The document discusses the student's learning and skill development in various technologies over the course of their AS Media Studies program. They gained experience with photo editing software Photoshop, learning tools like the magnetic lasso and shape tools. They also learned to use font websites like Dafont to choose appropriate styles. Other software discussed includes presentation software Prezzi, and blogging platform Blogger which allowed embedding other files. Their skills with the Canon DSLR camera also improved in taking more varied shot types and angles.

1. What have you learnt about
technologies?
AS Media Studies

2. Photoshop
As you can see, my skills regarding Photoshop have definitely
become more refined and advanced. The main area I have
developed in is editing. This includes both the editing of images
and the editing or the shapes that formed my designs. I also
became more familiar with each tool, enabling me to add different
conventions into my magazine. For example, when I did my barcode
for my front cover I was able to use the rectangular shape tool to
add another white box behind it. Then I inserted a text box over
the top, stating the issue number and date. This positioning made it
look more professional as it is positioned like this in a lot of
magazines. This is something I couldn’t originally do as I couldn’t
use the shape tool. Also I wouldn’t have been able to arrange the
layers so that the white box went behind the barcode.

3. More on Photoshop
In terms of the tools I used in Photoshop, I began to find better ways of
editing things which made the photos look like they were edited to a
higher standard. Previously on my prelim I brightened the teeth of one of
my shots by colouring them in in in an off white. This improved the look,
but whilst doing my contents page for my main task I found that a more
professional way was to use the magnetic lasso tool, and simply brighten
the teeth. This was more subtle. With regards to my masthead, I also
began to be able to use take advantage of every tool. I found out that you
can rasterize layers, which made it easy for me to make shapes and puffs
look distressed by simply erasing some of the out side of the tool with a
paint splodge shaped brush. I also began to use the burn smudge and
sharpen tool. This was mainly to edit pictures, and came in handy when I
cut out images using the pen tool and placed them on a new background.
The blur tool was particularly efficient as it got rid of any rough edges.
Rather than simply putting a thick stroke around my font like I did at my
prelim, I became more experience with using the blending options. I
wanted all of my text to look 3D, so that it didn’t look like it had simply
been stuck on the background. For certain fonts I put a tiny outer glow on
my font and for others I put a drop shadow. This also made the cover look
more dramatic, drawing the readers attention to the text rather than just
the pictures. The pen tool became a basic necessity as I wanted the
majority of my photos to “speak for themselves” so rather than having a
complex background behind the image, I had to cut each person out from
each picture, to ensure that there were no distractions for the reader.

4. Dafont
for my prelim I didn’t use this website for any of the fonts
shown in either my front cover or contents. I simply found the
boldest font I could in the fonts available in Photoshop.
However whilst creating my main pieces I realised the
importance of fonts. I also realised how important it was to
choose a font that went well with the genre of magazine that
you picked. By choosing to do a rock magazine I knew
immediately that I needed a font that looked somewhat
distressed. I found that using Dafont in my main task helped
me greatly as the simple layout of the website, and the was it
has big samples of each text allows you to see each font
clearly. Using Dafont had a huge impact on my work as I was
able to choose from a massive variety of fonts, ra6ther than a
rather limited array of fonts in Photoshop.

5. Prezzi
Having never used Prezzi before my main task, I
sometimes found adapting to it quite difficult. Although it
has some large similarities to power point, like it’s
separate slides, the navigation of Prezzi is very different.
Whilst using Prezzi I learnt about how you can change the
background to a selection of colours, format text to say
whether it’s a subheading or the text’s body, add extra
transitions, place arrows around an image, import images
from google, and play a song for the audience whilst they
look at your Prezzi. All of these skills improved the
standard of each presentation I produced, making them
more interesting and entertaining to watch.

6. Slide share and scribd
Both slide share and scribd enabled me to use
programmes I was already familiar with, like Power
Point and Microsoft Word, on my blog. I found that
these two programmes were very beneficial as they
prevented me from having to learn how to use
another entirely new programme. By having a
simple embed code that you just had to paste into
the html section of your blog, it made it incredibly
easy. In both programmes I simply had to fill in the
details of my document, and embed it onto my
blog.

7. Blogger
Blogger was on of the most important software's
that I used throughout the course as it where I
saved every task that I completed. After the prelim I
became more experience with using the software. I
progressed from simply writing the majority of
tasks on my blog , to using other software along
with blogger like Prezzi, slide share and scribd.
Using these software's wouldn’t have been possible
if it wasn’t for gaining experience with blogger, as I
wouldn’t have been able to embed each document
onto the blog.

8. Cannon DSLR
With regards to the hardware I used throughout both my
prelim and my main task I used the same cannon camera.
However, I think based on the standard of images this
wouldn’t be evident. For my preliminary activity all of my
images were similar as the majority of them were
medium close-ups. For my main task however I decided
to do a large range of different shots. For example on my
cover alone I have both a close-up shot of one singular
character, and a distance shot of a band performing on
stage. Gaining experience with the camera allowed me to
use the camera more efficiently, as I knew which shot
would look best at which angle.