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

2. Photoshop

Photoshop is a programme that pictures and products can be adapted and edited
using many different tools. I used photoshop for my magazine and I honestly
thought that it was going to be extremely difficult. I managed to trial it and tried out
some new techniques and tools. After a week or so, I found it extremely easy to
navigate and use. I managed to create all 3 of my pages with only one problem.

My models hair was very curly on my first shoot and I used the green room. I used
the Auto-Selection tool to remove all the green from her hair. However, a lot of it
would not come out and I had to use the clone tool to add more blonde into her
hair. After my first shoot, I did another at home and this did not go very well.
Photoshop would not let me remove some parts of her jeans and her body looked
distorted. I solved the problem on my final shoot and the green was removed from
her hair. I think that Photoshop is fantastic and an excellent programme to create
my product.

I used the shape tool a lot on my magazine to create all of the bubbles and the
shape surrounding my masthead. The variety of shapes meant that I had a good
choice of designs. I also used the text tool to create all of my coverlines. This was a
good idea as I could move all of my text at once and use different fonts to make the
page stand out.

3. Photo shoot

I used my own camera for the photo shoot so I was fine taking the pictures. My
model is very photogenic but is also very pale so when using the flash, the image
would come out extremely bright. In the end I had to use no flash and edit it on the
computer. I think this was the biggest problem but it was all sorted. My images
came out very clear and I learnt how to use my camera in different ways.

The green screen also taught me how to take better pictures as it was much easier
to use that instead of a home background. It made it easier to edit so I am glad I
used the green screen.

I am happy that I used my own camera as I was familiar with all of the settings. I
think that this was helpful as I could adjust the setting so I can get a good picture.
However, I think that Sir’s camera would have helped my images look more
professional and not so student-like. This would probably help add to my magazine
as the images would look like a real life magazine and not a student one. But I am
still happy with my pictures and believe my camera contributed to this.

I didn’t use any lighting in the photo shoot as I was unaware how to use them and
my model was very fair skinned anyway. I didn’t want my photos to look too artificial
and fake so I thought I would not use the lights.

4. Google images
 I used google to find the image of the social media
networks and the barcode. I knew how to use google
anyway so it was easy to access. I think that using
images is best as they are clear. All professional
magazines use google images for social networking
logos so it was fine for me too.
 I think that google plays a key part in a magazine as
lots of the shapes and images are from there. I really
liked using google and I think it contributed well to my
final product. I like how my magazine turned out and
hope that google added to this.

5. Blog
 For my blog, I used weebly. This was one of the easiest websites
to use as it was simple to navigate. I like the look of weebly and I
like that you can choose different designs and make it look unique
and appealing. We were set to use weebly anyway but I also used
google images to choose my headline image.
 I learnt a lot when using weebly and I think that this helped add to
my variety of technology used. I will be using weebly in the future
because it looks good and is very useful for projects
 I think that using websites like this help make your product look
better as when uploading my final product, the quality of the jpeg
was fantastic and looked really good.

6. Evaluation

I used lots of programmes for my evaluation as it was on the syllabus that we had to be
creative for every question.

The main programme I used was Prezi; this is a powerpoint programme that it different
and involves animation. I like Prezi as it is extremely easy to use and you can fit lots of
texts and images on it. I learnt how to use the programme to set a new template. This
was my most used programme as it was unique and made my blog look good.

I also used slideshare a lot as it looks much better than an ordinary powerpoint. I made a
powerpoint and uploaded it to slideshare. I enjoyed this programme aswell and it was
simple to use and helped add individuality to my blog.

Powtoon was extremely hard to use so I only used it once. It was very hard to use and
this meant that my creativity and answer was very simple to match the programme.

Only 4 programmes were actually available as some didn’t work and didn’t work on
weebly. This was frustrating as I wanted various programmes to increase creativity but it
did not happen. This obviously affected my evaluation immensely but I managed to work
round it and I think it turnt out good.