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

The use of technology was inevitable during the process of developing my media product. Without all these technologies it wouldn’t be possible to create a high-quality magazine for our media coursework. Here is a list of all the technology I have used.

• Digital camera•A computer•A laptop •Adobe Photoshop•Internet Explorer (Blogger, SlideShare, SurveyMonkey, Youtube, etc.) •Microsoft Powerpoint•Microsoft Publisher•Memory stick

I have learnt a lot from the process of constructing my magazine. From having never before used photoshop to now having a pretty good knowledge of how to use different tools and elements of it. I used to use another ‘replacement’ of Photoshop called Photoscape because I thought it was easier and quicker but now that I have used Photoshop I never want to go back to the other one again.

I can now use blending, brightness and contrast, marquee, move tool, lasso, magic wand, crop tool etc, to make my photos look much more professional and suitable for the magazine. I had trouble using Photoshop in the beginning, but as I used it more and more it became easier and less stressful. I used the help of tutorial videos on Youtube, which helped me greatly and also the help of our teachers was of great use as well.

Some references to YouTube videos I used in the very beggining of my experience with Photoshop:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-u-OYz2qaU&feature=fvst

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxgRneI6yfY

The tool on the right helped me edit images in different ways. Another tool I used a lot was the Eyedropper tool that helped me pick up a certain colour from anywhere in the image. The use of the magnetic lasso and crop tool, with this tool I could go round the photo and it would cut it out allowing me to place it on a blank background if I wanted to.

I found the layers panel on the right handside quite confusing in the beginning as I knew nothing about I have since learnt that this is an important factor when working on my magazine. The layers allow users to work on separate images in order to modify sections without changing the entire image.

Communication

The use of communication was possible with the use of Internet Websites. I was a number of them and they made everything so much easier and quicker. For example, uploading my audience research questionnaire on SurveyMonkey allowed as many people as we wanted to take the survey without having to hardly make any effort and print out sheets. The results were easy to understand and make use of. I posted my survey on my Facebook wall and a few people took the time to answer the questions.

Communication

Facebook was a good way to communicate with our classmates and exchange ideas on who is doing what and how. We also used the group called ‘AS Media Studies York College’ that allowed us to ask the teachers questions and share information.

Blogger was of course, the main website I used as it allowed me to upload any tasks I had finished straight away, go back and change things, share it with more people and get comments for my work. I enjoyed working with Blogger and although I had never had a blog before I found it quite simple to use after the first time.

CameraI used a digital camera (that college provided us with) to take my pictures. I chose to use the one in college instead of my own as the other one was professional and it allow high quality pictures. Also, it is quite easy to transfer on a computer or memory stick. I learned about different kinds of shots when taking pictures (mid-shot, high angle shot, long shot etc.) and about balancing and editing images. I took a lot of photos to make sure that I had enough to choose from when it came down to it. I also managed to stick to my flat plans for my pictures, so they turned out how I wanted them. This is where I got some tips for using the camera:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuUt44rIeLA