How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Question 4

I used a camera to take all the photos that were used in my production. The camera I used was a Sony DSC-H200, the 20.1 megapixel lens and the 26x optical zoom allowed me to take photos in good quality and proved to be an effective piece of equipment that I used. Transferring my images to the computer, so I am able to use them, was very simple and easy with the use of an SD card reader. Without the use of a digital camera like my own I would have used a camera which uses film, so I would have had to go through a long process of printing the photographs and scanning them in order to use them on the computer.

I used google for my research; to find images, websites, etc. using google meant that I was able to find the information that I needed quickly and easily. Without google the research process would have taken a lot longer and I would have needed to buy a lot of magazines and cut things out.

I also used Facebook to contact my focus group and gain feedback in order to progress with my production and make it appeal to my target audience as best as I could. Without the use of Facebook I would have either had to ask my focus group to meet up and go and see them individually which would take too much time.

I used Blogger to publish all my research, planning and production easily and quickly at any time I wanted because of their app. Using Blogger meant that my work was arranged in chronological order which meant easy navigation. Without Blogger I probably would have had to print off all my work and archive it in the correct order, by using Blogger it saved a lot of time and hassle.

When making my website I used Wix. Wix is a website builder where you can chose a template and customise it easily. Because of the templates I was able to just add the text and images I wanted and could play around with the layout if I wished to.

I used Adobe Photoshop CS3 whilst making my production; this software allowed me to insert a background image and add text and other images. Because I used the same software for my foundation portfolio I already had the gist of how to use it; I used photoshop to alter and enhance the photos I had taken with my camera to make them look like they should belong in a magazine. Using photoshop meant that the production process wasn’t as long as most people would have anticipated.

The use of YouTube came in very handy, when I was in the middle of my production phase and didn’t know how to alter an image on photoshop I would use YouTube to watch a tutorial on how to do the desired action. Without YouTube I would have had to ask either my peers and/or teachers for help when trying to make a change to an image and they may not have known the answer; this would have made the production period longer and created problems for myself.