Evaluation 6 – What have you learnt about technologies from the process

of constructing this product?

CAMERAS• To take my draft images I used a Nikon d3200. This

camera was very effective and produced nice images, however I realised there needed to be a higher element of sharpness in my images so for my final photos I used a canon 60D. I believe this camera was very simple to use and produced a sharper image, which worked on my pages better. I used the picture setting and also the night mode setting for my pictures to produce the best image. The sharpness was one of the key things I needed for my images in order to keep the professional look. A challenge I came across with the cameras was finding a replacement camera to use; it was hard to find the right camera for the images I wanted to portray however with some research I soon got past this. The only problem was I didn’t have access to my own camera; therefore I had to borrow my friends so it was less convenient for me. Having access to my own personal camera would have allowed me to have more time and concentration during photos to get perfect shots and settings.

COMPUTERSThroughout the process of research and planning and also creating the magazine I used a school iMac and my own iMac at home. During the coursework I didn’t learn anything new about the iMac, I just learnt how to operate different software’s and applications to help me get through the task successfully. It was extremely beneficial having iMac’s at my school. Another benefit was that I was lucky to have access to an iMac at home; this allowed me to spend extra time to put in more effort at home, which helped me improve a lot of aspects of my research and planning and especially my magazine.

I also used a MacBook Pro to upload photos onto my memory stick when an iMac was accessible. This was useful because I already had knowledge on the operating system which made it easier to move around the MacBook to find/store files.

PHOTOSHOP CS6My Photoshop skills have improved drastically, comparing my preliminary tasks with my final pieces you can see this. I have learnt a lot of little things in Photoshop, which have enabled me to create my successful magazine. I have learnt how to use the magic wand tool to cut models out and place into different backgrounds, all different angling tools to make sure my text and images line up together correctly, I used different Photoshop skills when editing my images as well, when editing I used different settings to alter the brightness and contrast of my images, this made other fonts stand out more in comparison. To begin with I didn’t have access to Photoshop at home, which prevented me from putting extra work into my magazine, however I soon overcame this situation so it was accessible from home.

ANIMOTO

Animoto was a very useful application to use when delivering my pitch. The site allowed me to put all of my pitch together with the use of music, which fitted in with the genre. This was very useful and made the pitch more interesting.

MEMORY STICK

My memory stick was vital for me during the whole course of my media project. This is because it allowed me to easily/simply transfer work from school for home access. Without the use of my memory stick I would have struggled to get all of my work completed in time because files were too big to send via email etc.

BLOGGERI posted every stage of my coursework on my blog, this ranged from research and planning, to my magazine drafts and updated drafts. This has been a useful website to use for keeping track off my work as well which has been beneficial throughout the coursework.

SCRIBD

When my writing has been long I have used the scribd website to embed my work straight onto blogger, the website puts the work, as a word document, onto the blog, this uses up less space so their isn’t consistent scrolling needed as well.

PREZI

I also used prezi to put work onto my blog; this made work look more creative rather than the standard word documents. It is like using PowerPoint however you can be more creative which is useful. Before the task I had never used prezi before so I have learnt a lot about it and also I can take this into other subjects and events where I need to present information.

FLICKR

• I used Flickr to put my final shots on my blog as a photo stream. This website was useful as it allowed me to put all my photos on at once with no hassle.