1. 1. Question 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? Coming from my preliminary task to my final product, I feel I have progressed a long way in my skills and abilities. Stating with, I have become far better at taking photographs. Starting with, I was only familiar with smaller compact cameras and phone cameras, but, developing my skills, I am now able to operate more sophisticated cameras such as the camera I used to complete my final product, a Canon 60D. This has allowed for my photography to look more professional and has added a great deal to my magazine. On top of this, I also learnt how to use professional lighting equipment and set up shots and images of my own, furthering the professional look. I have used this in many ways, changing lighting direction, intensity and the light itself to complete images with various shadows and depths. This also allowed for me to learn how to use natural light alongside my magazine in order to take photos in outdoor locations. I have also gained the ability to use more editing techniques through Adobe Photoshop CC, being able to quickly manipulate an imported image or photograph to change the brightness, contrast and exposure among many other things. This has allowed for my magazine to progress forward as it has given me the skills needed to alter the images to fit in with the style and layout of the magazine. Another technique which I have learnt is how to make the magazine attractive and aesthetically pleasing to look at for the target audience using the Guttenberg Design Principle. When completing my preliminary task, I struggled with how to lay out the cover of a magazine to make audiences see the magazine contents and to draw my target audience in. However, once I had learnt the aspects of the Guttenberg Design Principle, I knew for my final piece how to layout the page so that the important images and text drew in the audience while also being able to draw the eyes of the audience to the weak fallow area, an area of the magazine page that is very rarely looked at by the reader. The allowed for all of the pages of my magazine to completely draw in the audience as well as attract people from a distance with my front cover, using large images and text in a way that attracted the audience. House style was another important aspect for my magazine as, when making my preliminary task, The colours and fonts did not fit together at all, making the cover unattractive to the audience and meaning all of the pages no longer matched. However, when I had learnt about house style, I was able to use colour and text combinations together to create an overall identity for my magazine with similar texts used throughout as well as an overall colour scheme for the different articles. My research skills were also improved having done no prior research towards my preliminary task before beginning while, after completing the research for my final product, I learnt how important research can be, learning the codes and conventions of a music magazine. Finally, I learnt how to write in a similar style to a professional journalist, analysing professional articles in order to look at the style and tone of the language used, meaning I could then go off and add this to my own piece. Overall, I have developed my skills to a higher level of professionalism since completing my preliminary task, learning the importance of many different elements when making a magazine.