Photoshop is the industry standard program for editing, improving, and manipulating images and photography. It also allows you to redesign graphics, paint digital art, and even make animations, and is being used by people in a growing number of industries. What’s more, a growing number of people are learning to use it for their own personal photos.
But as powerful and widely-used as this program is, it isn’t really the easiest to teach yourself. (If you've ever tried, you probably know what we mean.) That’s why online courses are so useful: they’ll walk you step-by-step through everything the software can do so that you feel confident using it at home or at work.
What to look for in a Photoshop course
When choosing a course, there are a few factors to consider:
Is this class for beginners, pros or both?
How comprehensive is it?
Does it have a good instructor?
Does it provide practice files?
Generally, the longer the course is, the more comprehensive it will be. Many of the longer courses will also cover the basics, such as how to open and save files, whereas some other course offerings may assume a baseline of familiarity. If you’re a true novice, it is very important that you pick a course that is geared for your learning needs.
It goes without saying that a good course will have a good instructor, one who can break down complicated features and make them easy to understand. They also won’t rush through the material. It’s also helpful if the instructor provides sample materials or exercises so that you can try the features out yourself.
Price is also, of course, a factor, but the good news is that lots of courses are available for free or low-cost, especially if you’re willing to guide yourself through tutorials.
Best Free Option
As the creator of Photoshop, Adobe offers perhaps one of the best overviews of how to use their product, especially the basics and most commonly-used features, such as layering. The more advanced tutorials offer downloadable assets so you can replicate what you learn. However, the lessons are self-led, so you're more on your own than you would be with some courses.
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Most Comprehensive Beginner Course
Whether you want to learn how to cut a photo of a person away from a background, repair photos, remove objects, or design your own business cards, this Photoshop course will cover it — and more.
The course is instructor-led and aimed at beginners, rather than intermediate or advanced users. It is designed to give a comprehensive overview so that students leave the course feeling confident in their ability to use the software, and it also includes homework and practice activities.
Udemy reviewer Elizabeth Willmott writes:
“I was an absolute beginner at Photoshop and now I feel like I have a very good grasp of all the different aspects. The hands-on approach throughout the course really helped the information stick in my head as well as it being fun and engaging. Chris was very quick in replying to questions and gave very encouraging feedback and constructive criticism. All-in-all a very worthwhile course…”
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Best Advanced Course
Whether you’ve just completed a beginner course or you’ve been using Photoshop for a while and want to get more efficient with your work, this class is for you.
It will go over selection techniques, hard-to-fix images, image enlargement, removing objects, and current trending visual styles. It will also cover video editing in Photoshop and animation.
This course requires Skillshare Premium, which offers two months free and $15/month or $99/year after that, and offers access to tons of courses beyond this one.
The instructor is also one of the most beloved on Skillshare.
SkillShare reviewer Daniel Vialet writes:
“LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this class. Dan is my favorite instructor....”
And Skillshare reviewer Brian Norris writes:
“...Thank you Dan for putting together a concise and elegant video series that helped not only add better understanding to things I already knew but also advanced my knowledge and desire to learn more. Extremely grateful to have found your tutorials. I will most certainly be using your resources as I continue to work on improving my skills.”
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Best For Photographers
Broken up into 30 lessons over 30 days, this course is made up of several tutorials led by an instructor, and it's designed with photographers in mind. It will cover Photoshop’s most important tools, techniques, and skills, including how to work in layers, how to color correct, how to retouch flaws, and how to swap out backgrounds. It will also cover image resizing, cropping, and image file types.
Best of all, the whole tutorial is free! All you need to do is provide your email and you’ll get sample images to follow along, as well as a printable calendar to track your progress.
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Best Crash Course
Not everyone has the time to invest eight to 10 (or more) hours in learning Photoshop, so if you’re looking for a course that will get you up to speed quickly, this is the one for you. It will cover customizing workspaces, cropping and resizing, layers, masking, and blending in just three hours.
The course is also available in a number of languages, making it ideal for international students, and all the video content is supported by articles to explain things in more detail. Don't let the price tag scare you away — Udemy's courses are frequently deeply discounted.
Udemy reviewer Amandeep writes:
“First time using Photoshop and had zero experience. This course was awesome and really helped you gain a good understanding of the tools and how they apply in different situations. I feel so much more confident using the program now. Great job!”
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Best Basic Course
This course will help you learn everything from opening and viewing files to applying smart filters and working with layer effects. It is taught by an instructor known for her clear and well-paced lesson plans and includes exercise files for practicing. It's part of LinkedIn’s built-in learning platform, which costs $29.99/month after a one-month free trial, and includes access to lots of courses.
The biggest drawback to this program is that it is likely too basic if you have any prior experience using this software.
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Best For All Levels
With over 25 hours of content and a well-reviewed instructor, this course is one of the most comprehensive available. What makes it stand out is that it works for all levels, from beginners who want to learn everything to more experienced users who want to improve their skills. It includes anything and everything you might want to know about the software.
Once purchased, the course is available to you for life so you can retake it (or parts of it) as many times as you want or need if you forget something. It is also available for streaming on both desktop and mobile devices and includes offline sync.
Creative Live reviewer Mary writes:
“Ben Willmore is exceptionally and intimately knowledgeable about Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom, including Bridge and Camera Raw, and how they work together. He's also a wonderful photographer. That's great, but what's even better for us is that he's an incredible and generous teacher. He shares his knowledge and experience in an organized, thorough, thoughtful and relatable way. I envy his efficiency with words and ideas! He isolates hard-to-understand concepts - things we'd be unlikely to figure out on our own - and explains them in simple terms and with on point and memorable examples....”
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