It is Time to Begin

I finally made the move on purchasing a package from Adobe. I purchased Adobe Design Premium CS5.5 and   in the process I found out the students and faculty members get a whopping 80% discount! All I had to do was submit a photo i.d. from CMU and explain my purpose for how the product would benefit my education. I was originally going to only purchase Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Dreamweaver, but with the discount the entire package was cheaper than buying the two software programs separately. The software contents that came with this package were Adobe Bridge, Adobe Device Central, Dreamweaver, ExtendScript Toolkit, Extension Manager, Fireworks, Flash Catalyst, Flash Professional, Illustrator, InDesign, Media Encoder, Photoshop, Pixel Blender Toolkit, and Adobe Content Viewer.

When I saw all of the programs that came with this package I was a bit overwhelmed. I have only had minimal experience with Photoshop and Dreamweaver, so I decided to start with one program at a time to learn the fundamentals of each before I start learning new techniques and combinations between the programs. I started earlier this week by re-acclimating myself with Photoshop by taking some photos from the past and Halloween photos of my friends working with layering and other tools.

Here are the originals:

Here are the transformations:

I had so much fun with these photos and I provided a good laugh for my friends when I uploaded them to Facebook.

I also have been watching tutorials on Youtube. Today I focused mostly on learning about Adobe Bridge which is, in a very broad perspective, a photo organizer. This will come in great use for next semester since I will be taking Art 140 (Introduction to Digital Photography). I'll have to purchase a Digital SLR camera for that class. Any suggestions on what to buy? I'll have to do some research and snag up a deal on Black Friday.

Here is the link that I found very helpful for learning about Adobe Bridge: All You Need To Know: Adobe Bridge CS5

I'll be looking into Photoshop tutorials as the week progresses because I know I have much to learn in that program. Well Its pushing towards 1:00 a.m. here and I have class at 9:00 so that will be all for today.