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

-  Learning media was a whole new experience for me, I encountered a lot of new skills over the 7 months of the course. We started of by being introduced to blogger this is where all my coursework was saved and viewed. We had to start of by making an account and this was new to me as I didn’t know what blogger was, I found it entirely frustrating and hard to use.

This was because sometimes my work would save however it wasn’t in an ascending order, at first I found it very difficult to upload my coursework at the beginning, my biggest problem that I found was how I put pictures up on blogger, I had to save pictures as a j-peg before they was then able to go onto blogger which was really maddening as at first I didn’t know how to do this and I never uploaded pictures until I had learnt the skill, when the pictures are on the page it is then hard to move the pictures freely to match the text when it has been uploaded to blogger, even though we was allowed to add people to our blog I found it really hard on the process of how I was able to add people or having security to my page. It is not a straight for network site like facebook and is really complicated.

The internet was a big priority on my coursework, this helped me to gain research on magazines and give me hints on tips on ideas for my magazine. I used google a lot to search for images as well as definitions. The internet was a big help to me and gave me useful ideas that I was able to put forth into my magazine, especially for my double page spread as I never knew what to include.       

The internet was a big priority on my coursework, this helped me to gain research on magazines and give me hints on tips on ideas for my magazine. I used google a lot to search for images as well as definitions. The internet was a big help to me and gave me useful ideas that I was able to put forth into my magazine, especially for my double page spread as I never knew what to include.       

I also used Photoshop CS3 which I have never used in my life, Photoshop is really interesting and a good way to create all types of things. I have found it very exhausting and stressful their was so much to Photoshop that I was so hard that I didn’t know how to use it hence why I had to stick to the basics by learning via YouTube. This was a great help as I have never used Photoshop and never knew how to go about it, I believe you can see a big contrast in the college magazine that I have produced to the music magazine that I have recently made I know if I had more time given to me, I would have been able to learn more from Photoshop and a lot of skills would have been detected in my work, I had heard about air brushing before but I never got around my way of using it, instead I would ‘select all’ and then just change the contrast. With Photoshop you have to take baby steps at first and be very patient if you do not understand it. Another problem I had was when I wanted to write text and then I would write and it wouldn’t come up, I found it very annoying to use I would have to drag the item above the background till it is able to show. Which beginners like me would find hard and wouldn’t know what to do. I also had to double check my spelling as Photoshop has not got word check on it which is a negative point as a lot of writing needs to be done especial on contents page and double page spread. Over all I think that Photoshop is an intelligent application that enquires months of using it and if used to the best of someone’s ability then it can be a gifted skill.      

The camera that I used was a canon E05 400D, I have never used a professional camera and found it very challenging, however once you know how to use it, the camera itself then becomes straight forward. I have only used the camera twice and at times found it quite tough to use especially when trying to put the camera in focus, I found it really difficult. However by the help of my teacher I learnt how to use it and get pictures in focus. Whilst using the camera we had to make sure that the mode was in ‘P’ for programmed. I didn’t really use the flash of the camera as it was already enough light as I had been using the soft box. This helped me know how to position my model so I can get a good lighting.

Facebook also helped me, even though this is something that I use quite often I was happy on the new way we was allowed to do our audience research which was by asking our friends, this was a easier way of asking and was less hassle then taken a questionnaire and handing out sheets of paper for them to give you back, it is also very reliable as the ‘print screen’ button is there so the conversation is recorded effectively.