Q6 what have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
- 1. Q6: What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
- 2. Preliminary task My preliminary task involved creating a College magazine based on the current knowledge I had at the time. During that time I had a very basic knowledge of how to create Photoshop and a very basic understanding of conventions within the context of magazines. During the process of creating my music magazine I had learn how to use software to be able to create my music magazine and review my progress of my magazine. The software I had to learn to use to create my magazine was Abode Photoshop CC 2014, My experience with these software applications is that I was unfamiliar with the use Abode Photoshop CC 2014 and so as I created my magazine I learned how to use the software application. My experience with Photoshop was broadened by finding out how I can edit images with the use of the adjustments tab as well as the variety within the option of each individual tools such as the eraser and the rectangle tool. Exhibit 1: Preliminary task Figure 2: Main task
- 3. Research In order to create a music magazine that follows convention to attract a primary target audience, I had to research how to find this information out and I also needed multiple ways of displaying the information I found out how to achieve my preliminary task. The software I had used to display my information was the Blogger, Slide Share, Prezi, YouTube and Microsoft PowerPoint software applications. I am familiar with the YouTube and Blogger software applications as I have personal accounts to them that I use on a regular basis. I was also familiar with using the Microsoft PowerPoint application as I have used that many times for personal use, however I was unfamiliar with the Prezi and the Slide Share and so I had to learn how to use them. My experience with learning the Prezi application was that I learned how to create structures with the presentation application by using pathway layouts to show you through the presentation, using textboxes to add text to my presentations, adding images to my presentations and adding shapes such as arrows to show specifically what part of information I am talking about within my presentation. slide share was a new experience for me as before I did not know how to upload a powerpoint presentation on my blog, however slide share provided me with the technology to allow me to upload my PowerPoint presentation anywhere, so within the context of my magazine research it has allowed me to upload powerpoint presentations on my blog.
- 4. Planning For my planning I had used my phone and social networking applications such as Facebook to organise events such as planning with my model subject when I will be taking photos of them. Whilst I have experience with these tools I had grown to learn options that I did had previously had little experience such as organising groups and events dates on Facebook to let my model subject know when I shall be requiring their assistance.
- 5. Production To capture my shots for my photographic content for my music magazine I used a camera from my Samsung Galaxy S4 along with a tripod which allowed me to gain steadier images for my magazine. I took these pictures behind a variety of walls and a door so that it gave accuracy to my double page spread making my double page spread article more believable adding professionalism to my magazine. It also gave me ambient lighting which made it easier for me to editing the lighting with my images to a high key or a low key. Whilst I have experience with the Samsung Galaxy S4 camera, I was still able to learn new experiences with my camera such as learning how to upload my images to my blog as well as learning how to transport them through my Gmail account to then download and edit them on Photoshop. To further enhance my images whilst still remaining to conventional to my magazine I used props that are identified with the rock genre, so I used an electric guitar for my images in my magazine as that prop is often stereotyped to compliment the rock genre. I also used costume to an extent as I made my subject wear a prison uniform to exist alongside with the double page spreads content. Both costume and props really complimented my magazine creating interesting images for my primary audience to gaze upon.
- 6. Post Production For my magazine I had used Abode Photoshop CC 2014 on all aspects of my magazine when creating it. This has allowed me to learn a variety of new elements to Photoshop, the most important tools I learned whilst creating the magazine was the adjustments tab which gave me a variety of options to edit the images within my magazine as well as the importance of layering within my magazine which I felt has been an essential aspect within the creation of my magazine as it the magazine structure itself. I had also used Dafont within my magazine which allowed me a wider variety of fonts to make my magazine more conventional and more appealing to my primary audience by using the Evil Dead Regular font and the 28 Days Later font. I had no experience with Dafont in the past so this was a fresh, new opportunity for me to learn a new application to which I learned how do download and install fonts into existing applications such as Photoshop. Learning new skills allowed me to follow and create an conventional magazine to a professional standard since before having any experience with these applications during the preliminary task, and so these skills allowed me to create my magazine to a professional standard.
- 7. Abode Photoshop CC 2014: Layers The most important information I learned about Photoshop is that everything is created in Layers and layers are individual pieces of information that compile and compose into a single document. With layers you can modify and edit multiple items in your document without disturbing the rest of the document. You can also add and take away certain layers which also allows for a great amount of flexibility with composing your document. This has helped me as its has allowed me to craft parts of my magazine to make it look more to a professional standard alongside already well established magazines within the rock genre.
- 8. Abode Photoshop CC 2014: Adjustments: Another important thing I learned about Photoshop was the adjustments tab, as the adjustments tab allowed me to be able to edit images to enhance the attraction from them to the primary target audience with the use of editing how bright a image can be to editing how much saturation you could have in your image. A key important step I learned about editing images with the adjustments tools is to only modify images to complement or contrast to the layout of the magazine so that you can improve attraction by making the images in the magazine stand out more.
- 9. Abode Photoshop CC 2014: Colour Balance Colour balance (as part of the adjustments tab) is a tool to help modify the colour in an image to change the mood and tone of an image within the context of a magazine. To use the Colour Balance, just click on the adjustments tab and then the colour balance tab after that when a layout similar to this will appear. What I found out was that by changing the the changing the colour levels for each section of cyan to red, magenta to green and yellow to blue, you can change the colour of the image to become paler or brighter and that you can also give the image a strong saturation of a particular colour such as red of cyan for example if you choose to go to an extreme colour, but this will reflect a strong tone and mood to your primary audience and for my magazine I did not want to portray that as that may put off a large proportion of my audience hence why I chose to go for a paler tone as well as to to compliment the layout of my music magazine.
- 10. Abode Photoshop CC 2014: Exposure Exposure is how pale and dark you can make an image as a way to enhance an image to make a stronger contrast with the layout of the music magazine. To use the exposure you click on the adjustments tab, the elect the expose tab. You then can edit the image by moving the arrow icons left to right or by placing a number within the number boxes, each section either makes the image darker or lighter with gamma to enhance the adjustment to the image you have made. What I learned from this is that when I used it, was to modify the images slightly with the use of the exposure tool, otherwise it gives me an extremely light or dark image which then affects the rest of the image for further editing adjustments.
- 11. Abode Photoshop CC 2014: Channel Mixer The channel mixer holds the same purpose as the colour balance except that it focuses on the strength of an individual colour rather than changing one colour to another, for example you can change the colour of the image by editing how strong or pale you want the colour red to be in your image. To use the channel mixer, go into the adjustments tab and then select the channel mixer tab. To modify the colours just drag the arrow left or right or add a specific number in the number box. What I found out about the channel mixer is that it can be used to give a strong tone and atmosphere to an image, however that the colours used could be inappropriate within the context of complimenting the composition of the magazine double page spread so I used the channel mixer on specific images and then used them on the contents page to fulfill the purpose of advertisement to attract the primary audience into further reading the magazine.
- 12. Evaluation For my evaluation I have used a variety of applications such as YouTube, slide share, Microsoft powerpoint and bubbl. Whilst I have experience to YouTube, Microsoft powerpoint and slide share during the process of creating my magazine and finding and presenting research I was not familiar with bubbl which allowed me to manipulate new technology to present my conclusion. I had also used my Samsung Galaxy S4 camera to record videos and to them upload them onto the YouTube application on the same device which I had pervious experience with however I found out that you could also set the videos to different privacy settings so that only a select few can watch my videos I uploaded for my magazine research and conclusions, this allowed me the freedom to upload videos so that the relevant few can watch them.