Adobe Photoshop – the application that changed the way photographers edit and enhance their images with a digital toolkit – is celebrating its 35th anniversary.
In 1990, Photoshop 1.0 was released and changed everything.
Photoshop providing an all-new approach to imaging and allowed creativity to run free.
Photoshop was created by Thomas and John Knoll and actually had its roots in Hollywood.
John Knoll would also go on to become the visual effects supervisor of the Star Wars prequel trilogy.
Photoshop started as a tool that could edit scanned images and has since evolved into the powerhouse it is today.
A pre-release version of Photoshop was used in James Cameron’s 1989 film The Abyss to help create a groundbreaking water sequence.
This paved the way for use in other films including Terminator 2: Judgment Day which utilised advanced features like layers and non-destructive editing.
Photoshop 3.0 officially introduced Layers which made it possible to separate and adjust elements of an image independently which changed the way we handled our digital workflows.
In 1998-99, Photoshop introduced the History Panel and Layer Effects.
By the late 90s Photoshop had become a household name and the term we used when discussing any kind of image alteration.
In the 2000s Photoshop continued to go from strength to strength with the introduction of Liquefy Images (2001) and Healing Brush Tool (2002).
In 2003 Adobe released the Creative Suite which included Photoshop with Illustrator and InDesign to transform our digital toolbox.
That same year, Adobe introduced Camera Raw which made it possible for photographers to edit raw files and preserve image quality.
In 2007, Adobe launched Lightroom – a companion application to make high quality edits.
In 2018 Adobe received an Academy Award. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded Photoshop with a Scientific and Engineering Award to honour its remarkable contribution and impact on filmmaking and digital effects.
A year later in 2019 we saw Photoshop come to the iPad and, in 2023, on the web.
Adobe Firefly was responsible for the launch of Generative Fill to generate images and video to extend existing images and clips.
And while Adobe is commemorating 35 years of Photoshop, it is not standing still.
In the years ahead we can expect even more innovation and new and amazing ways to empower digital creativity.
