First of all, for the Preliminary Task, I have only used limited functions on Photoshop to manipulate my images. I have since learnt a lot more about Photoshop CS6, which is better than the previous version. It wasn’t my first experience on Photoshop, but it was my first experience of creating a magazine cover. Therefore, I had no idea how to apply the conventions and to put the components together, so I used my visual skills to imitate other covers I found on Google. The preliminary task was very useful; it gave me the chance to remember and practice certain things on Photoshop that were lost somewhere in my cerebral cortex. When it comes to the Main Task & Evaluation, I did learn a lot of new stuff that I wasn’t aware of; new, free, online software that helped me through my coursework. Blogger – is the first type of blog I have ever used to be honest. I am impressed of how many possibilities and choices you have, considering it is free. I am not an experienced blogger, not even a good writer or anything like it, but once you get onto it, it just comes naturally. Blogger helped me keep my coursework clean and tidy all the way. Da Font – is, perhaps, the most useful website I have used for creating text. The variety of the text choices that were already installed on the software was not very great. However, then I discovered Da Font and I found everything I needed in terms of text and symbols. You can pretty much find everything you need, thousands and thousands of fonts and different styles, all free to use unless you want to use them for commercial purpose. Flickr – I think it is the second website I used during my coursework. It is a great website which gives you the freedom to upload photos and even videos I think and the best part is that you can configure them, add text, tags etc. however you want. You can also upload them straight away on blogger. Survey Monkey – is one of those websites you can use to canvass opinion on whatever you want. Well, that’s exactly what I used it for and it worked just fine. However, I am not very pleased with survey monkey as they don’t have their own app or software to make it easier to upload or share your results with other people. SlideShare – it is very useful if you want to upload your Power Point presentations or anything similar. It is quick and easy to use, free as well and it does everything you need, as long as you don’t need other stuff that it cannot provide. As well as free online software, I have used licensed software such as Photoshop CS6 or Microsoft PowerPoint, Word and Publisher. My experience with Photoshop is no longer than two years at most. I was not a big fan of this software, as I thought it was too complicated and a waste of time indeed. The media course has totally changed my impression and made me realise how useful it is. I have used Photoshop ever since and kept on improving my skills. It is the software I used the most during this coursework and there are no words to describe how many things you can actually do with it. The effects that impressed me the most so far are the Filter Gallery, which I could use to give an extra sense of style to my pages; the Transform-Perspective helped me a lot, to fit in the images with my 3D layout; and of course, my favourite effect so far, the 3D one, which is absolutely magnificent. When I started using this effect on the masthead, I honestly fell in love with it and decided to do the whole double-page spread on this idea.
Using free software is an advantage to your own pocket, but a disadvantage to whatever you want to use it for. There are advantages and disadvantages using free software. Advantages:
Easy to access Easy to use Free Does what it says it does, nothing less or nothing more
Disadvantages:
Limited Sometimes it crashes or doesn’t work for some reasons Not very smooth
Overall, I am very pleased with every software I have used so far, I couldn’t ask for more. I think that all the information I have gathered during the coursework will be very useful in the future, for me, too.