5 ways Photoshop can help you create anything you can imagine

You may think you need to be a pro to know your way around Adobe Photoshop, but it’s high time to squash those rumors. Photoshop capabilities are endless, and it’s time to push past that perceived barrier and try it out for yourself. The skills you use to post on social media are more than enough to get started and take your creative pursuits up a notch.

Photoshop is more accessible than ever before, thanks in part to an ever-evolving collection of tutorials. No design background necessary — only the willingness to imagine something that hasn’t yet been created. Best of all, the results will always look polished and customized, and you’ll feel empowered when you can quickly bring your ideas to life. No matter where you sit on your company’s org chart, you have the tools and know-how to turn out the creative assets of your dreams. Unsure exactly of what those possibilities include? The answer is infinite, but let’s start with five.

Reimagine Something Old: Colorize

Got photos from another era (as in, before the latest iPhone?) No problem. Thanks to the Colorize feature, you can revive heirloom photographs, digital camera pics, Polaroids and more. And it won’t just rely on your eye alone — the Colorize Neural Filter detects the best colors for your black-and-white photo. You can also add a splash of color and change specific hues in your images to make something completely unique. Picture it: modernize a vintage photo of your Nanna for the logo of your cookie company, or add color to your grandparents’ wedding cake in celebration of their anniversary.

Level Up Your Marketing Campaign: Remove Background

We all know that feeling of disappointment when a photo doesn’t turn out like you imagined. Maybe the weather didn’t cooperate, or your epic sunset shot fell a little flat. With Photoshop, you can easily restore the wow-factor by changing the background. Best of all, you won’t need technical training, a full-scale production team, or a big travel budget to execute on your vision. You can also layer multiple objects or backgrounds to create an entirely imagined backdrop.

Sharpen, remove objects and elements that detract from your message, and highlight the elements that you want in the final edit. With a few tweaks you can add a sunset or a dramatic waterfall. Put it into practice? How about adding snow capped mountains to the cover of your Holiday 2023 lookbook (that you actually shot in July). Done and done.

Upgrade your Social Presence: Content-Aware Fill

You don’t need to be a pro photog to make your photos pop. It’s quite commonplace to take advantage of apps or software to ensure your content gets the engagement you’re looking for.

Specifically in the digital universe, editing social media imagery is necessary to stay competitive in the market, showcase your projects, and attract new clientele — it’s become essential currency. And if your snaps look almost perfect, take advantage of the Content-Aware Fill feature. Through this tool, you can take out distracting elements or pare down objects that don’t align with your overall vision. Think: eliminate a passerby from the images you shot of your new clothing line. Now it looks like you blocked off the middle of Manhattan for a photoshoot.

Remix Different Assets: Add & Combine Layers

Every band knows that selling merch is a surefire way to get your name out there—and the same goes for your brand or small business. Avoid what’s been done before or rely on a template; instead, make original art through Photoshop. Combine multiple objects and quickly create a composite image that no one’s ever seen (a cat wearing a chef’s hat and enjoying sushi, perhaps?).

Whether it’s merch, your logo merged onto your product line, or layering images so that you don’t have to rent out an expensive space for a photoshoot—the possibilities are endless. The end result is artistic collateral that’s envied by all and worn with pride.

Get Input to Perfect Your Vision: Collaboration Tools

Sometimes your vision takes a village; in that case, Adobe makes it streamlined to invite collaborators into your process and eliminates hiccups in the creative flow. Collaborate easily with features like Share for Review to get feedback directly in the app and streamline your creative flow with comments attached directly to the project. There’s also the Invite to Edit feature which allows you to co-edit and comment on live cloud documents (encouraging conversation with lightning-fast response times) within the Photoshop app. The end result is a single hub for stakeholders to contribute, engage, and create, no matter where you are in the world.

Adobe may be celebrating our 40^th birthday this year, but we’re constantly rolling out new features so that you can create anywhere, on almost any device — and usability is our top priority. Rather than big budgets or a whole creative team, the only prerequisite to make your dreams a reality is to have the confidence that you CAN.

So, the only question is, what are you going to create?