15 Essential Photoshop Tutorials

If you find yourself needing to brush up on or learn some basic Adobe Photoshop skills, look no further. Start from the ground up or develop your skills, from our smash hit ‘PS for beginners’ course (10 million views and counting!) to creating epic effects. Here are our 15 essential Photoshop tutorials for designers.

Adobe Photoshop is one of the most popular graphic design programs on the market. First released in 1988, it has since become an industry mainstay and a go-to tool for image, graphic, and digital art creation and editing. It is used widely by creative professionals – from designers and photographers to web developers and marketers – for basic image editing and retouching, all the way through to creating mock-ups, designs, and adding bespoke effects. 

While it will serve you for simple actions and functions, Photoshop is still an incredibly complex and powerful design software. That said, it’s certainly not only for professionals. By getting familiar with the basics you’ll soon be on your way. Here’s how to get started with Photoshop:

Learn more about how to use Adobe Photoshop in this comprehensive Photoshop course exploring all the essential Photoshop tools and techniques.

For total beginners, those with a small amount of experience, or even seasoned professionals, self-learning Photoshop tutorials can help you complete specific tasks and generally improve your skills. And Envato Tuts+ is a learning hub full of free tutorials and courses, ready and waiting for you to tap into.

For a comprehensive but easy-to-digest overview, where better to start than with The A to Z of Adobe Photoshop? This guide breaks down the toolbar, panels, and the effects and tools within them.

If you’re more of a video learner, explore essential tools and techniques with this introduction for beginners. Hosted by Adobe certified instructor, Dan Scott, Photoshop for Beginners covers everything from changing color levels to manipulating images in just over three hours – but it’s split into bite-size, easy-to-navigate sections. 

100+ Great Photoshop Tutorials for Clever Beginners is a guide that does exactly what it says on the tin. With a huge range of tutorials and resources for Photoshop actions and tools, it also includes articles exploring careers in design and illustration for added inspiration.

Sometimes we come to tutorials with a specific task we need to master. If that’s the case, use How to Create a Cloud Effect in Photoshop to elevate your text, images or backgrounds.

Similarly, when you need some shine, pop and a little bit of ‘80s nostalgia for your project, How to Create a Realistic Neon Light Text Effect in Adobe Photoshop will tell you all you need to know. 

Using a stitch effect can be a playful approach for projects from fashion to kids and lifestyle products. Create your own denim texture, add stitching, and then apply it to text, shapes and logos with this step-by-step tutorial, How to Make a Photoshop Action to Create a Stitched Jeans Text Effect.

Sketch effects are an excellent way to bring illustration-style elements into your design while only using photographic images. Use How to Create a Sketch Effect Action in Adobe Photoshop for all the tips and tricks to achieving this look, even if you’ve never used Photoshop before.

Another way to take an image to a new level is to create a watercolor painting effect. The super detailed guide, How to Make Watercolor Effects in Photoshop, starts with a still-life of oranges and will leave you with the skills to use watercolor effects on any image you like.

Turn any image into an old-school style rubber stamp with this tutorial. How to Create a Rubber Stamp Effect in Adobe Photoshop takes you through with step-by-step written instructions or with a video if you prefer. 

If you need to knock together promotional material at short notice, How to Create a Music Poster Using Bitmap Mode in Photoshop will help you to create a music poster from scratch. (Although if you’d rather edit an existing design, there are plenty of music poster templates on Envato Elements.)

Channel ‘90s aesthetic and learn how to create a rave poster with How to Create a 90s Abstract Rave Poster in Adobe Photoshop. It takes you through how to customize text, colors and backgrounds quickly, and leaves you to experiment with different effects. 

To specifically tackle the Layer Mask tool, follow along with How to Create a Poster Using Layer Masks. In this tutorial you’ll learn how to create a poster that leads with bold text and seamlessly incorporates an image.

Get on top of your brush game with How to Make an Eyelash Brush in Photoshop. Learn how to create your own ink brush, a text ink wash brush, and how to use layer masks and gradient maps to bring it all together. 

Keep at the brush skills and learn how to create a galaxy brush Photoshop effect, with the sparkly tutorial How to Make a Galaxy Brush in Photoshop. You’ll learn to make galactic brushes and star brushes, as well as a space background.

How to Make a Hair Brush in Photoshop shows you how to create three different hair effect brushes (strand, curly and wavy), but will leave you with the skills to create as many as you like once you have the hang of adjusting settings and shapes. 

And that’s it! If these tutorials didn’t quite cover what you’re looking for, maybe one of these 10 free courses and tutorials will fit the brief. We’ve also covered the Top 10 Creative Photoshop Actions for Portraits, to give you specific guidance on Photoshop Actions.

If you’ve mastered some of these skills and are looking for more on your Adobe Photoshop journey, take a look at our round-up of the newest Adobe Photoshop features from last year. Or for inspiration, take a scroll through our eight most cutting-edge Photoshop trends for 2021.

To upskill in a range of other areas – from code and web design to business strategy and video – head over to Envato Tuts+ to make the most of the free how-to tutorials and online courses on offer. For assets to practice with, or to make your briefs that much easier, go to Envato Elements and subscribe to make use of unlimited downloads of thousands of stock videos, music, photos, and more.