Illustrator vs Photoshop.

When comparing Illustrator to Photoshop, there is one significant difference.
On illustrator, you place things together, such as a poster or advertising campaign. On Photoshop, you manipulate images- such as composite or surreal ones.
Illustrator uses vector whilst Photoshop uses raster based images. Vector file sizes are smaller and print faster and they are made up of paths connected by anchor points. Raster images are made up of thousands of pixels and generally are larger.

For gossip magazines or the internet, they are more likely to use Photoshop for an image. This is due to the fact that the media usually twist things. An example of this would be accusing a celebrity of doing something they did not. In order to make this seem realistic, they would use Photoshop to edit a photograph of said celebrity and make it look like they were doing something they were not. A bit like my photo of the cat raising its paws to the Big Ben. Of course the cat isn't really at Big Ben, I have just used Photoshop to make it seem like it is. It is easy for the media to do this to a celebrity or someone famous, and that is why they are more likely to use Photoshop.

Advertising companies that sell products (such as Coke, Hollister, etc) would use Illustrator to achieve their desired creation. Advertising companies tend to make posters rather than manipulated images as it is better for advertising. As Illustrator is placing images together and adding text/colour etc, it is easier to use this software to create an advertisement or poster.

When using Illustrator, I had to create a Pepsi Timeline. I needed to upload various pictures of the Pepsi logo (dating back quite far) and add information and my opinion on them. I also had to make sure they were in order. This is what it looked like:

As you can see, there is a fair bit of detail included in this poster. I have added information such as why the logo changed, when and how. Although I managed to finish the poster, it did take quite a bit of time and it was quite hard for me. I managed to figure out how to alter the text to give it alternating colours but placing the text, arrows and headlines was a very hard task. I think this software is good for making a poster or advertising but I don't really like it.



Here is my work on Photoshop:

As you can see, this is a composite image. I found Photoshop a lot easier to use to create an image. This is not just because of one certain thing but it is a factor of contributing reasons. I like the way it is set out and the way it works and it is pretty easy to figure out. I also feel that by using Photoshop I'm reaching my potential and working hard, whereas on Illustrator I feel I could do so much better.




When using Illustrator I needed quite a lot of help. This involved googling various things, watching tutorials on youtube and asking my teacher for guidance. When using Photoshop, it was pretty simple and easy to figure out. I think this might of been partly because of the lay out.
On Illustrator, I enjoyed using the magnetic lasso tool. I also enjoyed the variety of colours there were for my background. On Photoshop, I enjoyed using the vector mask, the brush, and many other tools involved in helping create my image.
Although the layout of both programmes are similar, I prefer Photoshop. This is not due to any software errors or anything, it is my personal opinion. I like the layout and elements of Photoshop much more as it is comfortable and easy to use. I also prefer the image I created to the poster I created on Illustrator.

I would like to learn how to use larger layers on Photoshop. By this I mean I would like to be able to blend two photos together to create either a narrative or illusion photograph. For example, I might put together a picture of the sea and a picture of someones face. This might create a narrative and leave people wondering why the photo is like this. I think this would be interesting.

On Illustrator I would like to learn how to use more of the basic tools. As I found it quite hard to do anything, it would be nice for more of the tools to be accessible to me when using the programme. I would like to be able to change the text font, maybe add a photo to the background instead of colour and a few more things that would dramatically change my final product to make it better.