as media evaluation

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

2. Layering
• When “cutting out” an image, the
initial tool I used was the polygonal
lasso tool to draw around the image I
wanted to cut out. This was my initial
instinct because I thought it would be
easier to simply join the dots around
the image to make it stand out.
• However, I found that this looked
blocky and unprofessional, so I
decided to try with both the quick
selection tool and the magic wand
tool. Both of these better selected the
background around the image, with
more accuracy and detail than I could
have by hand.
• As I didn’t know this prior to my time
of PhotoShop, I would say this is quite
a big part about the technologies that
I have learnt.

3. Images
• When editing images, I found the
brightness/contrast tool to be the most
useful; by used the sliders as shown to the
right, I was able to make my pictures come
across brighter and more professional and
as if they were taken in an actual studio (as
opposed to in a corridor). The contrast tool
also helped bring out the colours more in
the edited image, making it look more
attractive to the audience.
• Another thing that was useful in editing the
images, was the spot healing brush tool; this
got rid of any blemishes that a picture may
have and makes the picture itself look
smoother by correct any inconsistencies.
• Additionally, the red eye tool came in handy,
as because of the flash of the camera, all of
my pictures had red eyes on them. This
rectified this error and made the images
once again seem more professional and
appealing to the audience.

4. Text (in PhotoShop)
• I had never used PhotoShop
prior to the making of both the
preliminary task and the final
product. Therefore, I had no
clue as to how I could input text
for my cover lines. I found that
simply using the text tool and
dragging it out to where I
wanted the text to be placed
simply did the job; I also
discovered you could select a
font from a large variety. I also
found you could change the
colour of the text to fit in with
the magazine more.

5. InDesign
• InDesign was used to create my double page
spread. I had, like PhotoShop, never used
InDesign before this coursework task.
• In order to create the body of the text of the
article to come across as professional as
possible, it had to be put into columns; using
the column tool this was easily done.
• Also, the drop caps tool was used to create a
large first letter for the article. This was very
useful as I thought beforehand the only way
you could make on letter larger than the
others in the program was the manually use
the text tool to make it bigger. This was not so,
as the drop caps tool allows you to choose
how many lines the first letter carries down to
in comparison to the rest of the article. This
was a useful piece of information to learn
about the technology as it makes the article
look seamless.