The document discusses various technologies the author learned throughout creating a media product. The author became familiar with using Apple iMacs after initial difficulties adjusting from Windows. Photoshop was used extensively, allowing image editing and layout design though the interface took time to learn. A Lumix camera was used for photoshoots, requiring the author to learn advanced features beyond simple shots. A Samsung phone helped with organization and collaboration. Websites like Wordpress, Slideshare, and Prezi were also utilized.

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

2. • Throughout the process of creating my media
product I learnt a lot of things. Some of these
things were just expanding on knowledge that I
already had, and some things I had to learn from
the ground up to a level that was appropriate for
me to then say I can use it in the production of
my product.
• In this PowerPoint I will be going through things
that I have learnt, whether or not I knew a bit
about the product beforehand.

3. Apple iMac and it’s peripherals
• Throughout most of the process of creating our
product, we were limited to the use of Apple
iMacs. I was very unfamiliar with iMacs at first
and required a fair bit of assistance to figure out
what I was doing. Everything felt backwards to
me since I was so used to a Windows PC.
• However, after a few weeks of using the Macs
and completing some tasks I began to get the
hang of it. I figured out where things were and
was able to work independently on the Mac
computers.
• Now that I am finishing my project I am more
confident than ever with a Mac but would still
prefer to use a Windows PC for tasks outside of
photo-editing.

4. Adobe Photoshop
• Throughout my time making my magazine I was employing Adobe Photoshop. I used
multiple versions, ranging from CS3on a mac, so CS5 and CS6 on a PC. Each of these
versions are slightly different and play to their own strengths which allowed me to
complete my magazine.
• CS3 on the Mac was very tricky for me to get to grips with at first. Compared to other
software I would have used such as Microsoft Publisher, Photoshop does a lot more.
• Photoshop allowed me to insert images and edit them to my will, from the brightness
and the contrast, to the colour levels, to a colour overlay, to an outline and even
cropping the images as I wish. Once I had got the hang of the basics of Photoshop I found
it easier trying to learn how to do most advanced techniques, such as the advanced level
editing software that I had just mentioned.
• The other PC versions were somewhat similar but included a lot more features due to
being newer. Surprisingly though some features were missing. I was originally creating
my final document using Photoshop CS5, but this software lacked the ability to create
contact sheets with ease which CS3 on a Mac could do. This meant I had to try and get
access to another version of Photoshop to produce my contact sheets.Using Photoshop
enabled me to make my images for the front covers brightness as close to possible.
There were three main images on the front cover. Two of them were taken indoors and
one was taken outside on an entirely different day. When I inserted all of these images
the difference in brightness was easily noticeable. Luckily the brightness/contrast tool
allowed me to overcome this problem and make the brightness of the images as close as
possible until they looked the same brightness/contrast. Without the use of Photoshop I
would have been stuck with one bright image.
• Photoshop also allows you to change the opacity of shapes with ease. This came into use
with my double-page spread to make it more aesthetically pleasing. Also the white font
contrasted really well with the darker background so employing the opacity tool here
was a success.
• Also a lot of features available on Photoshop I never even had to use, such as the history
brush tool. However the icons for the regular brush and the history brush tool are very
similar so I was often making the mistake of using the history brush instead of the
regular brush. This could have been fixed by using software that can do the same things
as Photoshop whilst having a more user friendly interface.
This shows Photoshop CS3 on a Mac’s interface.
This shows Photoshop CS6 on a PC’s interface.

5. LUMIX 12X AVCHD Lite HD camera
• When it came down to taking my shots for my photo-
shoot, I wanted to use the best camera I had access to.
In this case the camera was the LUMIX 12X AVCHD Lite
HD camera. The camera was more advanced than any I
had used before and was capable of much more than I
first anticipated.
• When I started taking shots I was doing the simple ‘take
a high quality shot with flash on’ shot. However, this
was upsetting my models as the flash was going into
their eyes. I had to turn it off before I could take
anymore shots.
• It took some intense playing around with the seemingly
never-ending menus for me to figure out how to turn
the flash off. This is also when I found out about other
techniques this camera could utilise such as face
recognition and burst shooting. All of these techniques
helped to ensure that my photo-shoot was the best it
could possibly be.

6. Samsung Galaxy S3
• The Samsung Galaxy S3, otherwise
known as my phone, played a vital role
in getting my work done. It also
performed tasks I would have never
thought possibly for a smartphone.
• Utilising this phones strengths I was able
to send emails with my work attached so
I could do it from home, I was able to
keep myself on track with a calendar and
built in reminders, I was able to write
parts of my work and finish them off in
the next lesson, at home or at the next
available opportunity and many more.
• Of course I was able to do the thing I
knew how to before such as surf the
web and text people to receive
impressions on my product.

7. The internet and all the websites
inside of it
• When learning to use the iMacs, I had to make use of a new internet browser which was laid out
differently and slightly slower than what I was used to. Safari achieved everything I expected it
to, but the tasks I had to achieve were completed in a much more convoluted manner due to the
restrictions of this software.
• Whilst on Safari I was introduced to three websites, Wordpress, Slideshare and Prezi, with each of
them having their own uses.
• Wordpress was the website that contained my portfolio of work for this AS Media coursework. It
was essentially a blog that I updated as I went on, adding in new work as and when it was created.
This site also allowed me to comment on other peoples blogs and for me to comment on my blog, I
was also able to share blog posts across social networking sites.
• Slideshare was the website which allowed me to upload PowerPoints and word documents. When
these documents were on the website in question I could copy and paste a link into a wordpress
post which would then enbed the powerpoint or word document into the wordpress post and allow
viewers to interact with the document partially.
• Prezi allows me to create documents using an online ‘kit’ and add text, autoshapes and images at
my own will and then provide a link between these in an animated format. I could also follow pre-
existing animations and just fill in the gaps. The software was very user friendly.