Photoshop and Graphic Design

Adobe Photoshop is all about image manipulationstarting with raw photographic material (or even from scratch) and creating something unique. Artists often use Photoshop as a sort of digital brush that can be used for photo-realistic imagesimages that look real but aren'tor fantastic, surreal digital effects.

For graphic and Web designers, it is even more indispensable. The odd thing is that when Photoshop is handled by a professional, its use goes mostly undetected. Think about every photographic image you encounter in your busy day: in catalogs and glossy magazine ads, on Web sites and book covers. If those images grabbed your attention and enhanced the message, they most likely had work done on them in Photoshop.

Figure 2.2. High-impact graphic concepts are the hallmark of Photoshop, as shown on the cover of Photoshop User magazine.

How does Photoshop fit into the graphic design process? In a design agency, conceptual development comes first, digital imaging second. On an ad campaign, a creative director will meet with designers and copywriters and brainstorm a strong visual idea. If a photographic image is required, the designer may obtain images from a stock photography company, hire a photographer, or even conduct the shoot herself. Only afterward will the image be imported into Photoshop for editing.

Figure 2.3. Photoshop projects start with a conceptwhat if your instructor were an appetizer?

And then what? Well, the sky's the limit. Sheer flexibility as a photo-retouching tool is what gave Photoshop its name. You can change the lighting in an image, adjust its sharpness, modify colors, change backgrounds, and even compile multiple photos into a single, seamless image via a process called compositing. Then, embellish to your heart's content, using a variety of painting and drawing tools, effects, and filters.

One caution: Just because you can doesn't mean that you should. It's important for design students to realize that endless tweaking in Photoshop does not equal good design. In fact, Photoshop is used mostly to eliminate distracting detailto produce a simpler, clearer, more powerful, or more appropriate visual. Less is more, remember?

Figure 2.4. Less is more. Most projects are about clarifying a message by bringing out essentials and removing unnecessary detail.

Proficiency in Photoshop should be an essential goal for any design student. So many computer users are familiar with Photoshop to some degree that graphic designers must attain a high level of expertise to stand out professionally. A fluent designer can recognize the graphic potential in any bitmap image (or part of an image), manipulate it at will, and take care of the details so that the viewer is convinced or even fooled.