Got Adobe Photoshop, Then Use It

Oct

2011

Got Photoshop, Then Use It

As a web or a graphic designer you don’t need to use Photoshop, there are many other cool editors which can be your weapon of choice. I write often about Adobe Fireworks and Illustrator but I use Photoshop just as well. I use Photoshop for what it is the best and that is photo editing and manipulation. For prototyping and making mockups in my opinion Fireworks rules but some things are missing and than Photoshop comes to rescue.

Image Extraction

One of the common tasks every designer faces with is removing background and extracting specific part of the image. Two most common approaches is either by using knife tool or using image channels. Fireworks does not have channels so Photoshop comes pretty handy.

In addition content-aware option which came with CS5 is really great.

Image Enhancements

Although Fireworks comes with image levels and curves it seems that in Photoshop it just works much better. Curves and levels are essential in making specific part of the image stand out or emphasize it.

Brush Tool

Brush tool in Fireworks is really stupid. I have been waiting for Fireworks developers to make brush tool better for years but that is just not happening. So if you want the brush use Photoshop. Photoshop brush is just great (btw Adobe Illustrator brush is just as good).

Great Filters

There are many filters in Photoshop that are really awesome and useful, I am talking about built-in (out-of-the box) filters, of course there are many so called third party filters. So sometimes I do one part of the task in Photoshop and other in Fireworks. Like making cool page background in Photoshop and finishing up the page look in Fireworks for example.

Of course Photoshop possibilities are endless these are just few things I like using it for. I don’t tell you now to go and buy Photoshop just if you already have it as a part of a Creative Suite or have access to it (company that you work for has a license for it) go ahead and use it. It can do miracles and after all it is like many designers like to say “industry standard”.