IT’S FAIR TO SAY that the camera has changed the world we live in. With the World Wide Web going live in August of 1991, digital photography and image manipulation boomed alongside the growth of the internet. The introduction of Photoshop made manipulation both more accessible and more convincing too. Everything we take for granted today, including brightening, sharpening, contrast, hue, and saturation levels, we owe to the advancements of digital photography and Photoshop.
In the early 2000s, Sharp introduced the camera phone. By today’s standards, they were shocking images, but the idea of being able to carry around a 2-in-1 camera and phone device was a winner. However, due to the poor quality of the camera phone, people still continued to carry a separate digital camera with them. But as time progressed, so did the quality of all the components of image manipulation. Digital cameras received sensors with larger megapixel capabilities. Better quality images allowed more impressive photo manipulation. Image editing software also vastly improved through the 1990s and the early 2000s, with Photoshop paving the way for graphic designers.