Learn More About Photoshop Classes in Orlando
Adobe Photoshop is a software application used to edit, create, and enhance images, artwork, and illustrations. It is 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 visual elements within your composite.
Working with Color
Working with color involves two main things: hue and saturation.
- 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 mid-points, 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. 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 want 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 this in-person interaction, but they 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.
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 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.
Orlando Industries That Use Photoshop
Orlando’s various thriving industries and ever-growing economy make it the perfect place to study Photoshop. Below are some of the top industries in the region, each of which utilizes Photoshop experts in a variety of ways. Check out these industry options to get one step closer to your dream career.
Advanced Manufacturing
Centrally located in Florida, Orlando is one of the world’s few quinti-modal transportation centers, making transportation easily accessible by land, air, sea, rail, and even space. This makes it an ideal location for the advanced manufacturing industry. Over 2,400 advanced manufacturing companies, 115,000 manufacturing employees, and 6,000 annual graduates in related programs are all proof of the thriving manufacturing sector in the city.
Aerospace and Defense
Seven of the largest aerospace and defense firms on the Fortune 500 list have operations in or near Orlando, including major industry leaders such as Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, and L3Harris Technologies. The region is also home to some of Florida’s largest aerospace manufacturing operations, with companies like Siemens Energy and Collins Aerospace contributing to the area’s strong engineering and production capabilities. Over 76,000 tech workers call the city home, as does the nation’s top aerospace and defense workforce supplier, the University of Central Florida. It comes as no surprise that there are more than $6 billion worth of annual simulation-related contracts in the region, supported by organizations such as SAIC and Raytheon Technologies, which help drive innovation in modeling, training, and simulation.
Orlando is also a creative hub with a combination of industry and education contributing to the tech economy that supports not only the region’s massive theme park and attractions industry but also the expanding footprints of many other major corporations, including Lockheed Martin, Darden Restaurants, Siemens, and more. The city even has a 68-acre Creative Village that supports a high-tech cluster in downtown Orlando. Digital media coexists with almost every other major industry in the region, employing countless Photoshop professionals to help communicate brand identity and engage with customers through the medium of visual design.
Life Sciences and Healthcare
Orlando’s life sciences industry is home to groundbreaking medical advances, thanks in part to large health systems like AdventHealth and Orlando Health. More than 195,000 professionals are employed in the life sciences and healthcare sector, and major players like CVS and Walgreens call the region home.
Photoshop Job Titles and Salaries in Orlando
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 worldwide use it. 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 Designer
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 is a good idea to become certified in these two programs. The average salary for a Graphic Designer in Orlando is $60,000.
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 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 many tend to be self-employed, but Indeed estimates that the average yearly salary is $63,000.
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 platforms such as Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and others. Photoshop is a primary tool for editing, finalizing, and formatting those images for each specific platform. You can expect to make around $75,000 in this role in Orlando 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 in Orlando is $47,000.
Photoshop Classes in Orlando
Adobe Photoshop Bootcamp
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 adjusting color and contrast and working with layers and masks to isolate and manipulate specific parts of an image. 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
This in-depth Noble Desktop course 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 them.
Photoshop Corporate Training
If you are looking to offer in-person or online training to your office or team, Noble Desktop can help. It offers a variety of corporate training programs, including for 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. You can also host your training 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 industries, 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, reach out to Noble Desktop at corporate@nobledesktop.com.
Learn From Noble Desktop’s Experienced Adobe Photoshop Instructors in Orlando
A city bursting with innovation and energy, Orlando is becoming one of Florida’s most exciting places to build a career. Long recognized for its world-class tourism and entertainment industries, the city is now gaining a lot of traction in fields related to tech, data, business, and design. Industries like tech, entertainment, healthcare, and aerospace reign supreme, which means there are ample job and professional development opportunities. Start-ups, research institutes, and global corporations alike call Orlando home, creating countless opportunities for professionals eager to expand their skills and make a real impact. Photoshop is a powerful tool that allows users to create and edit images, graphics, and digital artwork. Learning Photoshop in Orlando is useful since the city's industries all rely on making a good impression through marketing and social media. Through Noble Desktop’s training from experienced instructors, you’ll be able to access the most updated industry-standard information that will help you get right to work in the field. This fast-growing region is worth exploring, and the new skills that you can learn in the region will help you get your foot in the door sooner and are beyond worthwhile.
Cheryl McCloud
Dr. Cheryl McCloud brings over 35 years of experience in global supply chain management, with expertise in transportation, inventory systems, trade compliance, and regulatory affairs. She’s earned a Bachelor’s in International Studies from Old Dominion University, along with an MBA in Project Management from DeVry University and a DBA in Global Supply Chain Management from Walden University. Throughout her career, Dr. McCloud has owned a global transportation business, served as a federal government contractor, and provided trade compliance oversight for various shippers. She currently teaches project management courses and, as a licensed U.S. Customs Broker, she also holds certifications in project management and federal maritime law.