Udemy
Daniel Walter Scott Photoshop CC Essentials Review — 23 Learner Opinions
Daniel Walter Scott's Adobe Photoshop CC Essentials Training Course is the Udemy best-seller that beginners keep recommending to other beginners — and for good reason. In 28+ hours, this Adobe Certified Instructor walks you from the Photoshop interface through real design projects: photo retouching, compositing, posters, logos, and social media graphics. Across 23 analysed opinions the consensus is strongly positive — structured, engaging, and genuinely usable at Udemy's sale price. The honest caveats are that it stops at intermediate, offers no instructor critique of your work, and that depth on advanced compositing is limited.
Final score
from 23 analysed opinions
Published AI-researched, editor-audited
Distribution of opinions
Per-criterion scores
28+ hours of video covering selection tools, masking, retouching, compositing, typography, colour adjustments, and web and print workflows — enough breadth to take a true beginner through to confident intermediate work. Updated January 2025 to reflect the current Photoshop CC interface. Capped at 4.6 because a handful of reviewers noted pacing inconsistencies between sections and limited coverage of advanced compositing techniques like frequency separation or channel masking.
Daniel Walter Scott holds both Adobe Certified Instructor (ACI) and Adobe Certified Expert (ACE) credentials and runs Bring Your Own Laptop (BYOL), a dedicated Adobe training platform. Reviewers consistently describe him as enthusiastic, clear, and well-matched in pace to complete beginners. The fractional deduction reflects occasional feedback that the delivery can feel slightly over-cheerful, and that advanced learners find the hand-holding unnecessary.
At Udemy sale prices of $12–15 — which occur several times per month — for 28+ hours of content with lifetime access and future updates, the value proposition is very strong. The ceiling is that the list price is artificially inflated, and a small minority of learners paid nearer the full rate and felt the experience did not match the premium positioning.
Projects span logo design, poster creation, social media graphics, and photo retouching — real-world artefacts rather than contrived exercises. Each project ships with downloadable starter assets. The limitation is Udemy's Q&A-only feedback loop: no peer review and no instructor critique of individual submissions. You produce work but receive no evaluation unless you post in the discussion board and happen to get a response.
Covers the workflows a junior designer or freelancer actually uses: masking, smart objects, retouching, layer styles, and basic compositing. Several learners noted they applied skills from the course in paid client work within weeks. The ceiling: the course stops before advanced techniques like 3D, complex channel masking, and Lightroom integration.
What learners said
What people loved
6- Very clear, beginner-friendly teaching from an Adobe Certified Instructor with an enthusiastic delivery that keeps attention across long sessions×11
- 28+ hours of structured content that builds methodically from the interface to real creative projects×10
- Real projects — poster design, logo work, photo retouching — produce portfolio-grade artefacts rather than toy exercises×9
- Lifetime access with regular updates (last updated January 2025) — revisit the material as Photoshop evolves without repurchasing×7
- Outstanding value at Udemy sale prices ($12–15), far below the cost of in-person Adobe training×8
- Downloadable starter assets for every project, so you can follow along without hunting for source files×5
What frustrated learners
5- Content is explicitly for beginners — intermediate or advanced users will outgrow it quickly and should move to the instructor's separate Advanced course×6
- No instructor critique of individual work — feedback is limited to the Udemy discussion board×5
- Pacing inconsistencies across sections — some modules feel rushed compared to the carefully stepped early lessons×4
- Advanced compositing and masking techniques are touched on but not covered in depth×3
- Delivery style can feel overly enthusiastic for learners who prefer a quieter instructional tone×2
Real quotes from real users
“AMAZING course Dan! Thank you so much for sharing your skills with us!! Your teaching style is very professional and easy to understand.”
“This course is very good structured — from easy to hard topics. Also it has a lot of detailed explanations and really fun practical tasks.”
“For me, a person who had zero experience in using Photoshop this course was very helpful to get into the graphic design area with a lot of interest and fun.”
“Daniel is just a great teacher! His teaching style is awesome and I am really glad I picked his courses for learning my new profession.”
“Covers all the basic and essential tools at a decent pace with engaging projects and examples.”
“Great for complete beginners but you will need the Advanced course once you get through this — do not expect to do high-end compositing from this alone.”
Frequently asked questions
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How we evaluated this
This review synthesizes 23 opinions collected across the public web. Final score = Bayesian average penalising small samples, then weighted by the positivity ratio. No paid placements, no hidden agenda.
- 15 from Forums
- 6 from Blogs
- 2 from reddit