20 Years of Photoshop by Scott Budman
Remember when launching a piece of software started with the credits — and you could count the people listed on one hand? Here’s something to make us all feel old: For Photoshop, that was 20 years ago.
It all started in 1987, when a Ph.D. student named Thomas Knoll came up with a new program called Display. His brother John liked it, and, as an employee of special-effects house Industrial Light & Magic, was able to show it around in Silicon Valley. Adobe added the product, since renamed “Photoshop,” to its software lineup, paired the Knolls with two more programmers, and released version 1.0 in 1990 to Macintosh customers
Eleven releases in more than 20 languages later, Photoshop remains a cash cow for San Jose-based Adobe, and like “Googling,” “Photoshopping” is a verb unto itself. Just how big has Photoshop become? Think back to July of 2008, when Iran released a photograph of four missiles being launched simultaneously. A ferocious image of that nation’s might? Sort of. Turns out there were only three missiles launched, with a fourth digitally inserted to add a little more menace. What ensued, though, was a round of teasing spread rapidly across the internet. Digital technology: 1, Iranian credibility: 0.
Such is the nature of how we see photographs in the age of Photoshop. Thanks to Adobe and the four employees who created the piece of software, we are able to become digital artists in almost no time flat; because of this amazing democratization of technology, though, almost nothing we see on the internet is trustworthy. From a skinnier Kardashian to a prescient preview of what Brett Favre would look like in a Viking uniform, anything’s possible.
In 1977 a friend of mine and I were sharing our excitement about the future of digital elctronics and personal computers. At that point we were learning out to hook 7400 series TTL ICs together and make LEDs flash and stuff like that. Neither of us had the money to buy something really advanced, like an IMSI 8080.
I predicted that personal computers would revolutionize painting, photography, animation, and filmmaking.
My friend was not so sure, saying, “A computer can’t create anything.”
I responded “No, but it can make a hell of a paintbrush.”
Has anyone considered that this article could might just possibly maybe be a cheap Photoshop hacker’s best effort? Or even this whole site? Maybe the “original” front page and articles are captured HuffPo images but someone with crazy Photoshop skillzzzz, an OCD affliction, and a Newtish/Reaganish bent took the time to work it into their imagined world of “conservatism.” Who can say if the comments aren’t the result of some nuttish Photoshop astro-turfing and if any of those of us who are real got out off the plantation and visited other sites we’d realize that these same Photoshopped astro-turfed comments fill the internet. What if the entire world is a Matrix knock-off (T.I.C.)? [Snick - sarcasm off]
This is why (talking about the article now) people can easily be misled. They default to trusting not so much their eyes but the “sources” that provide the images whether they be video or stills. This manipulation of the public interests and perceptions was portrayed in D’ah Governator’s 1987 film “Running Man.” If for some reason this blockbuster Ah’nold film slips your memory then IDBM it (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093894/).
MSM – Media – the Science of Manipulation
“Photoshop” is a verb.
“PhotoshoppING” is a gerund.
Photoshop has really changed the way we percieve images now and helps a lot of designers great piece of software
Porter Cable Parts
What is real, and what is not ?
Anybody remember the title of the 1st movie
whose plot turned on an undetectable fake
videotape, with an innocent man’s face
superimposed on the real killer’s body ?
GFreeman;
A clever idea, but it’s just me.
A real article, start to finish.
And, no, I don’t have crazy Photoshop skills.
-sb
Ping M. Report.
Believe you thinking of Rising Son with Sean Connery, Wesley Snipes circa 1993…
REAL Men use Gimp – GNU Image Manipulation Program!
M.Report.
I’m pretty sure that would be “Rising Sun” with Connery and Snipes based on a story by Michael Crichton. Still an excellent movie.
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you, Scott! I know it’s really you and am reassured that the article and this site are not Photoshopped knockoffs by some Big Bro/Animal Farm wazoo outfit because… Photoshop trolls have NEVER and would never take the time to reply personally. [Snick - sarc... you know the drill]
Seriously, thanks for jumping in, Scott. That is one thing I respect – when an author pays attention to and interacts with his/her audience. It lends weight to the threads. And, being more sober about the matter, your piece is salient and good commentary in this Andre Agassi age of “image is everything.” The manipulation of images (and of course “news” and what constitutes news or valued as newsworthy) is a way of manipulating people’s perceptions and in an efficacious manner transmogrifying/bringing into being the maxim of “perception becomes reality.”
In small matters maybe there’s not a great harm, if any, of bringing this dynamic into being but… on matters of morality or values or distraction (for harmful intent) the power to shape the unwitting or under self-actualized/lazy/willingly uninformed is scary when considering that in our society it most often a matter of “majority” that influences national polity and legislation and law and whatnot. Thus, the manipulated majority can take the responsible, principled, self-actualized minority with them to perdition.
Just to make it clear, the prior comment was made in good humor. Of course this site and the author of this article are genuine. I write and moderate myself (not here) and appreciate the effort of earnest scriveners.
Peace.
School Marm, it’s obviously time for you to retire, since you’re too senile to recognize that you don’t know what you’re talking about. First of all, a gerund is a verb functioning as a noun in its clause. Second, you don’t know if “Photoshop” is a verb or a noun until it is used in a sentence, e.g., “Photoshop is a popular software,” and “He will photoshop pictures for the Iranian Propaganda Ministry if the pay is good.” Also consider, “She is photoshopping images of herself for a modeling portfolio,” in which photoshopping isn’t a gerund, but the verb. The bottom line here is that you need to be careful trying to inject off-topic, pedantic grammar points, lest you get your copy of Strunk and White shoved down your throat.
The poor man’s PhotoShop is Corel’s Paint Shop Pro, witch we use a lot. You can click on my name to see some of our work.
I am a BSEE with computer specialization. I had designed around the Mot. 6800 and then the Int. 8080 and 8086 for industrial applications. It soon became cheaper to buy PC hardware and do the programming. Then it became cheaper to buy the software and customize it.
The tapes for recording things are magnetic which is like color of Igbo man that reflects
images passed through light like human skin colors of a negro man.The means when we ejaculate sperm or orgasm through stimulation and warming our cells called hormones the total images created by our mental and brain is what we release through our sex organs.
The Grey hair is like compact disc interface in color while an European person skin Caucasian color
is yet to be developed in recording magnetic object colors just like copper is not a color of an European person Caucasian or other people with similar and the same skin colors like them.
Every tapes that is used for recording is a black man color which many earth metals are of the same color
with a typical African person.No substance on earth is a color of European man Caucasian which the refers as purple or pink when argued further they will say that their skin color is gold in nature which is a lie because melanine is not a color of European man or Caucasian.
we can mix chemicals that will whiten human skin colors to tune it to a Caucasian race color but we cannot mix a lotion that will make an European man skin color to be dark in complexion when they rob it.
The developed nations spent their time not build a recording material that will be Caucasian color which is like the body of Esau and voice of Jacob and they have deceived themselves which will take time to develop such technology for recording.I may say that light passed through a Caucasian color skin does not reflect mental pictures passed thought the brain when stimulated hormones cooked sperm and orgasm for sex thoughts.
The bottom line here is that you need to be careful trying to inject off-topic, pedantic grammar points, lest you get your copy of Strunk and White shoved down your throat.
Mark,
While good writers invariably break most of Strunk & White’s rules, they’re still a great place to start if you want to learn how to write, particularly expository stuff. Likewise, Orwell’s comments on writing are brilliant but good writers break his rules all the time too.
There’s a difference between coloring outside the lines and scribbling.
BTW, I think that the author of comment #15 has a promising career as a writer of fantasy.
Who can say if the comments aren’t the result of some nuttish Photoshop astro-turfing and if any of those of us who are real got out off the plantation and visited other sites we’d realize that these same Photoshopped astro-turfed comments fill the internet. What if the entire world is a Matrix knock-off (T.I.C.)? [Snick - sarcasm off]
Where is Mike?