Bootcamp Reflection

I survived bootcamp!

Well…kind of.

This week we were challenged with exploring and utilizing the tools Photoshop and Indesign offer. There was one session to familiarize the class with the two Adobe softwares.

The following are assignments we had on both Photoshop and Indesign:

Photoshop

Learned how to use individual layers to remove certain images from a snapshot. We utilized the various “cut away” tools to accomplish this.

Played around with all of the color features and effects Photoshop offers.

Indesign

Created a business card to familiarize ourselves with the Indesign templates and how to properly fit texts and pictures in the correct frames.

Mimicked a newsletter in order to replicate the proper dimensions, body content, fonts and colors.

 

I was excited to learn about Photoshop and Indesign. Knowing how to use and navigate my way through these softwares are skills that will better me as a public relations professional and also will appeal to potential employers. Although, there was a slight learning curve!

I will be honest, I got kind of frustrated at first (more so with Indesign). Fitting images to a frame doesn’t mean just pulling the corners in or out yet it requires tabbing to the correct effect on the task bar. The business card required us to scale down a full-size image and picking the correct dimensions took some time. I also realized that layout is not easy! Strategically placing text and pictures is a hard concept, but one that is fun to mess around with. When asked to replicate a newsletter, I initially had trouble with the placement of material. After practice, I became much more familiar with all of the effects on the task bar and learned how these can help me.

Photoshop was more familiar to me since I have used it briefly before this course. It is cool to know how to manipulate a picture to get the image you need out.

I believe that my reaction was a typical reaction when a person learns new material. I was eager to learn about and use these softwares, but also got frustrated when my “perfectionist” self could not excel at Photoshop and Indesign immediately.  There is a definite learning curve with both softwares, and it is important to go into this process with a curious, open and attentive mind.