What have you learnt about technologies from

the process of constructing this product?

By Nadia Guarino

• When I first started to use Photoshop I was very confused with how to work it. There were lots of tools which I had never seen before. For the first few weeks of when I was doing the preliminary task I watched lots of YouTube Video tutorials. Also the starter guide that we got given in lesson was quite useful as it had the basics of starting up from a new document.

To start off I got up the first image I needed for the double page spread and began to remove the background using the magic tool. From then on I got to grips with changing the background colour or putting an image in to replace it. This then lead me to be able to change the quality and brightness of the photo making it look more professional. These are in the tool bar at the top of the page under ‘image’ and then ‘adjustments’. After this I learnt to use the ‘clone stamp tool’ this was very useful and allowed me to edit out any imperfections or parts of the image that doesn’t look very attractive. I used this quite a lot throughout the construction of my magazine, an example is on the main picture in my double page spread, I edited out a wire which was very noticeable on the picture. I found that it was adobe photoshop was very easy to use and get to grips of however I had many issues saving my work, therefore if I am to use it again I need to make sure to save it to a memory stick as well as the computer I am working on. It is useful that there is a lot of information online on how to use it due to it being such a popular software that is used all over the world. Once you know how to use it, it becomes very quick and self explanatory to use. I struggled when it came to creating a ripped paper like background, but after many tries and youtube tutorials I managed to do it. I used different tools such as the ‘path selection’ tool and filters to give it this effect. In conclusion to this I really enjoyed using adobe photoshop and have really come to grips with using the basics of it. I still need some more practice using it which would benefit my magazine by it looking more professional but looking back from the beginning of the preliminary task I have learnt lots of new skills. I now have a better insight to using it so if i ever need it in the future I will know what to do.

Photoshop

Prezi• Before doing my media coursework I had never heard of the program ‘prezi’. I signed up to it and but my

first impression was I didn’t like the look of using it as it looked very hard and complicated. It took me quite a while to get use to as I did not understand what it meant by the ‘path’. I first used a template as a guideline to my Prezi but as I grew more confident with it I started to edit and create my own template. The templates were very useful as they had a variety ranging from simple ones to more busy ones with text and image. I mainly stuck to simple templates in the structure of a mind map. But to make it look more interesting I inserted pictures and changed the colour, typeface and size of the text. A very useful factor about Prezi is that it automatically saves every couple of minutes, this is good because it ensures you that you shouldn’t loose your work.

• You have the option to keep your Prezi private or share it publicly. When it comes to uploading your prezi onto your blog it is very quick and easy as it gives you a unique URL code that you just copy and past over. Prezi is very good to create presentations or display information in a creative way with supporting pictures.

Camera• The camera I used to take my magazine pictures is a Nikon D7000 SLR this is a very good quality camera

with lots of settings that edit the light, reflections, red eye, skin colour and many more. The images created from this camera are very crisp and sharp with the right setting used. It has a 16.2 megapixel camera which also focuses very well. The camera was very quick meaning it would capture the photo at the exact time I need it meaning the pose of the model is captured at its best. Also this means time management for the photo shoot should be on point as there should be no delays and The contrasts and balance of light and surroundings means that its easy for me to capture the best possible images. The only downside of using this SLR camera is that it is very expensive but with the amazing quality of the images that it takes make it so worth while. It has very smooth tonal radiations and has very smooth shutter control with flash meaning that it is quite for a picture to go blurry due to focus.

• This is a big improvement from using my iphone in the preliminary task, the most noticeable bit is the shadow quality. In the SLR it is a lot more defined and clear where as from my iphone the shadows looked slightly pixelated and overall not the best quality.

Soundcloud• I have used Soundcloud since the beginning of the coursework. It has been very useful as it is easy to

create a simple podcast. I like how easy it is to use with the quick use of pause and stop. The way Soundcloud saves all your voice recordings and displays them in date order is a very organised and easily accessible way of viewing them. This makes it quick to see what you have done and links well with time management. Soundcloud is also free which makes is very useful as you can download any audio format including music. The link can the be embedded into where ever you want to display it, this makes it look more professional. Sound cloud is great because it displays your podcast with your username and then you can add a title for it. In this example I put the title as one of the evaluation questions.

Social networking• Throughout the process of creating my magazine I used twitter and photoshop quite a lot to display

links to the surveys I created or just asking friends for feedback. Firstly I used twitter to display a link of my first survey monkey on music magazine genres and target audiences. This was ideal as I have many followers on twitters so people are able to easily access it. If I didn’t post it on twitter I would of received barely any responses. I didn’t get as many as I expected though but this is due to me rarely tweeting. Survey monkey is the website I used to create my surveys and it was very easy and lets you display the responses in a variety of ways making it more interesting for the audience. Another benefit to it is that it is free.

• I created a small private message on facebook to some of my friends to get feedback on my magazine. The age of the people varied from 16 - 22 which is the exact ages my magazine is targeted at. This was ideal as it let the state what they think the advantages and disadvantages were to it. Having all the feedback in one place made it easy to refer back to.

• Facebook and twitter were a good idea to use for gaining feedback due to a large amount of the population using these social networking websites. This is why I could get targeted feedback from my audience.

Macbook pro/ PC• Throughout the whole course work unit of my magazine I have used both a macbook pro and a PC. This

is down to me having a macbook pro at home and then using a normal computer at college. This has been very frustrating due to the macbook not having Microsoft but having iwork in its place, making it difficult for me to access the work I created at home on a college computer. However because I am use to using a macbook I found it easier and more reliable to use but when it came to transferring over my work it was not always successful an I regularly lost parts of it leading me to being behind and not to top of my time management. I couldn’t use the computers at college were hard to use just because I have not used a normal computer in a long time. They were also quite unreliable because I lost my photoshop front cover, and contents page twice on them. This was a major drawback therefore if I could go back and change it I would of done all my construction on my macbook. However there were times when the college computers were a lot more useful like when my internet connection was down due to a fault being in the line. This took a few days to start consistently running again therefore I had to try and do all my work at college in my frees and after college.

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Go animate• Go animate is also another website which I had never heard of before. It was a fun and creative way of

displaying your ideas. It is a technological website where you create your own character with voice overs with what you want them to say. To create a go animate you first have to sign up to the website, it is free however there is only the choice of 4 different character without paying the membership fee. You pick the location on where you want your characters to be set. There was not much of a variety of choice if you didn’t pay the membership fee and were very restricted with what the characters looked like. When it came to creating the conversation between the two characters you were very restricted in what you could say in one video, this is due to a limit in the number of letters. This is why you would have to normally create more then one animation. The voices of the characters were very non understandable due to them sounding very electronically robotic. Once you had finished your animation you could then display you animation by embedding the link of the animation into the chosen place you want to set it. I liked the idea of go animate but on the whole it wasn’t a great way to display information due to it being hard to understand.

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Blogger• Blogger is what I have used to display all my coursework on creating a music magazine. I blogged all the

completed work and it helped me keep on track with the work I have already completed and need to complete as it clearly displayed it. I created 5 different pages, these are: Homepage, Preliminary task, Research, Planning, Construction and evaluation. I found it very easy to use and also quite fun as I had never previously used it before. It was very easy to upload images, videos and text. The only thing I did struggle one was embedding my videos and podcast clips. I like the way it automatically saves your work meaning that it would be hard to lose. The only times I had problem with blogger was when I tried to access it in the LRC at college. This was the same for most people therefore I would save all my work onto a memory stick and then transfer it when I got home or in the media rooms. It was an easy and effective way to display our coursework.

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Powerpoint• Powerpoint is a Microsoft piece of software that is only compatible if you have the Microsoft package. It

is quite similar to Prezi however Prezi is free and online where as powerpoint is the opposite. Powerpoint is very useful and easy to use when you get to grips of it.

• On powerpoint you get different templates to chose from or you can create your own. This is also the same as Prezi. You get editing boxes which you can fill with text and images making the slide run smoothly. You can copy and paste and image whereas on Prezi you have to save it to your files and upload it. When you want to create a new slight it is very simple as you only have to click ‘new slide’. Powerpoint is slightly more technological as you can animate the images and text. This enable you to let them fade in and out with different animations.

• Powerpoint is a very useful and creative way of displaying information but because it is so simple there are other better technologies available with more of an interesting twist to display your work. It is also very hard to publish powerpoint presentations on the internet with out the use of sites such as ‘slideshare’.

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Google Docs• Google docs is a website which enables you to share your documents either publicly or privately. With

internet connection it allows you to access your files and choose which ones. It allows you and other to access depending on which setting you choose. If you choose private you have the choice who can access it. Google Docs has been very useful to me as it allows me to upload my word documents to my blog in a simple form of a PDF. It is a very secure website and is very useful as all the work you have stored on there can be accessed as long as you have an internet connection available. It is very easy to use and can the settings can be easily changed depending on who you want to access it.

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GIF• Firstly GIF stands for ‘Graphics Interchange Format’. This is where you combine lots of

images which rotate. Normally they are used for motion pictures but I used it to display an answer to one of my media questions. I made the GIF from a website where I had to select a number of pictures and choose the time I want them to be on the screen for. I took into consideration that people have to read the annotations therefore chose a fairly long time. I wanted quite a simple way of showing the question as all my previous questions have had a lot of text with barely any images. I added images and text on one page and saved them as one image. GIFS are a very creative and original way of showing information and pictures.

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Conclusion..• To sum up all of the different technologies I have learnt to use of the period of creating my music

magazine. Some I have really enjoyed using and gave me such an advantage to creating a good piece of work but some others have let me down slightly and I didn’t get the outcome that I wished. Learning to use photoshop was one of my favourite parts over the past few months as it will also help me in the future with my other subjects. I got very frustrated at times when I lost my work but now I have finished it I am overall pleased and am quite thankful that I lost it as it was more practice to using the software. Technology can be very annoying at times if it doesn’t work the way you want it too but it is also very useful and can really benefit your work and boost up the quality.

• The different technologies have helped me in a number of way including gaining feedback on my media product. This shows how popular and successful social networking is today and would be a great advertisement to my music magazine. Websites like Youtube are great to get help with things you are not sure about. In my case using photoshop and how to create a ripped like background. As it is so big and well known it is great for uploading videos to promote your product too.

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