Photoshop Classes Houston, TX

Adobe Photoshop is a software application used to edit, create, and enhance images, artwork, and illustrations. It’s the industry standard for digital art and image manipulation and is used by photographers, graphic designers, and digital artists. A part of the Adobe suite of products, Photoshop was first released in 1990. The demand for Photoshop rose as computers improved and digital photography technology advanced and, today, it is considered the industry standard for photo editing software.

Photoshop is often used in tandem with other Adobe products, like Illustrator and InDesign. For instance, InDesign can be used to adjust layer visibility and edit objects and paths for a finalized file from Photoshop. Additionally, Photoshop files can incorporate assets made in Illustrator, integrating an image created as a vector file into a raster file. The opposite is true as well: a graphic design project in Illustrator can easily fit into a larger photo project in Photoshop.

Adobe Photoshop is used widely by both professionals and hobbyists. Learning Photoshop can be beneficial for a variety of careers and fields, particularly creative ones like graphic design or photography. A user-friendly design and customizable interface mean that anyone is capable of learning it, too.

What Can You Do with Photoshop Training?

There are many things you can do with Photoshop, both professionally and personally. You can manipulate images and create layouts for print and digital media, create compelling visual ads or enhance product images. Photoshop allows for complete customization down to the tiniest pixel, and designers can store templates for easy access. This means you can save a set of fonts, colors, and images unique to your brand so your creations are consistent and recognizable by your customers. Through Photoshop, you can create graphics that are visually appealing, informative, and effective in attracting attention.

Photoshop can also be leveraged to create wireframes and prototypes of digital interfaces, and to customize smaller interactive elements of a digital application, like buttons and icons. Photoshop allows even the more technically minded, like UI Designers or Web Developers, to flex their creative muscles and embrace their inner artist.

You can also use Photoshop to adjust color, contrast, and lighting, remove blemishes or other imperfections or create composite images. Additionally, you can use the program to create and edit high-quality banners and backgrounds, website layout mockups, icons or logos, and optimize images for various web devices and screen sizes. Whether you choose to do so professionally or to curate your own sophisticated Instagram posts is entirely up to you.

What Will I Learn in a Photoshop Class?

Interface and Navigation

Because Photoshop is designed primarily for professional use, navigating the interface may feel a bit intimidating for new users. Even if you have some experience with other image editing software, you’ll need to become familiar with the specific main elements of Photoshop. The main screen is known as the workspace and contains several menu bars, option bars, the toolbar, and secondary windows (palettes) with different functions and commands. The biggest part of the screen is where you will see the image you're working on. Photoshop allows you to modify the workspace and save your customized configuration.

Adjustment Layers

Adjustment layers are the cornerstone of non-destructive editing in Photoshop. With their help, you can apply color and tonal adjustments to images without permanently changing the original layer. You can adjust things like brightness and contrast, hue and saturation, and color balance.

Composition

In photography, "composition" refers to the way a photographer arranges elements within the frame of an image. Similarly, compositing in Photoshop is used to create layered image combinations. Composites can show anything from every step of a complex movement to a fantastical dreamscape. There are photo composition principles that you can follow to help balance the visual elements within your composite.

Working with Color

Working with color involves two main things: hue and saturation, both of which are outlined below.

• Hue: You can change this to alter the actual color values in your image.
• Saturation: Increasing this makes the colors more vivid, while decreasing it makes them more muted.

A part of adjustment layers, working with color is both a technical and creative skill. You’ll want to have a firm understanding of the color wheel and color theory, in addition to understanding how to technically work with color within Photoshop.

Using Curves and Levels

Curves and Levels are important tools for detailed color correction and exposure adjustments. Curves can help you pinpoint specific tonal areas and adjust them with precision, creating contrasts or lightening shadows. Levels can be used to set black, white, and midpoints, essentially altering the intensity of shadows, midtones, and highlights.

How Hard is It to Learn Photoshop?

Photoshop can be difficult to learn at first because of its many features and tools, some of which are outlined in the next section. If you have experience with other photo editing software, you may find these challenges less difficult to tackle. The good news is that, regardless of your experience, it is possible to become proficient in a relatively short amount of time with the right amount of dedication and passion.

What Are the Most Challenging Parts of Learning Photoshop?

Learning to navigate a new interface and understand what all the tools are and how best to use them can be challenging. Additionally, learning to use Photoshop’s Pen Tool can be tricky for beginners and takes a lot of practice, but learning the different pen functions will make your editing process smoother.

Finally, working with layers in images can also be hard to get used to. In Photoshop, edits are completed in individual layers to keep the original image unchanged. While this type of editing makes it easier to make changes in the long run, it can be difficult to master at first.

How Long Does It Take to Learn Photoshop?

On average, the typical beginner takes between two and three months to learn Photoshop. This level of knowledge will still be fairly introductory, so if you’re wanting to master more advanced techniques, you should expect to dedicate substantially more time to studying. But, if you’re simply looking to independently navigate the interface to complete edits and create graphics, a few weeks to months should be sufficient.

Should I Learn Photoshop in Person or Online?

There are several factors to consider when answering this question. The first factor you’ll want to consider is what learning environment is best suited for you. Do you thrive in a collaborative environment where you can interact with your peers and receive in-the-moment feedback from your instructor? Or do you prefer a more solitary learning environment, perhaps one where you can learn at your own speed?

You’ll also want to consider how much time you can commit to your education and what level of flexibility your schedule requires. Are you looking to immerse yourself in an intensive program? Do you work full-time and need your classes to be scheduled for evening and weekend hours?

In-person classes offer face-to-face interaction with both your fellow students and your expert instructor. This collaborative environment is available for both full-time and part-time classes and provides structure and accountability, two things that can help you succeed. Online courses may lack in-person interaction but make up for it with increased flexibility. Live online classes still offer instant feedback from your instructor and interactions with other students, while on-demand virtual courses allow for the most flexibility since you can decide where and when you learn.

The good news is that, no matter which option you choose, you can obtain a quality education with a top-notch curriculum and expert instructors.

Can I Learn Photoshop Free Online?

Technically, it is possible to learn Photoshop for free online. YouTube videos, blogs, and free short workshops can all be a great way to learn the basics without investing financially. But when it comes to more advanced skills, an in-depth training course is going to be your best option. These courses will contain a curriculum developed and taught by experts and offer you the chance to receive feedback or troubleshoot any issues with your instructor or a support team. Formal training can also provide the structure and accountability that some students need to stay focused, creating an environment where you’re more likely to succeed. So, if you’re looking to master more than just the basics, a formal course or class is a better choice than free online resources.

What Should I Learn Alongside Photoshop?

As previously mentioned, Photoshop is a part of the Adobe Creative Cloud of products, so learning the other software programs within the suite would be extremely advantageous. Taking the time to learn programs that complement Photoshop, like Adobe XD, InDesign, Illustrator, and After Effects, is highly recommended. Your skills across all the Adobe software can build upon each other, helping you to create a vast array of various digital and print products.

Additionally, Adobe offers a suite of products that incorporate artificial intelligence (AI): Sensei, Firefly, and Sensei GenAI, which could be a useful next step. Incorporating AI into workflows is the current new frontier, so being on top of integrating AI can help improve your Photoshop skills.

Industries That Use Photoshop

The Houston-Pasadena region is home to a whopping 7.5 million people. The city’s most noteworthy claim is its connection to space exploration, but it is also home to many other exciting industries. The top ones are outlined in the sections below, and each has promising opportunities available for Photoshop professionals.

Gas and Energy

Known as the Energy Capital of the World, many oil companies, refineries, and petrochemical plants are based in Houston, employing nearly a third of the nation's jobs in oil and gas extraction. The city is home to over 5,000 energy companies, including 17 Fortune 500 companies, 600 exploration and production firms, and 13 of the country's largest natural gas transmission companies. Companies with significant operations in Houston include ExxonMobil, Chevron, Hess, Shell, BP, BHP Billiton, and CITGO. Plus, the region boasts 10 refineries that process 45.4% of Texas's crude oil and 14.3% of the nation's.

Life Sciences and Biotechnology

Houston has more than 1,100 established life sciences and biotechnology companies, as well as several cutting-edge healthcare facilities and research institutions. Together, the healthcare and life sciences industries in the city employ over 394,500 professionals. And when you combine that with a high concentration of key scientists and funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Houston is arguably one of the largest centers of medicine and related science in the world.

Digital Technology and Innovation

Not to be outdone by the other industries in the region, Houston boasts a tech workforce of over 230,800. Large digital companies like Amazon, IBM, and Intel all have Houston locations and help to contribute to the $1.6 billion impact that the tech industries have on the local economy. An attractive region for startups and digital tech firms for years, Houston has recently begun to emerge as a prominent emerging tech hub, joining the likes of San Francisco and Austin as a major player and a center of activity for the upcoming generations of innovators and entrepreneurs.

Aerospace and Engineering

Arguably what the city is most known for, Houston is home to the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC), which has provided mission control and astronaut training for every U.S. crewed spaceflight—Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, Space Shuttle, International Space Station, and now Artemis. Additionally, the Houston Airport System (HAS) serves over 60 million passengers per year and has direct flights to 193 destinations globally from two international airports. When you consider all of this, it’s no surprise that Houston employs over 23,000 professionals across both aerospace and aviation.

Photoshop Job Titles and Salaries

Photoshop is used in a variety of industries and fields and is a useful tool for countless professions. Adobe Photoshop has an estimated 23 million users per month, and over 90% of creative professionals across the globe use Adobe Photoshop. And, with creative professionals existing in almost every industry, there are plenty of job opportunities available for experts in the software. A few of the positions that most commonly use Photoshop are listed below so that you can start to get an idea of the types of roles you could pursue.

Graphic Design

As a Graphic Designer, you would use graphics, text, colors, and animations to develop branding, advertising, and messaging. Graphic Designers often use Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator in their daily work, so it’s a good idea to become certified in these two applications. The average salary for a Graphic Designer in Houston is around $60,000 for those relatively new to the field.

Photographer

Perhaps the most obvious profession to require Photoshop skills, Photographers rely on the software to help them produce final images that will wow their clientele. From family portraits to weddings to product shots for businesses, Photographers can work in a variety of fields. (Some may even also do videography, which Adobe’s suite of products can help with, too.) Estimating the salary range for a Photographer is a little tricky as they tend to be self-employed, but you can see hourly rates ranging from $45–$100 listed on job postings on Indeed.com.

Social Media Strategist

Another job title is Social Media Strategist, where you would spend your days designing social media blueprints, creating content, and managing client or company accounts. As a Social Media Strategist, you would be responsible for sourcing or generating the images needed for posts on applications like Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and more. Photoshop would be your primary tool for editing, finalizing, and formatting those images for each specific platform. You can expect to make anywhere from $65,000 in this role and could eventually progress to a Social Media Manager position.

Production Artist

A Production Artist uses computer software to design and develop graphics and artwork for products, advertisements, and promotional materials. In this role, you would work with art directors, graphic designers, and other design teams to ensure that creative designs are executed for a variety of applications. The average salary for this role is on par with a Social Media Strategist, coming in right at $65,000.

Photoshop Classes Near Me

Adobe Photoshop 101

Ledet Training offers Adobe Photoshop 101, a two-day in-person course that’s ideal for beginners. With the help of an expert instructor, you'll learn the Photoshop interface and how to properly set up a system for professional-quality image editing. You’ll then dive into real-world workflows that pros use for efficient photo retouching, repair, and publishing, and practice working with layers, masks, channels, and typography to gain all the skills you need to create amazing image effects. Ledet courses are also offered online to accommodate those who can’t take advantage of an on-site offering.

Adobe Photoshop Bootcamp

Also held live online through Noble Desktop, this bootcamp course focuses solely on developing your skills within Adobe Photoshop. You’ll master removing unwanted elements from photos, making selections, and saving files for print or web. You’ll also get familiar with the more minute details of the software, like adjusting color and contrast, removing unwanted elements from photos, making selections to work with specific parts of an image, and taking part of one photo and putting it into another. Through project-based training from experts, you’ll walk away from this course confident in your skills and with a portfolio of work in hand.

This course includes a free retake, a proprietary workbook, and a verified digital certificate upon completion. Payment plans and financial assistance are available upon request.

Graphic Design Certificate

While not offered in-person in Houston, this in-depth Noble Desktop course still offers face-to-face interaction through its live online format. This three-month part-time (or one-month full-time) training offers hands-on experience in Adobe Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator, three essential programs for Graphic Designers. You’ll learn to edit and retouch photos in Photoshop, create vector graphics in Illustrator, and design page layouts in InDesign. Throughout the course, you’ll create a stunning portfolio to showcase your talent to potential employers or clients.

Tuition for this course includes one-on-one mentoring, setup assistance, and a free retake. Payment plans and other forms of financial assistance are available for those who need it.

Photoshop Corporate Training

If you’re looking to offer in-person or online training to your office or team, Noble Desktop can help. They offer a variety of corporate training programs, including in Photoshop. You can order vouchers in bulk at a discount, choose which courses are available to employees, and even let your employees choose their own schedule. Plus, you can choose to have your training hosted at a location of your choosing, live online, or at Noble Desktop’s Manhattan office.

With a top-notch customizable curriculum and instructors who are experts in their fields, Noble Desktop’s corporate training is designed to cater to your business or organization’s needs. For more information or to schedule a free consultation, you can reach out to Noble Desktop at corporate@nobledesktop.com.

Author Bio

Kelsey Kissner is a writer with over a decade of experience in publishing and marketing. She has an MA in creative writing, a BA in English, and works as a digital marketing writer. She has written articles on language courses, graphic design, social media marketing, and a variety of other artistic endeavors.