How Photoshop changed Photography

In the past, you had to be very patient as a digital photographer. If you wanted to catch something spectacular you had to carry your camera with you everywhere until you saw something special. To capture a sunrise you had to get up at the crack of dawn. Models had to spend hours in the makeup room and studios had to be well lit. But all this changed instantly with the invention of Photoshop.

Photoshop has changed the history of digital photography. Nowadays, when you look at an amazing photo or image your first impression is still “Wow!” but your immediate second thought is that “It has to be photoshopped!” When you think of everything Photoshop did to change the game of photography, it’s pretty insane.

The most significant effect Photoshop has had on us is how we see our world. Digital artists and manipulators know how to take an ordinary photograph and turn it into something completely different and extraordinary. They give you a new perspective on the world.

Photoshop has also revolutionized the world of advertising. Advertising has changed forever due to image manipulation. You can’t look through a magazine without seeing dozens of photoshopped ads and marveling at them and the thought and feeling that they provoke. It has even changed our image of what the perfect person looks like. With models and celebrities – most notably – we have seen Photoshop go into every magazine cover and spread in modern existence. Undeniably, the effects are beautiful and breathtaking, but they are not real.

Perhaps, though, the most amazing feat of Photoshop is that it makes our fantasies reality. It puts into a photograph a fantasy, one that we might not actually be able to capture in real life, and gives us our wildest dreams as if it truly exists.