Using free web applications for multimedia!

By now you should have created an account on Flickr and also on Vuvox. Both applications serve as a means to display, catalogue and share your image based work, however vuvox can be useful to also embed audio, text and video into your vuvox collages - a great tool for multimedia journalists to provide a rich story that integrates written text, photographic image, illustrations, audio sound bites or podcasts and also video.

You'll find that Vuvox links directly to Flickr and allows you to easily view and use any of your Flickr images. If you prefer photobucket, you can also use this application, however vuvox does not link to photobucket.

Your task:

1. Edit your 8 best images from your photo shoot the other day. Enhance the photos using the crop tool, levels or curves, dodging and burning, and the clone tool - or any combination that you need.

2. Save them in a folder as photoshop files (psd) AND also save another copy of them in a different folder marked "web" as jpg files. You need to compress them in order to upload them to the web.

3. Create a flickr account and upload all 8 of your images. You can explore flickr and create a set so that you can arrange them in an order you'd like for your slide show.

4. Create a slide show and share it by copying the html code and inserting it into a blog post while you're in html mode. It should automatically come up as a slide show so that anyone can view it on your blog.

5. Go to vuvox and create an account. Access your flickr photos by entering your username and password and start creating a collage in vuvox. Review any of the introductory videos and take a look at some other work before you start to get a sense of what's possible.

6. Once you're happy with your vuvox collage, you can grab the html code and insert it into another blog posting. Don't forget to title all your blog posts!!!

7. Write a comparison of the two applications. What do you like, what don't you like. What's missing from either of these programs that you would add if you could? What makes them easy to use or difficult to use.

8. Find one other free web based multimedia application that can be used to share, display and catalogue your work. Provide the link in a new post and give a description of this application. Tell us what's great about it and what it can do that vuvox and flickr can't! Is this something you would recommend using?