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

Reece Johnson

Personal Laptop/College Computer

All of my work for this course was done on my own, personal, MacBook or the college’s iMacs. I found working with both of these devices to be extremely easy and fast due to their operating systems and I believe the speed of these devices are what enabled me to complete my work on time as some computes can be very slow and tedious. Over the course of this course I have learnt new shortcuts on both of these devices such as how to quickly zoom in to an area on Photoshop. This shortcut came in useful on many occasions.

BloggerBlogger was one of the most important pieces of software that I used throughout this process, as it is the place where I can store and present my work in a professional manner. Blogger allows me to upload all of my work quickly and easily and this work can be shared extremely easily with my teachers, peers and invigilators (if required) as it is accessible publically online. The only downside to this software is that plagiarism could occur if people were to copy the work I posted on my blog throughout the course.

CamerasI used two different cameras I the process of taking my photos and one clearly stood out from the other as the better camera with all round better features. For the first photo-shoot I undertook (for the drafts) I used a Fujifilm FinePix JX530, which is a good everyday camera but was not suited for this task especially. I noticed this when going through the photos I had taken to pick out the best ones. During this time, I decided that I would have to rearrange another photo-shoot with my models on another date when I could borrow a better camera. I borrowed my friends Nikon D5100, which is an extremely good digital SLR and worked well for the second photo-shoot with some good results. In this time period I learnt a lot about cameras and how the quality of photos can vary dramatically with the quality of the camera. I have learnt that a professional camera such as the Nikon D5100 is required to achieve professional results.

Photoshop CS6Photoshop was another key element in this task as I edited all of my magazine pages and pictures using this software and it would have been near on impossible without the use of this software. At the start of the task, I was practically incompetent with using Photoshop as I had never previously used the software. Over the course of the process, after reading through tutorial books, watching tutorial videos on YouTube and various practical practices I grasped the concept of Photoshop and became relatively good with the software and this enabled me to create my final products. My knowledge of the software and its tool has increased dramatically and I know feel confident in using the software. I used many of the tools without Photoshop throughout this course the main tools I used were:

• Select Tool- to arrange items on the page and move everything into position• Magic Wand Tool- to cut out my earlier models for my first drafts• Text Tool- for all the textual content on my magazine pages• Rectangle Tool- to create the lines that separate sections on both my final contents and double page spread• Eyedropper tool- to maintain the exact same colour through each section• Spot Healing Brush Tool- to remove any blemishes or imperfections on my models’ faces

These were the main tools I used throughout the task but there were obviously other tools that I used that I have not mentioned, as I did not use them as frequently but they were still important in the design process.

ScribdScribd was a very useful piece of software for me as I found writing out my blog posts on Blogger’s integrated system not to be up to the same standards I could get when writing on Microsoft Word. Scribd allowed me to write up my work on Microsoft Word with all the features it brings and then embed the document into my blog. This also makes there less to scroll through on my blog as a embedded Scribd document is only one A4 page in length on the blog as you cans scroll down to view the other pages when it is embedded.

Memory Stick Although a memory stick may not seem as important as other pieces of technology used, without it, I would have struggled to complete the work set. I used a memory stick throughout the entire course to transport my work to and from college. This was a part of hardware was vital for this task as it makes transporting work to and from college a lot easier than other methods such as emails. I found the large capacity of 32GB to be extremely useful as I did not have to worry about how much space I was using as there was always a lot of memory available no matter how memory consuming files were.

SlideShare

This software is similar to Scribd but for embedding PowerPoint presentations and I used this software to embed PowerPoint presentations onto my blog which was very helpful and useful as it provided another way of presenting my information. I had never used this software previous to this course but I am now fully confident is using it and will utilise this software in other subjects.

Google The use of a search engine throughout this course is practically vital and my personal preference is Google as I find it the most user friendly but also the search engine that provides the most relevant results to my specific searches. I used Google extensively in the research stage to research into conventions of pre-existing magazines and also to find all the images used throughout my blog. I found that there were results to the vast majority of the searches I entered and the images provided were always of good quality. This enabled me to use these images to enhance my blog as they added colour and interactivity which improves the experience for anyone reading through my blog as a blog with little or no images would be bland and boring to read through.

SoundCloudI used SoundCloud to find songs that fit the genre of my magazine and then group them into a playlist that I could then embed into my blog for the songs to be played directly from my blog. This feature came in very useful for reinforcing the type of music that would be featured throughout my magazine with the evidence of songs that are playable through the blog. This will create the vibe of the magazine for the reader to embrace through the medium of sound oppose to just writing on my blog on in my magazine.

Animoto I used Animoto to create and present my pitch to my media class. I found the software to be very easy to use as I had previously used the a different subject but I believe I enhanced my skills on the software as I learnt new features to it such as how to add background music. The use of this software came in very useful when presenting the pitch as presentations with PowerPoint's are well known to be boring and tedious when presenting in front of an audience. Animoto allowed to the point and informative information to displayed in an aesthetically pleasing manner for the audience viewing the presentation oppose to a standard PowerPoint. However, the information that could be put onto the presentation was limited which is why I could not use the software for other aspects of the course such as using it for presenting an evaluation as there is too much information in my evaluations to be placed on a Animoto.