Question 6

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Throughout the construction and development of this music magazine I have learnt a great deal about technologies and developed a variety of new useul skills. Before I started this project I had never even used an Apple mac! So literally everything was a new experience for me. I had great fun learning about and using the new software programmes such as Photoshop, Indesign, Blogger and so many more which before had not been available. All these programmes helped me to construct a magazine which looked professional using the conventions of typical music magazines.


A key element to creating my magazine has been by using Photoshop. Over the course of creating my magazine it has been fundamental to manipulating and enhancing my photos and logo.




Over the course I have learnt to use a wide range of new tools which have helped me create a professional looking music magazine.
Things I have learnt/used in Photoshop

• Spot healing tool




Before






After









• Cropping












Rendering to create artificial lighting











Adjusting contrast/brightness








Adjusting colour and saturation levels








Magnetic lasso tool

On Photoshop I have adjusted the brightness and contrast of my photograph which has enhanced the colours and improved the effect of the lighting I have used. It has made the photo a lot sharper and also made it bolder and more appealing.



I have also adjusted the levels of the picture which has allowed me to have more control.

I also used colour adjustment to add continuity to my magazine as seen in the double page spread. As the photograph on the double page was slightly different from the one on the contents page .
I felt I needed to do something to the image in order to make all three pages link togther. To do this, I adjusted the colour balance of the image and increased the cyan and blue levels making the picture appear more purple. I felt this linked well because I had used a lot of purple throughout the magazine prior to this and felt it was a subtle way to make the pages all "belong together" which is such an important element to the construction of music magazines.




Also during this project I have learnt to use Indesign which has been crucial to the construction of the magazine. The whole of my double page spread was created using this software which allowed me to design and layout the page perfectly. I used the margins and alignment guidelines to ensure all of my interview coloums were spaced out equally and were level to ensure a standard that was professional. I also text wrapped around the photograph in my double page spread which is an element I have also seen used throughout the whole of the music magazine industry, not just in music. Although I did not use Indei perhaps as much as I did other software, it was still crucial to the construction of my magazine and I can now confidently use it if need be in the future and the only reason that I did not use Indesign for my contents page was due to the fact I wanted to use the fonts I had already uploaded to Photoshop.

Blogger

Blogger has been absolutely fundamental to my coursework and has actually been a joy to use. At first, the idea of using blogger was slightly daunting as we the first year 12's to do the project online; we all didn't really know what to expect. However I put my old myspace html code knowledge to use and presented my research and planning through a variety of codes which included slide shows, drop down menus, flip books and I surprised myself by becoming quite obsessed with making my work look all "pretty". What I really liked about using Blogger was that it allowed me to put a personal stamp on my work and let me experiment and play in a variety of ways to present my work. It taught me to think more "out of the box" instead of just writing reams and I hope that I created a project which was more visual and exciting to look as. The blog made me take pride in my work and also allowed me to organise my work very well as it allowed me to draft work before I posted it. It also made me manage my time better as I knew that the time and date would be posted and that my teacher would be watching like a hawk to see if we were all up to scratch. This was a good thing because it made sure that I was not lazy and was always doing work.