The document discusses the hardware and software used to create a music magazine. For hardware, an Apple Mac, keyboard, mouse, Nikon camera, flash trigger, strobe flash, backdrop, soft boxes, and Samsung phone were used. Photoshop was the primary software for layout and images. InDesign was used for article formatting. PowerPoint and Word were used for homework assignments. A Wordpress blog hosted all coursework.

1. 
What have you learnt about technologies from the
process of constructing the music magazine?

2. HARDWARE
 Hardware is the mechanical equipment necessary
for conducting an activity, usually distinguished
from the theory and design that make the activity
possible. In the case of making my music magazine
they are things such as the Apple Mac the keyboard
or the mouse.

3. HARDWARE- Apple Mac
 I had never used an Apple mac before I started making my
music magazine but I didn’t find it too difficult to get used to
the differences. I found the layout of the whole Mac very simple
and not too different to a Windows computer. It is a very useful
computer for creating something such as a music magazine
because it has a lot of features which make it very simple to do
what’s required
 About the Mac:
• Processor: 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
• RAM: 3GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM

4. HARDWARE- Keyboard and mouse
 The mouse is different to what I usually use as it does not
have a left and right key. The mouse also has some different
functions, for example by clicking the scroller, all the windows
are separated.
 The apple keyboard also has some different functions that a
normal keyboard used for a windows computer. For example
to cop and paste a different combination is used. To copy you
must use the command key with the C key and to paste, the
command key must be pressed with the P key.

5. HARDWARE- Nikon D3100 Camera
 The camera allowed me to take very high quality
photographs. The Nikon camera has 14.8 million megapixels.
The aperture of the camera is f11 and the shutter speed is
1/300th of a second. However the photos taken were not
effective for my magazine and I had to take other photographs
outside of school using my phone as the camera was not
available to me.

6. HARDWARE-Horseshoe flash trigger and strobe
flash
Strobe flash
Horseshoe flash trigger
 The horseshoe flash trigger, triggers the flash in-sync with the
camera shutter using the infra red signal which is sent to the
strobe flash.
 The strobe flash that I used is the Hemisphere 300 model which
suits the speed of the Nikon camera whose shutter speed is
1/300th of a second. The dial on the back of the device can be
used to set the power of the light. When the auxiliary lights are
set to slave mode, the light sensor on top of the strobe triggers
the light.

7. HARDWARE- Backdrop and Soft boxes
 The soft boxes go over the strobe light and they disperse the light
giving a softer, rounder light on the subject, this way sharp shadows
are avoided on the model and the photograph has a higher quality.
 The backdrop has two more strobe lights directed at it on full power
to create a high exposure. The backdrop that I used was white,
however, other colours may be used such as black to give a dark
effect, but I wanted my images to be bright and clear and therefore I
used a white backdrop
Backdrop Soft boxes

8. Hardware- Samsung Galaxy S3
 I used my Samsung Galaxy S3 to take photos
outside of school. The camera of this phone has 8
megapixels which allowed me to take fairly high
quality photos of my music artist. However while
using this device the strobe lights were not
available and this lowered the quality of my
photographs.

9. SOFTWARE
 Software involves the programs and other
operating information used by a computer. In this
case the software I used was InDesign, Photoshop,
Word, PowerPoint, Safari, Word press blog.

10. SOFTWARE- Photoshop
 Adobe Photoshop is the software the I used most of
the time in the process of making my music
magazine. All parts of the music magazine which
included the front cover, contents page and article
were made completely using Photoshop.

11. SOFTWARE-Photoshop
Starting a new project
 To start a new project for example a front cover of a
magazine or a contents page of a magazine. You must open
Photoshop and click on ‘File’ and a window will appear where
the first option will be ‘New’. You can also do this by clicking
the command key along with the N key. Once you do this a
window will appear where you can chose exactly how you
want your new page to look. For example you can change the
size of the page from A4 to A6 or you can also change the
name of the page.
Dragging images
 Once you create a new
page you can drag images
straight into Photoshop
which means you won’t
have to go through the
process of changing the
image into a layer so that
it can be edited.

12. SOFTWARE- Photoshop
Opening a file to edit
 When you want to use Photoshop to edit an
image, for example turn it black and white or
cut something out, you must move the
mouse cursor to ‘File’, which is in the top left
corner of the screen.
 Once you click on
‘Open’, a window
pops up and there you
can find an image or
any other file and
once chosen you need
to click open.

13. SOFTWARE-Photoshop
Editing an image
 Once you open the chosen file, it will automatically appear on your screen but
it can’t be edited yet because it is a locked layer and appears as the
background. To unlock the layer, you need to double click on the image layer
which appears in the bottom right corner of the screen. A window will then
appear where you can change the name of the layer and then click ‘OK’ . The
image is now ready to free transform and edit.

14. SOFTWARE-Photoshop
Free-transforming an image
 To free-transform an image you need to hover the
mouse cursor ‘Edit’ which is also in the top left corner of
the screen. Once the window pops up, you need to scroll
down to ‘Free-transform’ and click on it. The image will
then appear with small boxes on the corners which
allow you to rotate the image, move it around or make it
smaller and bigger. However, there is a shorter way to do
this. To free transform an image you can also click the
command key and the ‘T’ key at the same time and the
image will be ready to free transform.
Free-transform
AND

15. SOFTWARE-Photoshop
Image Adjustments
 Image adjustments allow the look of the image
to be changed. For example you can change the
brightness, contrast or even make the image
black and white. To do this you must click on
‘Image’ on the top of the screen where the
‘Edit’ and ‘File’ options are. Once clicked on, a
window will appear and the second option will
say ‘Adjustments’. You must hover the mouse
curser over this to open the other adjustment
options. Once you do this you can chose
whichever adjustment you wish to carry out.

16. SOFTWARE-Photoshop
Saving your file
 When saving your file you may need to convert it to a JPEG file so that it can
be imported into a blog for example. To do this you need to hover the mouse
cursor over ‘File’ which is in the top left corner of the screen In order to see
the save option. The save options will be in the centre of the pop-up window.
When you click on save a window automatically appears where you can
change the name of the file and change the format of the file. To change the
format to a JPEG, you need the click on the format bar and scroll down to the
JPEG option and click on it. A window will appear and all you need to do is
click ‘OK’ which will automatically save the file as a JPEG.

17. SOFTWARE-InDesign
 I used Adobe InDesign only for my article. It helped
me to align the text of my article neatly in columns.
I found it quite difficult to use this software as I
have never used it before and there were a lot of
features which were quite complicated.

18. SOFTWARE-InDesign
Starting a new project
 To begin a new project on InDesign you must open the program. This can be done by clicking on the InDesign
logo or if it is not there, you can search for the program in the top right corner of the screen. Once InDesign
opens, a window will appear in the centre of the screen giving you options to start a new document or open a
previously used file. Because we are looking to begin a new project you must click on ‘Document’. When you
click on ‘Document’, another window will appear where you can adjust the look of the new page. You can edit
the size of the page or the orientation. In this case I chose an A3 landscape page.
Document Size and orientation

19. SOFTWARE-InDesign
Placing the article page into InDesign
 In order to add the text columns to the
article, you must have the article page
prepared from Photoshop and saved on the
computer. When you have created a new
InDesign page (preferably A3 landscape) you
need to bring your Photoshop file in by
clicking onto ‘File’ and scrolling down to
‘Place’. You can also do this by clicking the
command key along with the D key. A window
will pop up when you do this just like in
Photoshop when you bring in a new file. You
need to chose the Photoshop file of the
article and click ‘Open’. This will give a small
icon of the article and you need to stretch it
from the top left corner to the bottom right
corner to fit the size of the page.
1.
2.

20. SOFTWARE-InDesign
Adding text columns
 To add text columns you need to chose the text option
which is in the left of the screen where all the other option
lie on the strip. When you click on the ‘T’ it will allow you
to stretch the columns to the exact size and shape that is
required. You can then add more columns but you want
them to be linked so that text flows together. In order to
do this you need to click on the black mouse cursor which
is also on the strip on the left hand side of the screen, at
the very top. Once you click on the cursor a small white
box will appear in the bottom right corner of the previous
text frame. You need to click on that and then repeat the
process of making a text frame.
Putting in text
 To put in text all you need to do is either type it in to the
text box or copy the prepared text from Word for example,
and then paste it into the prepared text frames.
Black cursor- For
extending columns
‘T’ to create text
frames.

21. SOFTWARE-InDesign
 Saving the document
When the InDesign document is finished, it needs to be saved, and preferably as
a JPEG file so that it can be posted to the blog page. To do this you need to click
on ‘File’ in the top left corner of the screen and go down to export. You can also
do this by pressing the command key and the ‘E’ key at the same time. A window
will then appear where you can change the name of the document. Also you can
change the format by clicking onto the format section and scrolling down to
JPEG. Once this is done you need to click save and another window will appear
and you need to make sure the quality is on MAXIMUM and you can complete
the process by clicking export.

22. SOFTWARE-PowerPoint
 I used the PowerPoint software to complete my
homework. For example, I analysed articles from real
magazines using the software. It is a very simple
program and previous experience is not needed, in
comparison to Photoshop. PowerPoint has many options
to help make it look more bright and attractive for
example the theme of a PowerPoint can be changed so
that it is not plain and boring. Fonts and size of text can
be very easily changed which means it can be easily
adjusted to fit the page with images. Importing images is
very simple because all you need to do is pull the image
across from the desktop to the slideshow and it is free to
be moved around and adjusted to the required size and
angle.

23. SOFTWARE-Word
 I used Word to write up my main article for my
magazine. It is almost the same as PowerPoint
and it is incredibly easy to use and does not
require previous experience. There are no
complicated options. All you need to do is start
writing. Word allows you to change the font, size
of text and also import images to the document.
The bar at the top of the screen has all the
options required and it is clear and easy to
understand.

24. SOFTWARE-Wordpress Blog
 The Wordpress blog allowed me to record all my
coursework so that it can be checked and marked
in the future. It was quite complicated at the
beginning because it was completely new to me
and there were many options and tools. For
example, you can customize the theme of your
blog, add pages to the blog so that it is easier to
locate specific documents, you can also edit the
posts that have already been placed. I found that
Wordpress was in a way similar to Word, because
when creating a new post, you can easily write up
what you need and you can edit the text, however
there aren’t as many options for editing the text.
Images and also be imported to the post by
uploading the media.