A Hammer Called Photoshop

Often customers ask what software we use in our office to manipulate photos. They might need to have the flexibility of editing photos for their website, or they might be interested in creating projects at home as a hobby.

I’m a long-time user of Adobe design software. Adobe develops the programs used by graphic designers, videographers, photographers, web designers and more.

Most often I use Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. Although there is a lot of crossover in capabilities among the three, I believe each one is best suited for specific tasks.

• InDesign is best for designing ads, brochures, posters or most anything dealing with large areas of text or multiple pages

• Illustrator is the king for making logos or any type of graphic that needs to be enlarged infinitely without losing quality
• Photoshop has long been the leader when it comes to photo editing

Each software product, like tools in a workshop, has a very specific use and strengths. And it’s important to use the right tool for the job as it makes creating and revising projects more efficient. I’ve often said you could drive a nail with a screwdriver in time, but wouldn’t you rather use a hammer?

For decades, the price tag was a hurdle for most as Photoshop alone had a price tag of more than $500. There are free online tools such as GIMP or picmonkey that allow basic photo retouching and image composition. For many hobbyists this could be a good place to start. And now Adobe has moved to a subscription model for their software. For $20 per month (sometimes $10 on promotion) they offer Photoshop and Lightroom — both used for photo editing — making these tools affordable for hobbyists and for businesses that just need to edit a few photos for web updates they make on their own. There are a lot of YouTube video tutorials to help you get started with color correction and photo retouching.

Don’t make the mistake of trying to design logos or newsletters in Photoshop —remember use the right tools from the workshop. And don’t expect to become an artist overnight. Photographers and designers have been using these tools for decades and regularly continue to learn something new.