If you’re an aspiring graphic designer, photographer, social media professional, architect, cartoonist, or just want to have fun with Adobe Photoshop, this is the article for you!
Photoshop makes it easy to manipulate photos and create and edit professional-grade graphics that can be used to grow your personal or professional brand. Additionally, it is compatible with Adobe Illustrator and Adobe InDesign, so transferring photos and graphics between the platforms is easy.
No matter your aspirations or intentions, we have put together this list of affordable online courses to get you started quickly.
Here are our handpicked online courses for those who want to learn Photoshop.
Introductory Courses in Photoshop
1. Adobe Photoshop CC: The Complete Guide
Adobe Photoshop CC: The Complete Guide is a foundational course taught by Ben Willmore, a renowned Photoshop expert. While no prior knowledge of Photoshop is needed to take this course, even those with an advanced understanding of the platform will walk away from this course knowing something new. Specifically, those who take this course can expect to learn how to layer masks, blend modes, use filters to fix problems, adjust colors, and much more!
- College credits: NO
- Price: $169 on sale ($199 regular price), or $25 a month for the Creator Pass
- Financial aid or scholarships: NO
- Mobile learning: YES
- Self-paced learning: YES
- Flexible deadlines: YES
- Time needed for completion: 21 classes ranging from 21 minutes, 50 seconds to 1 hour, 40 minutes
- Languages: English
- Vendor: CreativeLive
Note: Prices for all courses listed in this article are true on the date of publishing, but are subject to change.
2. Adobe Photoshop CC Bootcamp
Adobe Photoshop CC Bootcamp, taught by Blake Rudis, covers all you need to know to enhance your images using Photoshop. The course starts with rudimentary information, such as how to set up and use the elementary tools on the platform. But in the second half of the course, you’ll have the opportunity to “dig in deep” and learn about layers, selections, filters, masks, and more.
- College credits: NO
- Price: $99 on sale ($199 regular price), or $25 a month for the Creator Pass
- Financial aid or scholarships: NO
- Mobile learning: YES
- Self-paced learning: YES
- Flexible deadlines: YES
- Time needed for completion: 118 lessons ranging from 4 minutes, 1 seconds to 27 minutes, 56 seconds
- Languages: English
- Vendor: CreativeLive
3. Ultimate Photoshop Training: From Beginner to Pro
As the bestselling Photoshop course on Udemy, “Ultimate Photoshop Training: From Beginner to Pro” will teach you everything you need to know to create beautiful images and graphics on the platform. In addition to learning skills that will be useful for graphic design, such as how to create icons, business cards, illustrations, and characters, you will walk away from this course knowing all of the Photoshop tricks, including how remove people and objects from photos and how to clean up imperfections in photos, among other things.
- College credits: NO — Certificate of Completion only
- Price: $9.99 on sale ($199.99 regular price)
- Financial aid or scholarships: NO
- Mobile learning: YES
- Self-paced learning: YES
- Flexible deadlines: YES
- Time needed for completion: 13 hours
- Languages: English with subtitles in English, Indonesian, Italian, Polish, Portugese, Romanian, and Spanish
- Vendor: Udemy
4. Adobe Photoshop CC — Essentials Training Course
For a beginner course, this Photoshop Essentials Training Course is extremely thorough. No prior knowledge is needed to take it, but students will leave with an understanding of how to create posters, resize images, change eye and hair colors, fix colors, create social media post images, and more. Additionally, in this course, you will be taught how to start earning money from your Photoshop skills.
- College credits: NO — Certificate of Completion only
- Price: $9.99 on sale ($199.99 regular price)
- Financial aid or scholarships: NO
- Mobile learning: YES
- Self-paced learning: YES
- Flexible deadlines: YES
- Time needed for completion: 8 hours, 30 minutes
- Languages: English with English subtitles
- Vendor: Udemy
5. Photoshop Beginners Mastery: Zero to Hero in Photoshop
This is one of the most popular Photoshop courses on Udemy with nearly 213,000 students already. It is the perfect course for those who are just starting off in Photoshop and wish to learn about the many tools the platform has to offer. The instructor starts the course off by going over basic Photoshop functions, such as how to crop images and work with multiple images at one time. But later on in the course, the instructor gets into more advanced topics, including how to layer images and correct color and lighting.
- College credits: NO — Certificate of Completion only
- Price: $9.99 on sale ($49.99 regular price)
- Financial aid or scholarships: NO
- Mobile learning: YES
- Self-paced learning: YES
- Flexible deadlines: YES
- Time needed for completion: 2 hours, 30 minutes
- Languages: English with English subtitles
- Vendor: Udemy
6. Learn Adobe Photoshop from Scratch
This course is unique in that it starts out with an introduction to basic design — making it especially useful for any aspiring graphic designers out there. Upon completion, those who take this course can expect to learn photo correction techniques, how to use different manipulation and creation tools, how to include effects, and more.
- College credits: NO — Certificate of Completion only
- Price: $9.99 on sale ($19.99 regular price)
- Financial aid or scholarships: NO
- Mobile learning: YES
- Self-paced learning: YES
- Flexible deadlines: YES
- Time needed for completion: 13 hours
- Languages: English with English subtitles
- Vendor: Udemy
7. Photoshop CC Fundamentals
In this elementary course, you’ll learn the basics of Adobe Photoshop, so you can use the platform to create images and graphic artwork. Specifically, in this course, you can expect to learn how to perform “key image editing tasks,” such as retouching, sharpening, and color correction. You’ll also leave the course with an understanding of how to work with layers, blend modes, masks, and more.
- College credits: NO — Certificate only
- Price: 10-day free trial and then $35 billed monthly or $299 billed annually for Personal plan; $449 billed annually for Premium plan
- Financial aid or scholarships: NO
- Mobile learning: YES
- Self-paced learning: YES
- Flexible deadlines: YES
- Time needed for completion: 6 hours, 39 minutes
- Languages: English
- Vendor: Pluralsight
8. Photoshop CC Beginner
This Photoshop CC Beginner course will teach you the fundamentals of Adobe Photoshop. After taking this class, you will understand how to work with colors, filters, and effects on Photoshop, and you’ll have the knowledge needed to retouch images and create quality graphic design projects.
- College credits: NO — Certificate only
- Price: 7-day free trial and then subscriptions are $39.99 a month on sale (typically $44.99 a month)
- Financial aid or scholarships: NO
- Mobile learning: YES
- Self-paced learning: YES
- Flexible deadlines: YES
- Time needed for completion: 2 hours
- Language: English
- Vendor: QuickStart
Advanced Courses in Photoshop
9. Photoshop CC Intermediate
This Photoshop CC Intermediate course follows in line with QuickStart’s “Photoshop CC Beginner” course (listed above). The beginner course laid down the basics, but in this course, you’ll be taught in-depth information about the tools needed to correct images and how to effectively use masks and channels.
- College credits: NO — Certificate only
- Price: 7-day free trial and then subscriptions are $39.99 a month on sale (typically $44.99 a month)
- Financial aid or scholarships: NO
- Mobile learning: YES
- Self-paced learning: YES
- Flexible deadlines: YES
- Time needed for completion: 2 hours
- Language: English
- Vendor: QuickStart
10. Photoshop CC Advanced
Photoshop CC Advanced follows in line after Quickstart’s “Photoshop CC Intermediate” course (listed above). After completing this final 1-hour course, you’ll have an advanced understanding of Photoshop, and know everything you need to effectively create and edit photos and graphics on the most recent version of the platform.
- College credits: NO — Certificate only
- Price: 7-day free trial and then subscriptions are $39.99 a month on sale (typically $44.99 a month)
- Financial aid or scholarships: NO
- Mobile learning: YES
- Self-paced learning: YES
- Flexible deadlines: YES
- Time needed for completion: 1 hour
- Language: English
- Vendor: QuickStart
11. Adobe Photoshop CC — Advanced Training Course
Before taking this advanced Photoshop course, you should absolutely have a basic understanding of Photoshop. As soon as you jump in to the course, you will have the opportunity to learn advanced skills, such as how to retouch skin, make an ugly sky blue, remove objects from an image, create “amazingly realistic” shadows, change the colors of a flower, and more.
- College credits: NO — Certificate of Completion only
- Price: $9.99 on sale ($199.99 regular price)
- Financial aid or scholarships: NO
- Mobile learning: YES
- Self-paced learning: YES
- Flexible deadlines: YES
- Time needed for completion: 13 hours, 30 minutes
- Languages: English with English and Italian subtitles
- Vendor: Udemy
Specialty Courses in Photoshop
12. Retouching & Adobe Photoshop Techniques
This 28-lesson course is designed to teach you the techniques to retouch images “to perfection.” Specifically, those who take this course will leave it with an understanding of how to retouch skin, whiten teeth, reshape body features, add makeup to images, and much more. Lindsay Adler, a professional photographer and course instructor, will also include a couple of videos of live shoots and retouches, so you can see how a professional completes the process from start to finish.
- College credits: NO
- Price: $41 on sale ($49 regular price), or $25 a month for the Creator Pass
- Financial aid or scholarships: NO
- Mobile learning: YES
- Self-paced learning: YES
- Flexible deadlines: YES
- Time needed for completion: 28 lessons ranging from 8 minutes, 13 seconds to 1 hour, 10 minutes
- Languages: English
- Vendor: CreativeLive
13. 5 Tools that Improve Your Creativity in Photoshop
In this course, professional photographer and instructor Lindsay Adler will give you the inside scoop on some of her favorite tools for “improving creativity” in Photoshop. Specifically, you will learn about blend modes, color adjustment tools, brushes, and more. Adler uses some of these vary tools for her professional photography.
- College credits: NO
- Price: $24 on sale ($29 regular price), or $25 a month for the Creator Pass
- Financial aid or scholarships: NO
- Mobile learning: YES
- Self-paced learning: YES
- Flexible deadlines: YES
- Time needed for completion: 1 hour, 23 minutes
- Languages: English
- Vendor: CreativeLive
14. Professional Retouching Course in Photoshop
This course will give you in-depth instruction on how to retouch any image using Photoshop. The instructor will walk you through how to work with masks, do color grading, work with shadows, and more, so you can effectively improve all types of images, including those of people and the outdoors. The best part is, the instructor will provide you with high quality raw images, so you can follow along and practice on your own.
- College credits: NO — Certificate of Completion only
- Price: $9.99 on sale ($199.99 regular price)
- Financial aid or scholarships: NO
- Mobile learning: YES
- Self-paced learning: YES
- Flexible deadlines: YES
- Time needed for completion: 7 hours, 30 minutes
- Languages: English with English, Italian, Portugese, and Spanish subtitles
- Vendor: Udemy
15. Learn Photoshop, Web Design & Profitable Freelancing
This course, which includes over 165 lessons, will teach you everything you need to know to create websites using Photoshop and work as a freelancer from your home. In over 22 hours of video, the instructor will teach you how to effectively use Photoshop, talk to clients, get “more projects than you can handle,” and develop a reliable source of income through your Photoshop projects.
- College credits: NO — Certificate of Completion only
- Price: $9.99 on sale ($199.99 regular price)
- Financial aid or scholarships: NO
- Mobile learning: YES
- Self-paced learning: YES
- Flexible deadlines: YES
- Time needed for completion: 22 hours, 30 minutes
- Languages: English with English subtitles
- Vendor: Udemy
16. Photoshop for Photographers: The Essentials
This course is perfect for aspiring photographers who want to learn how to edit and enhance their images through Photoshop, hence the name. Instructor Ben Willmore will teach you about optimizing images, sharpening, retouching, black and white conversion, directing the viewer’s eye, and more.
- College credits: NO
- Price: $24 on sale ($29 regular price), or $25 a month for the Creator Pass
- Financial aid or scholarships: NO
- Mobile learning: YES
- Self-paced learning: YES
- Flexible deadlines: YES
- Time needed for completion: 1 hour, 23 minutes
- Languages: English
- Vendor: CreativeLive
17. Photoshop Visualization for Architects
Photoshop can be very useful outside of the graphic design and photography worlds, and in this course, you will learn how to use the platform to create architectural images. Specifically, in this 5-lesson course, the instructor will walk you through how to import and export images from 3D-modeling software into Photoshop. By doing so, you will be able to enhance your model and create beautiful background imagery that will bring your architectural design to life.
- College credits: NO — Certificate of Completion only
- Price: $9.99 on sale ($34.99 regular price)
- Financial aid or scholarships: NO
- Mobile learning: YES
- Self-paced learning: YES
- Flexible deadlines: YES
- Time needed for completion: 1 hour, 30 minutes
- Languages: English with English subtitles
- Vendor: Udemy
18. Learn Digital Color with Photoshop
This course is specifically designed for those interested in learning the basics of comic book coloring with Photoshop. Specifically, those who take this class will learn how to set up line art for coloring, change the color of line art, render light and shadow, add special effects and textures, and more. Additionally, the instructor will explain what colorists are and how to enter the professional field of comic book coloring.
- College credits: NO — Certificate of Completion only
- Price: $9.99 on sale ($49.99 regular price)
- Financial aid or scholarships: NO
- Mobile learning: YES
- Self-paced learning: YES
- Flexible deadlines: YES
- Time needed for completion: 3 hours, 30 minutes
- Languages: English with English subtitles
- Vendor: Udemy
For more online courses, check TUN’s list of curated classes, or use the online classes search engine to find the best online courses in any subject.