What have I learnt about technologies from the process of creating Bezerk?
- 1. Before the start of my production I was confident with adobe Photoshop and simple photography, however I had no experience with Adobe InDesign.
- 2. Photoshop CreativeCloud • I used Adobe Photoshop to create the front page of Bezerk magazine. Although I have used Photoshop many times before I encountered some new techniques in the process of creating this production. I found that there are many more text options than the usual font colour and size, such as the height and spacing between letters.
- 3. • I used a much wider variety of the selection tools in the editing of the front page image. I had shot the main image against a blue screen and this had to be changed to be appropriate for its purpose. Using the different selection tools (Polygon, Lasso, Magnetic and Magic wand) to remove the blue sections of the image I also learnt that these tool have tolerance options to change how sensitive they are at selecting between different colours. This was particularly useful when working around the subjects hair as that is the trickiest part.
- 4. InDesign Creative cloud • InDesign was Completely new software to me that I had never used before, I knew that it was the optimal programme for creating magazines as it has further text options in comparison to Photoshop. It’s also much better for the placement and position of text. I felt it would be worth learning how to use InDesign for the production of my Contents page and double page spread. In order to do this I watched a few videos showing me the basics of the programme such as how to open a new document and how to move objects around. After this began to use the programme to create a basic page to increase my confidence .
- 5. Getting started • As I began to learn how to correctly use it I stared to create a mock up of my contents page with the correct columns. I found that you could inset graphics into InDesign and still be able to edit them in Photoshop, this was very useful . • Although InDesign is very different, there are also many similarities between it and Photoshop. For Example, they both have layers so you can stack graphics on top of each other and then rearrange them. I found In design excels in text options, whether that be the way the texts looks or the positioning of the text
- 6. Photography lighting • Throughout the production process, my skills with photography have increased. For my production I had two photoshoots. One was a live a gig with of friends band performing (used in DPS), the other was set up in school(for front page). For both I used A Nikon D3100 DSLR Camera. At the beginning I had very minimal lighting experience. I had only really thought about the natural light in a situation and never really used a set up to achieve a better lighting. I had found a good image from another similar magazine that I liked that I wanted to replicate for my main front page image. The image I found was backlit and this was something I had never really experimented with before. I researched more advanced lighting techniques to prepare me for the actual photoshoot. I found out how to set up different light to create a given effect. Before this I assumed that to back light an image you simply put a light behind the subject, facing the camera, but after I learnt that more than one light is required. On the day of the photoshoot, I set up the lights in the way that I researched as well as experimenting with set ups. Then I shot the images up against a blue screen. The end result was very good in my opinion and worked quite well.
- 7. • Another obstacle I had to over come in the aspect of photography was the very low lighting at the live photo shoot at the gig venue. A novice solution to this issue would be to use the flash however this gives a very poor image result. Instead I studied how various camera settings such as shutter speed, ISO, exposure and aperture can affect the image outcome. I realized that in low light it would be best to use a longer stutter speed(how long the camera allows light in for) and a higher ISO(sensitivity to light).
- 8. • These settings allow the camera to receive enough light to produce a decent image when in low light. If you were to use these settings in day light you would end up with a white image due to the intensity of the light. Although I was prepared, It was a great challenge to get good photos on the day of the shoot, as many of the images came out blurry because of the long shutter speed. Through trail and error, changing between different shutter speed and ISO combinations, I was able to get a good number of high quality images to use on my double page spread and contents page
- 9. Good vs Bad Pictures • These are some examples of photos that turned out good and bad.