Adobe Photoshop

This application is such a presence in the world of retouching that the world “photoshopped” has become a commonplace adjective to describe images that have been manipulated to the point of deception.

Ironically, Photoshop is not a photographers tool, but rather a universal, pixel-based image editing application. It’s used for many purposes, including illustration, animation, web design and preparation of web graphics. Because of its powerful tools however, Photoshop is easily capable of handling just about any photo retouching or color correction task.

This versatility however comes at a price. Photoshop is not an easy application to learn and master. It takes years to learn, and even then there are so many ways to accomplish the same goal that working with it can be daunting and inefficient. Fortunately, applications geared specifically to photographers needs have given healthy competition, and with the addition of the Camera Raw plugin, Bridge image browser and some photography-centric tools, Photoshop has evolved into the ultimate photographer’s tool.

With Photoshop, you can perform both non-destructive color adjustment and intensive layer-based pixel-level retouching and manipulation. The Adobe Camera Raw plugin works in a unique way to store its adjustments as metadata, and integrates tightly with Photoshop itself. Through the use of Smart Objects, filters, a once destructive process requiring duplicate “version” layers, can now be applied non-destructively. In fact, the Camera Raw settings themselves can be stored within a layered Photoshop file as a Smart Object layer, and additional filters applied to it non-destructively.

The highly flexible interface is built around a collection of tabbed panels which can be turned on or off, arranged and grouped at will. The Layers panel organizes and stores adjustment and pixel layers, which can be turned on or off at will, and combined using various blend modes. To make a simple change to the luminosity of an image you can use one of four different layers, Brightness/Contrast, Levels, Curves or Exposure. In addition, there are 15 different blend modes which will also effect luminosity. There are virtually infinite ways to manipulate an image, many of which are yet undocumented.

Photoshop also features a powerful scripting language, so that once you do find a combination of tools that gives you the results you’re looking for, you can turn turn them into an “action” that can be applied at the click of a button or touch of a key.

Bundled with the Bridge file browser, you can search, rate, sort, label, batch rename, and assign keywords to image files for complete control over your image library and workflow. There is no need to import images into a Library file as Bridge integrates tightly with you operating system and allows you to view your files in real time.

Photoshop is not for the faint of heart and the price of admission is high. But its power and flexibility are unmatched in the industry.