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

HARDWARES

- Apple mac computers

- Key board

- Mouse

- White paper back drop

- Soft boxes

- Hemisphere 300 – Strobe flash

- Horseshoe Flash Trigger

- Camera

Apple mac computer

When I first started making my magazine I wasn’t very familiar with apple mac computers, however after making my music magazine I would say I am very familiar with them and can use with having basic problems.

Image credit computech.com

Key board and mouse.I was already familiar with using a mouse and key board but didn’t type nearly as much as I do now from drafting the article to writing it and answering all of the evaluation questions and planning questions, so I have learned how to increase my typing speed to get more information down, quicker.

White paper backdropI haven’t used a white paper back drop to this scale (for people) I found out this really increase the brightness of photos and makes them look cleaner. I learned that the artist/subject you are taking the photo of should stand to close to the back drop or you will see their shadow and also the subject shouldn’t stand to far away from the back drop or the bright effect will dull slightly. The white back drop was really helpful for creating my magazine and helping me get a crisp photo. The backdrop was also lit with two strobe lights to create a high exposure and a whiter, brighter background and decrease the chance natural shadows and light from being seen.

Soft boxes I used these to give a softer and a rounder light on the subject. I learned they made the light disburse and look more natural (softer) and not so harsh on the subject. I notice they also decrease the chance of harsh shadows from the model fro the flashing when the photo is taken. I also learned the effect they give makes the light look more like natural day light rather than light from a electric source.

Hemisphere 300 – Strobe flashI learned the Hemisphere 300 has a dial on the back to adjust the output, I had the modelling light on. The auxiliary lights set to ‘slave’ (so they had had a trigger that put them in sync with the built in light sensor. This strobe flash creates a very strong bright light to really capture the moment and to create a clean crisp image for the camera to pick up.

Horseshoe Flash TriggerI learned that the horseshoe trigger flash gives out an infer red signal that is sent to the strobe flash and triggers the flash in-sync with the cameras shutter. This was a very important piece of the equipment in the sense that without it I wouldn’t of had such a bright or professional look photo because with out it the strobe lights wouldn’t work in time with the cameras shutter and it would have been very difficult to get a clean, crisp photograph without blurs.

Camera The camera I used was the Nikon D3100 – Digital SLR and I used it on the

Manual Aperture f11 setting with a Shutter Speed of 1/300th.The camera I used was a vital part of my magazine cover because with out it I wouldn’t have been able to use my own photos. When using the camera I learned how to focus it (by holding the capture button half way down until it focuses) or moving away or closer to the subject. Taking photos close to the subject mean changing it to macro or portrait, but for shots further away from the subject meant using it on the manual aperture f11 setting (which what I used it on to take my photos)

SOFTWARE

Wordpress.com

Slideshare.com

Photoshop

Word

PowerPoint

1001 fonts

Wordpress.comI made my blog on wordpress to present my work, I've never made a blog before so this was new, but I have learned over the course of making my magazine and answering all of the planning questions how to use my blog. From making new posts, to making new pages and customizing my blog and altering the colour scheme.

Slideshare.comBefore I didn’t know what slide share was I didn’t know how to transfer my presentations from PowerPoint onto my blog. So when I found out about slideshare I learned that by uploading the PowerPoints there I could embed the PowerPoint presentation on to my blog after uploading it. I did this by coping and pasting the embed code that appears after uploading it. (this has really helped the presentation on my blog and has taught me how to now embed PowerPoints on other websites)

PhotoshopPhotoshop played a massive part in the making of my magazine from editing photos to writing with many different fonts, in many different styles, colours and creating the logo for the magazine.

Photoshop editing the photosPhotoshop helped me edit the photos for my magazine, I started by cropping any photos I had to crop I did this by first using the marquee tool to drag a square box around what I wanted to keep from the photo and then clicked on the word image at the top of the page and selected crop when a tap opened up underneath it. This is the way I cropped my images.

Photoshop editing the photosFor my magazine I wanted everything to look clean and polished including the artists, this was to the magazine a more professional look because widely successful magazine tend to Photoshop their artist to make their magazines look more appealing to customers. I polished up my photos by firstly using the healing brush tool on Photoshop.

You just click on the icon and hold down the curse over and imperfections and the vanish (I learned how to this while putting together my first image for my magazine, by just experimenting).

Photoshop editing the photos.

Now I learned how to use the brightness and contrast tool, it is simple to use you just move the sliders up or sown the scale until you have brightened the image enough and/or decreased/increased the contrast on the photo.

Photoshop editing the photos.While I was learning how to brighten and change the contrast on the photos I also learned how to change the hue and saturation on the photos. The process is very similar to the brightness and contrast methods (just move the sliders after selecting which colour you would like to change the hue of or saturation of.)

Photoshop the paintbrush tool.I used the paintbrush tool for multiple reasons through out my magazine. I learned not only to use it to draw shapes and use to colour in backgrounds for writing to go over the top of but also to edit the artists look. For example on my magazine cover I use the paint brush tool to draw the lipstick on my artist. All I did was colour in the lips with a pink and then turn the opacity down for the whole layer I had drawn on to dull the colour and make it look more natural. I learned all of this from editing my first photo for my magazine and it really helped me understand how to alter a photo and make it look natural.

Layout photoshop.

I also used photoshop to help me plan the basic layout of the page with the ruler tool (you can drag blue lines vertically and horizontally in to place across your page to make boxes and guidelines for where you want things to go. I also learned that when you are finished with the page you were working on, once you save it the lines don’t show on the saved image.

Fonts and writing.(1001 fonts)When looking for the right fonts to use I learnt about how to download new fonts that weren’t already installed on photoshop from a software called 1001 fonts. There are just over one thousand fonts to chose from and I found this tool helpful to experiment with different fonts, to see what suited my magazine best.

For the fonts I did use I learned how to put a stroke around the text to make it stand out more, this proved to be a really helpful skill through out the making of my magazine, and I used it at least ones on every page. I also learned how to change the size of the stroke and the colour this also helped me in making letters stand out.

Word.

I used the Microsofts WORD to draft my article, Word helped me to increase the speed of my typing and I learned how important it is to draft things, because you can correct your spellings and alter sentences so that they read better.

PowerPoint

And last but not least PowerPoint has also taught me a lot through out my course work how to present my work in an alternate way. I have learned how to present my questions in a professional and stylish way. I have also learnt about the other software (slideshare) because I had to embed the PowerPoint in wordpress.

Everything

By making this magazine I have had to learn how to use various hardware's and software's, some have been more challenging to use than others but I have learnt how to use them and am now much more confident in how to create and use the hardware's and software's to create something of my own.