Week 10: Weekly Blog Post 6

 Jaiden O’Brien 

Sean Brennan 

FMX 210-3 

November 6, 2024  

This week, we started working with Adobe Photoshop on a new project, and I was initially a bit scared about it. Before this, I didn’t have any experience with Photoshop, so I wasn’t sure what to expect or know what I was getting into. However, after diving into the project, I’ve realized that Photoshop is surprisingly user-friendly—at least for the tasks we've been doing so far. 

For this project, we were asked to choose eight topics that interest us, and then narrow it down to five that we’d focus on. My topics are the Boston Bruins, travel, Florence, music, and food. Once we had our topics, we then had to find two high-resolution images for each one. The challenge here was finding images that were both large enough and clear enough, because smaller images can become pixelated when you try to enlarge them. It took some trial and error to get the right ones, but I was able to find ten good images in the end. After choosing my images, I imported them into Photoshop. The next step was cutting out the backgrounds from each photo.  

However, I was sick this Tuesday, so I missed class. Thankfully, my classmates filled me in on what I missed, so I could keep up with what has been going on. They explained how we had gone over some new Photoshop techniques and started working on the collage part. It was a bit of a setback, but it didn’t stop me from catching up and getting back on track. In class, I heard that we learned a few different tools to help with this. This can include the polygonal lasso tool, which was helpful when working with photos that had sharp edges. This can also include the magnetic lasso tool, which was great for tracing around objects with uneven borders. 

I spent most of my time this week cutting out the images and placing them together to form a collage. It has been fun to create something personal by choosing the topics I’m interested in. Unlike the earlier project where we were following along with a tutorial, this one feels more creative and freer, which I really prefer. 

In terms of comparing the Adobe software we’ve used in class; I’ve found Photoshop to be the most straightforward so far. I’ve also worked with Adobe InDesign and Adobe Illustrator, but Photoshop just feels simpler, especially when it comes to editing images. I think that’s why I’m enjoying this project—it’s easy to navigate, and I’m already seeing the results of my work. 

Overall, this week’s project in Photoshop has been fun, and I’m excited to see how the final collage turns out. Using the software hands-on is helping me get more comfortable with it, and I’m looking forward to learning more in the coming weeks. I’m also excited to use what I’ve learned on future projects as I get better with the tools. I’m starting to enjoy making my own designs and feel more confident in my skills each week. I can’t wait to see how this project ends and how the skills I’m learning will help with future work. 

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