, which Photoshop will do for you.

Ok, here we go. Photoshop, simply put, is a raster based program. That's it. That's all you have to know. The only purpose at the root level of Photoshop, is too deal with pixels. Pixels are what actually make up the image. If you zoom into an image in Photoshop, you'll notice little dots. Those little dots are what are called, you guessed it, pixels. Photoshop’s sole purpose, is to manipulate those pixels. That's it.

So now I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, but what does that mean? What that means is you can use Photoshop, to manipulate those pixels, to modify your image. If you strip out all the plug-in features of Photoshop (plug-ins are programs that extend the capabilities of Photoshop) it's base purpose is to again, manipulate pixels. If you can begin to understand that concept, this will be the base for what Photoshop does. And it really is as simple as that.

Now, where Photoshop has become the standard, is how effective Photoshop is at manipulating these pixels. You can adjust color, light, hue, saturation, a variety of qualities to a photo unlike any other picture manipulation program on the market. It's THAT potent. And if you do graphics for a living, it's literally the first piece of software in your toolbox.

So, now your thinking, ok, that's great Richard, thanks for that description, but what can I actually DO with the program? Let's say, you have a picture of your family. And it's a REALLY old shot that you want to save because you don't have the negative. You will first need a scanner, and scanning software to digitize that photo. Once you've scanned/digitized the photo, you can open it up in Photoshop, and literally restore the image so that it actually looks like you just took it.

However, Photoshop is typically NOT for an amateur user. Photoshop is a PROFESSIONAL photo editing program. So if you are interested in using this at home for fun, you might want to look at something cheaper, which is just as potent. With that, I would suggest a program called "Gimp": http://www.gimp.org/. This program is FREE, and is a VERY potent program for editing images. And, just as effective as Photoshop.

The process of manipulating an image involves and understanding of color, contrast, lighting, and perspective. Perspective in the sense of having a good eye for color. It is NOT a program for the casual user, as it takes time to learn all the tools associated with it in order for it to be really effective. Especially for the cost, it's not for the faint of heart.

Again, my suggestion if you really want to learn this process, start off with GIMP because it's FREE, and it's just as potent as Photoshop. If you use Gimp and like it, then think about investing in something like Photoshop.

I hope this helps give you an understanding of the program and it's purpose.

Happy pixelating!

-Richard