Friday, 21 March 2014

Evaluation Question 6 - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I have used many different and new technologies whilst creating my coursework, I have had to use these whilst generating my coursework because that is what it is based on, the use and skills of these certain technologies. I feel as though that throughout this process that I have learnt a lot about how to use new software that I wasn't sure how to use before. This is also something I will remember for the future because programs like Photoshop would be useful for careers in the future, especially considering if I go for a more creative career because it is a good program to know the fundamental basics of because it is so useful in producing images.

Computer: This is something that I have used throughout the whole process, it has allowed me to use all of the software that I have needed to generate my magazine and also to do my research and planning on. I have used both the school computers and also my own computer, both supporting Windows 7 on them. I have mainly used my home laptop, this is because I felt more comfortable and at ease with it because it was natural to me. However I predominantly used the computers at school for my blog work because I felt as though this was important to do at school because most of my time at home was taken up producing and developing my magazine. However I think I managed my time wisely because I have manged to keep up with both my blog work and my magazine.

Adobe Photoshop CS6 Extended/Adobe Photoshop CC: This is the software I have used to create my magazine, I have used both CS6 Extended and CC forms of Photoshop. The CC version is what I used at home because it is part of the Creative Cloud program that Adobe has and luckily you can get a free trial of this and I took advantage of that. Luckily as well both of these versions work well with each other and everything that I had done at home was easily transferable onto the school computers. I was incredibly inexperienced with Photoshop at the beginning of the coursework however with steady practise and development I was able to develop my skills to produce a magazine that I am proud of.

Mircosoft Word: I used this program to help me write my article for my magazine. This was helpful due to the fact that I was able to track how many words I was using and also to correct any spelling mistakes that I accidentally put in. I have used this program many times so it wasn't alien to me at all, I could easily write the article then transfer that to Photoshop using the copy and paste tool.

Blogger: I have used Blogger since the beginning of the course because I have used it to document my learning and research throughout the whole time. This has been a helpful resource for me because I have been able to go back and see what I have done previously to help me later on when I am looking at what decisions I made at the beginning of the coursework. This has been a helpful tool in helping me present my work because you are able to adjust the layout and style to fit your needs and I have found that I have been able to present my work in an effective way that looks professional.

Animoto: I have used this software earlier on the the process, this was to create a pitch to help present my idea. I had never used Animoto before this coursework task however I found it very easy and useful to use because I felt like I was able to establish my ideas earlier on in a very original and stylish way. It has given a great visual representation to the product and has helped me communicate my ideas in a easy fashion.

Flickr: I used Flickr to upload the pictures I had taken, this was a helpful program to use because it allowed me to easily access the pictures I had taken at school and download them at home to use in Photoshop CC on my own laptop. I was also then able to put the pictures onto my blog which then my peers were able to see and judge how well I had taken the pictures.

Slide Share: I used slide share quite a lot throughout my research and planning process of my magazine. I used this to firstly showcase my analysis of magazine covers, contents, and DPS. Then I also used it for future powerpoints as well that I had created to easily show what I had written and to also present it in a aesthetically pleasing way.

Camera (Nikon D3200): This was the school's DLSR camera that I had the opportunity to use in order to capture my images for my magazine. I had a few issues with this purely for the fact that I am very new to this technology and I was nervous around a piece of kit that I did not own because I didn't want to damage it in any way. Consequently I feel as though in my first photoshoot the images weren't as great as the second because I was a complete novice to the gear. However I soon picked up the technology and a few of the main features of it, therefore being able to produce better quality images for my magazine.

Lighting: For my final photoshoot I was using three soft lighting boxes. This was used to create a very dramatic lighting effect which I wanted to create, however even though the shadow on images isn't that fantastic when looking at the quality of images, although I wanted a slight shadow on my images because I thought that this style really fitted into the way my magazine was laid out. These help to just create professional and high quality images that would be expected in a up market magazine.

Internet: (Mainly Google) I used the internet throughout the whole of my coursework process. This is a crucial part of this because of the fact that without this I would have been unable to research anything for my blog. This has also helped me to find images of inspiration and find ideas for what I want to achieve out of the process.

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