Evaluation- Question 6

Evaluation 6
What have you learnt about technologies from the processing of constructing this product?

I have learnt many things to do with technology on the computer/ laptops while designing my music magazine and my skills have improved greatly. At the start of our production I watched tutorials of various adobe applications that I would be using in the making of the magazine. Also Blogger was very new to me and it was a new, cool way to post information about my media product using images, links and texts. Also my photography skills improved learning about different angles and lighting.

When I got introduced to blogger I must admit it looked rather confusing but I got straight into it and after a few lessons I was really enjoying it. I tend to spend a lot of time on the internet looking at various things so this was right up my street and I could always access it on the laptops in school at home and on my smart phone. Blogger had all the help I needed in learning how to use it, I think it’s a good way of doing coursework as its online which I prefer. It was also handy having it on my smart phone because I could easily show my teacher or friends my up to date blog and work is easy to comment or edit on. I definitely would use blogger again.

I used two main adobe products these were InDesign and Photoshop.

I got introduced to InDesign in the first few months of Media Studies A Level which I used quite a bit learning new skills on this product and to make my preliminary task and mock up magazines where we had to copy a real life magazine using various tools and colours. To start off with I did not get on with InDesign because there was a lot of little bits to learn. Eventually I really enjoyed InDesign and kept going back to my product and editing text/ font etc. I thought the layers you place on a magazine was very fascinating and worked well with my magazine, I personally thought InDesign had everything you needed to create a magazine.
I already knew about Photoshop as I have used it a few times at home, but I learnt more about it in school. I had to edit a few of my photos by removing the background which was a real tricky process that took time. Occasionally I found it quite stressful because I would think it’s all removed until you zoom in and see little patches that come up on your image. I eventually got the hang of it using the zoom and background eraser. There is a magic tool which you can use to go around the waste background, I did not find this a good tool at all because the colours would clash against my models clothes and hair.

My photography skills improved during my magazine production. I learnt about various angles, shots, mise en scene and lighting. I also learnt how important photos are to take for a music magazine it needs to be perfect. I did two photo shoots as my first one did not go to plan the colouring was dim against the boys clothes, I retook the photos on a sunny day where natural lighting was used. Looking through my first photo shoot and second there is quite a difference, I understand now how important clothing, models, mise en scene and lighting is for a photographer and a photo shoot.

I also got introduced to Prezi and Slide Share where you can create your own sort of PowerPoint’s but using various tools and it looks very creative. Slide Share is similar to a PowerPoint however you can post it online and you can add more skills to these online products. At first they were quite difficult but yet again it did not take long to understand how they work.