Almost all web or graphic designers uses Photoshop since it is the most essential tool for their profession. Nowadays you will get Photoshop online free and thus everybody can use it even without spending any money but just like all other software this software also has certain pros and cons. Hence, before you go for this software it is always advisable to know both its advantages and disadvantages. That is the reason why in this article we have come up with both pros and cons of Photoshop so that you can easily understand whether it will be useful for you or not.
Pros of Photoshop
The following are some advantages of Photoshop:
- Advanced features for photographs: In photoshop you will get complete control that you need for working on the photography. With the help of Photoshop, a designer can do various things such as he can whiten teeth, straighten hair, removes wrinkles from the face, etc. Again you can also brighten the skin tone and enhance the eyes of the subject. In Photoshop you will get a number of techniques such as spot healing, frequency separation, Dodge and Burn, etc. If you want to enhance the skin of the subject then you will need the Frequency separation feature of Photoshop. Again you will need to use Dodge and Burn whenever you need to increase or decrease the exposure of the image.
- Professional color grading: In Photoshop, there is a Camera RAW plug-in. It is a simplified version of Lightroom CC and it enables the designer to edit all kinds of RAW file formats which support both TIFFs as well as JPEGs. This version of Photoshop also comes up with several useful options such as curves, saturation, HSL, exposure, etc. The biggest advantage of the Camera RAW plug-in is that it can keep the original image intact.
- Advanced Layer: Photoshop comes up with several layers such as type layer, the image layer, layer mask, adjustment layer, smart filter, smart object, etc. You can do a number of manipulations as per your requirement in Photoshop. Features like a Layer mask are used for making any kind of changes in a separate part of the image. Apart from that, it is also possible to create a complex combination of images from two or more images. The best thing is that the designer will be able to edit the image separately.
Cons of Photoshop
Though Photoshop is very useful graphic software, it is not without any disadvantages. Some of the main disadvantages of Photoshop are given as follows:
- Complicated learning curve: Photoshop is never an easy program and even the experienced designer gets it difficult to work with.
- Not suitable for the batch work: Though Photoshop is a good graphic software it is not suitable for those designers who need to work with hundreds of images every day. It becomes difficult to open several photos and edit each of the photographs individually.
- It is not cheap: Photoshop charges a monthly subscription of $9.99 per month if you want to take full access to it. Though you will a free version online you will not get full access to it. Hence it is not possible for everyone to work with it.
- Incomplete updates or untested Beta Version: The biggest disadvantage of Photoshop is that it does not have any final updates. That is the reason why it is observed that users of Photoshop usually get regular updates which are very annoying.
Thus after knowing both the pros and cons of Photoshop it becomes good for the designer to make a decision of whether to get access to it or not. There are various things that you can do with Photoshop. The good thing is that there are several versions of Photoshop such as Photoshop Lightroom, Photoshop CC, Photoshop Express, Photoshop Elements and you can choose anyone you require. There is no doubt that web or graphic designer is very useful for a web or graphic designer. Once you have come to know all the features and the pros and cons of Photoshop it becomes easier for the designer to understand the things that he becomes able to do with this software.