Looking back at their preliminary task, the author feels they have greatly improved their editorial skills from their preliminary task to their final product. For the preliminary task, the author had little knowledge of Photoshop but learned basics from YouTube tutorials. However, the final product shows much more improvement due to researching codes and conventions of the magazine genre and watching more advanced Photoshop tutorials. Researching other magazines allowed the author to create a more professional looking magazine spread by applying industry standards. Tutorials also helped the author learn how to use Photoshop's features to make the final product look more polished.

1. • Looking back at your preliminary task,
what do you feel you have learnt in the
progression from it to the full product? –
question six.

2. • Looking back on my preliminary task I feel I have improved greatly with my
editorial skills. When creating my preliminary I had very little working
knowledge of Photoshop, I watched some tutorials on YouTube which gave
me the basics to be able to create my preliminary, however comparing the
standard of my preliminary task with my main production its apparent
how much I have improved. I believe this progress was due to research
into codes and conventions of my chosen genre of magazine and accessing
and watching videos on how to use Photoshop CS3 on websites such as
YouTube.

3. • Research –
• Looking at different indie magazines on the internet and in shops
has allowed me to create a professional looking magazine front,
cover content page and double page spread. I was able to find
similarities between magazines and apply them to my magazine
making them look professional all while conforming to the codes
and conventions of my particular style of magazine. However I
didn’t do this when creating my preliminary task and I felt when
looking back on it looked unprofessional and rushed, therefore
coming to the conclusion that research codes and conventions was
vital to create a good piece of media that looks professional and
creative. I therefore felt I have learnt that research is important to
create my full product and this can be seen from the difference
between my preliminary task to my full product.

4. Below, you can see the difference in the typography chosen for my
preliminary task and my front page. My front page (right) has much more
stylized and professional text compared with the text chosen for my
preliminary. This was due to researching different fonts for magazine front
covers and having a deeper understanding of how to use Photoshop.

5. • Another aspect that has helped me with my progression from my preliminary task
to my full product is Tutorials on how to use Photoshop CS3, I found the majority
of these videos on YouTube and they have taught me in depth how to use
Photoshop to create a professional looking piece of media.
• I believe contrasting both pieces of work (my preliminary and final product) you
can see the difference in how professional they look, this being due to using
tutorials helping me to work with the programme. For example being able to do
simple things like adding a drop shadow on my logo helped with how professional
my overall front cover looked, however I wasn’t able to do this when creating my
preliminary due to not looking at tutorials.
• I found that my preliminary task was created mostly from just ‘trying things out’
and attempting to create things, however I didn’t fully understand what I was
doing and some things were created by mistake, however my full product was
created due to me having a working knowledge of Photoshop and knowing what I
wanted to achieve. An example of this was being able to find fonts which would go
with my house style of my genre of magazine.

6. • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIXdCjjJxRw (this tutorial
helped me to add a drop shadow to my logo which is found on my
front page of my magazine.)
• Overall, I felt I have learnt a lot from my preliminary task to my full
product and I felt this was due to researching and watching tutorials
online to help me gain knowledge in how to keep to my codes and
conventions and how to use Photoshop.