It was Thanksgiving, and my nephew asked me to teach him Photoshop.

Twenty minutes into explaining layer masks over pumpkin pie, I realized I was having more fun than I’d had at work in months. That conversation is the reason this site exists. I’d been designing for agencies for a decade, and I’d somehow forgotten that the best part of knowing Photoshop is showing someone else how to use it.

I’m John, 42, based in Austin, Texas. I grew up tinkering with computers in a small town in Ohio and got hooked on Photoshop in high school when a teacher showed me compositing for the first time. I took some design courses at a community college, but mostly I learned by doing — spending hours experimenting, breaking things, and figuring out how to fix them. After 10 years at agencies, I went independent and now run Photoshop Tutorial full-time. I’ve taught over 50,000 students online.

I once spent 40 hours on a single composite — and that piece got me my first agency job. I still use a 2015 Wacom tablet because it just feels right. I got into a friendly argument with a student about whether dodge and burn or curves is the better tool, and that argument lasted three tutorial videos. I break complex techniques into small steps because I never talk down to beginners — I remember being one.

I have three monitors and use all of them. I keep a library of over 400 custom Photoshop actions organized by movie genre — don’t ask. I make terrible puns in my tutorials, and my wife, who’s a UX designer, has stopped trying to talk me out of it. We have two kids, ages 10 and 7, who are starting to pick up Photoshop themselves, which is both exciting and slightly terrifying.

If you want to learn Photoshop from someone who genuinely loves teaching it, you’re in the right place.

Want to get in touch? Drop me a line at john@photoshoptutorial.com.