10 Photoshop Activities for the Classroom
Photoshop is indispensable in so many ways. I am sharing 10 common ways that I have used Photoshop personally and professionally in education. All the images below were created, designed, or assembled by me, except where credited.
All the suggested activities are great for young to adult learners.
I think you will find many of the activities useful, practical, and super fun for your students.
Enjoy!
1. Create a customized image.
Need an image for a report, digital story, or website? Or want to do a creative activity with younger learners?
Create a customized image.
I collected these images on the left from the internet to create the final image on the right.
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Activity Age Level: Grade 3 and up
Expertise Level: Beginner
2. Build a collage.
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Great for reports, presentations, or any kind of projects.
The images below were found on the internet, but I put them together to create this customized collage. I made it for a partnered assignment for a course in my master's program. I think it added a nice personal touch.
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Activity Age Level: Grade 3 and up
Expertise Level: Beginner
3. Design a poster.
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Promote your class project or school event by designing a poster! Make it simple or as elaborate as you like.
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Activity Age Level: Grade 3 and up
Expertise Level: Beginner to Intermediate
4. Create a book cover.
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Have your students create a book cover to accompany their digital story or book report. It's the perfect complement!
This was a fictional book cover I created and it was super fun to do.
Activity Age Level: Grade 5 and up
Expertise Level: Intermediate to Advanced
5. Play with an image.
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Play with an image by adding visual elements, changing the color, or modifying aspects of it.
From the original photo on the left, I added a frame and a cat, changed the lip color, and fixed the hair sticking out on the left side.
Photgraphy: Joanne Chow
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Activity Age Level: Grade 3 and up
Expertise Level: Beginner to Intermediate
6. Fix a photography mistake.
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The original photo on the left has rain spots. Raindrops had fallen onto my camera lens which I didn't notice at the time when I was taking the photo. Luckily, I was able to correct this mistake by removing them.
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Photography: Joanne Chow
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Activity Age Level: Grade 5 and up
Expertise Level: Beginner
7. Enhance a photo.
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Many people enjoy coloring, even as adults. Enhancing the colors in a photo through Photoshop is very similar. In the photo on the right, I decided to enhance existing colors, but I did change the sky and the clouds.
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Photography: Joanne Chow
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Activity Age Level: Grade 5 and up
Expertise Level: Intermediate to Advanced
8. Restore an old photo.
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Depending on the original condition of the photo, it can take a greater or lesser degree of work and time to do this. But yes, old photos can be possibly restored. There are professionals who do old photo restoration for a living!
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Nevertheless, you can absolutely do this exercise with your students and make the photos appear professional looking and realistic.
Photo credit: Joaquin Villaverde Photography
Here's a Youtube video showing the restoration of the above photo in Photoshop (time-lapsed). By Joaquin Villaverde Photography.
Activity Age Level: Grade 5 and up
Expertise Level: Intermediate to Advanced
9. Design a t-shirt.
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Designing your own t-shirt is kind of cool and I think your students will agree. You can get images for your t-shirts from websites that have graphic resources (some are free for educational use only while others are paid).
Each of the t-shirt designs below were created in 5 mins!
T-shirt design by Charlie Pangus
T-shirt design by Charlie Pangus
T-shirt design by Charlie Pangus
Graphic Resources:
Activity Age Level: Grade 5 and up
Expertise Level: Intermediate
10. Make a banner for your website.
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Many teachers and students nowadays are creating websites. So, draw attention to specific areas of your website by using a banner. Great for updates, announcements, and special events.
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Activity Age Level: Grade 3 and up
Expertise Level: Beginner
Photoshop for Early Childhood Learners?
Yes, Photoshop is also suitable for early childhood learners!
Adobe offers a number of videos showing what activities you can do with young learners including silhouette, patterns, and pattern blocks.
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Access their videos here:
https://edex.adobe.com/search/global/Photoshop%20for%20Kids/?rowsPerPage=25
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Note: You will need to create an account to access these videos. No subscription is required.
On this page, all photography work are my own and all images were created, designed, or assembled by me, except where credited.