Draft Evaluation- Q6

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?

Cameras: When doing my photo-shoot i used a Nikon D3000 camera. When i first used it in my first photo-shoot i found that it was a complex camera to use but offered me a wide range of modes to get high quality photos. When using the camera and taking the photos i noted the positioning and background of the model. I looked at previous photos used in magazines to get a feel for what worked and what didn't. One thing that worked was when the model was facing forward, this engaged the reader with the artist making her more inviting. I also used some artificial lighting and a white back drop to enhance the look of my photos further. The lighting made the images a higher quality and the white back drop helped focus on the model more. 

                                        

Macs and Windows: The college provided iMacs throughout the course, for both practical and coursework lessons and tasks. At home i used my Toshiba laptop with windows. Comparing the two i prefer the toshiba laptop as it is less complex but still uses all the programmes as an iMac. A problem that i encountered when doing my work is when i had finished on the iMac i couldn't then go and do the same piece of work on the computers in the library as it saved on the actual computer itself instead of my area. This made it hard when i came to some tasks. With these pieces of equipment i have been able to complete my media work as it is mostly online and requires to use certain programmes such as Blogger, Microsoft word and photoshop. 

Photoshop: I used photoshop on both the college macs
and my toshiba laptop to create the majority of my magazine practical coursework. When i first came i wasn't certain on how to use the programme but with tasks set such as the prelim magazine cover and contents it helped me expand on the skills that i needed to learn which led me to creating the draft and proper magazine. I have learnt how to edit and manipulate photos in a certain way like using the lasso tool to cut images out. When it came to editing the model for blemishes this is where i needed to use another programme such as Befunky.com and Ribbet.com as i felt more confidence in using these programmes to making the model more photogenic. All of the magazine pages were created using Photoshop CS6, using multiple layers to add each element of the pages. I feel that after creating my magazine i have some confidence when coming to use photoshop and a greater understanding of the programme.

 Online sites and programmes: i used a series of different online programmes to aid me into creating my magazine practical and coursework. I chose to use blogger to create my coursework blog, this enabled me to post my research. This was good as it kept everything in the same place and was easy to track my progress. I also used Befunky.com and ribbed.com to edit photos of my model. I felt i needed to use these instead of photoshop as i felt more confident doing so. To add some detail and interest in my posts i used animo to to present my pitch for y magazine. When creating word documents of my research i then uploaded the document onto scribed.com and use the embed code on my blog.