A guide to Photoshop certifications

If you are in the process of learning Photoshop or already have significant experience with the application, you should consider earning a certification in the application. This is a good way to set yourself up for future professional success, as the certification or a certificate will demonstrate that your Photoshop skills are at a professional level. There are a few ways to become formally certified in Photoshop, and this article aims to help students and professionals eliminate some of the confusion and guesswork from the certification process. Read on to learn more about your available options and the best practices and approaches for your individual journey to becoming certified.

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What are Photoshop certificates and certifications?

While it may not seem immediately intuitive, certificates and certifications are not the same thing, and although they are both ways to demonstrate your proficiency in Photoshop, they gauge that proficiency in relatively different ways. In short, a certification is awarded to students who complete a first-party-authorized, proctored, and timed skills exam that covers all the essential functionalities of the application. A certificate is awarded to students who complete a formal, third-party training program, and it is more akin to a diploma. Becoming certified is a good way to demonstrate your skills to potential employers and qualify for positions in the field of graphic design. In the US, the average graphic design salary falls around $60,000 a year, and professionals can make even more with additional training. 

Certifications for programs like Adobe Photoshop are earned through the completion of an Adobe Certified Professional exam, which is a proctored, 75–90 minute examination that covers everything from the basic use of Photoshop’s tools to practical skills exercises and questions concerning the process of publishing a Photoshop file. All of these questions aim to demonstrate your practical proficiency with Photoshop and have the advantage of being directly authorized by Adobe, meaning that there is no doubt about the veracity of your skills if you are certified in this manner. The drawback is that, in addition to providing minimal free training support, these certifications must be renewed periodically, so you’ll have to pay to take the newest version of the exam every few years.

Certificates, on the other hand, are awarded to students who complete a formal training program offered by a third-party training provider. These training courses are designed with education in mind, since they often aim to provide students with no background in Photoshop with the training they need to start using the application at a professional level.These programs are best suited for students who are looking to learn Photoshop skills that they are not presently comfortable with since the certificate is mostly in recognition of the training they have received rather than evidence of existing Photoshop proficiency. These certificates don’t tend to expire, although since they are third-party credentials, you’ll need to be sure that you are getting industry-standard training for the certificate to count for anything. These programs are also significantly longer and more expensive than certification exams, since they provide comprehensive skills training rather than quickly measuring existing knowledge.

Key differences between Photoshop certificates and certifications

• Certifications are exam-based training that usually includes access to the Adobe Certified Professional exam. It requires passing a proctored exam to earn the credential.
• Certificates are awarded at the end of a comprehensive program to show that students have completed the required curriculum. 
• Certifications are tests designed to prove and certify existing knowledge, while certificates build that knowledge from the ground up. 
• If you already know how to use Photoshop and are confident in your skills, you may not need to attend a certificate program before taking the certification exam.
• Some certifications expire and will require renewal with Adobe on a regular basis. On the other hand, certificates typically do not expire, though this can depend on the institution.

About the Adobe Certified Professional Photoshop exam

Adobe recommends that test-takers should have approximately 150 hours of practical, real-world Photoshop experience before taking the exam. The exam has a fixed time limit of 50 minutes and there are 30 multiple choice and practical skills questions. Per Adobe’s exam guide, the questions cover five general categories of knowledge:

• Working in the Design Industry

This objective covers critical concepts related to working with colleagues and clients as well as crucial legal, technical, and design-related knowledge.

• Project Setup and Interface

This objective covers the interface setup and program settings that assist in an efficient and effective workflow, as well as knowledge about ingesting digital assets for a project.

• Organizing Documents

This objective covers document structure such as layers and managing document structure for efficient workflows.

• Creating and Modifying Visual Elements

This objective covers core tools and functionality of the application, as well as tools that affect the visual outcome of the document.

• Publishing Digital Media

This objective covers saving and exporting documents or assets within individual layers or selections.

Which path should you pursue for Photoshop training?

As a general rule, the best path to Photoshop certification depends on your existing Photoshop skills. While certification exams can provide students with additional training materials (practice exams, video lectures, study guides, etc.), they are all intended for skilled Photoshop users who do not feel that they need additional support in order to demonstrate their skill proficiency. This makes them intended for users who already use the program in a professional capacity or who have some form of prior training (up to and including having completed a certificate program). They are less valuable for students who are not yet comfortable with using Photoshop.

For those students, a certificate-granting program may be an ideal path, since the primary function of these programs is to help new Photoshop users gain the skills and proficiencies that they need to use the program professionally (and to pass a certification exam, since there are many program options that include certification training and preparation as part of their curriculum). These courses are suited for complete novices, and they aim to provide the kind of training you would need to receive in order to feel comfortable with your ability to use the application at a professional level, which means you'll spend significantly more time and energy learning these skills compared to simply taking a certification exam. However, they are accelerated, since presumably, if you are going to take a certification exam, it is with the understanding that you have already received the necessary training.