The document discusses the progression from the author's preliminary task to their final magazine production. In the preliminary task, the author had little Photoshop skills and produced a basic front cover and contents page with poorly arranged text and non-distinctive design elements. However, for the final production the author's Photoshop and photography skills improved through research and practice, allowing them to create a higher quality magazine with professionally designed layouts and well-lit images that followed industry conventions. The author learned about using layers, photo editing tools, and the importance of planning with feedback to take their work from a basic level to a polished final product.

1. EVALUATION
QUESTION 7
LOOKING BACK AT YOUR PRELIMINARY
TASK WHAT DO YOU FEEL YOU HAVE
LEARNT IN THE PROGRESSION FROM IT TO
THE FULL PRODUCT?

2. Preliminary Final Production

3. Preliminary Final Production

4. PROGRESSION
I have learnt to use a variety of different skills from my preliminary task to my final
production, enabling me to produce a high standard magazine.
When I created my preliminary task I had very little knowledge of how to actually use
photoshop. This meant that I did very little by means of editing, leaving both the front
cover and contents page basic and boring.
The arrangement of the text and layout of the preliminary task is very poor and doesn't
really comply with any of the codes and conventions I've found in my research.
The masthead for example is relatively nondescript, just bold and capitalised. It's not in
the centre of the page and it definitely doesn't look professional and stand out.
However, by the time I started making my final production my knowledge of photoshop
had improved greatly and I knew the common codes and conventions for a music
magazine. To improve my masthead I centred it, and created a small drop shadow to
make it stand out, creating a more professional feel.

5. LEARNING
My research into the codes and conventions of music magazines proved to be
very valuable as it helped me raise my production to a much higher standard.
It was after looking at my research that I realised how poor the layout for my
preliminary task was. I'd used only two images, and both these images became
the background for the text. While this is common for front covers it practically
never appears on contents pages. Instead, contents pages tend to have two or
three smaller images and well arranged text.
The text on my preliminary is all clumped together, in a basic font with no
description underneath. In my final production I separated the
text using colour rows instead of
changing the text colour. I wouldn't have
thought of doing this before doing my
research and I believe it looks far more
professional and effective. I also wouldn't
of been able to accomplish this in the
preliminary task anyway as I didn't
understand how the layers worked.

6. LEARNING
My photography skills in the preliminary task were clearly lacking as the images I
produced were over exposed and boring. At the point of taking the photos my
knowledge of lighting was very poor, because of this I just took two photos and
didn't make any effort to adjust the the brightness.
However in my final production I
understood the importance of lighting and
setting. Due to this I took the photos in a
studio environment. This allowed me to
manipulate the lighting, creating
professional looking photos.
Once I'd taken the images I used the hue
and saturation tool on photoshop to
make the images stand out further. I
learnt how to do this after watching a
photoshop tutorial on youtube, this is
something I never even thought of doing
in my preliminary task.

7. CONCLUSION
So to conclude I've learnt a lot from when I first created my preliminary task. To
begin with I was clueless on how to layout my front cover and contents page,
resulting in a messy text arrangement and boring images. Following my research I
learnt all about the common codes and conventions of music magazines which
allowed me to layout my product in a clean and professional manner. I also learnt
the importance of planning, without the opinions of my focus group on my
multiple mock-ups the final product wouldn't have reached this kind of quality.
Throughout the process of creating my final production I learnt how important it
was to use the tools and features offered on photoshop. I neglected to do this in
my preliminary task as I was unfamiliar with the programme which led the
production to be very basic and boring. However I didn't make this mistake in my
final production and after watching a lot of tutorials, used the photoshop tools to
the best of my ability.
I also didn't have a good understanding of the camera and lighting in my
preliminary task, because of this the photos were far too over exposed. In my final
production this was not the case and I created professional and interesting images
for my magazine.