The document summarizes the key technologies the author learned about and used in constructing a music magazine product. These included Photoshop for editing photos, Quark Express for layout, a Nikon DSLR camera for high-quality images, Blogger.com for blogging work in progress, and Facebook for gathering audience feedback. The author gained experience using these technologies and feels more confident in their ability to create professional media materials.

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

2. Technologies Throughout this product I have researched and learned a number of different techniques which helped me to research and produce my music magazine. Some of these new techniques included:Photoshop

3. Quark Express

4. Digital Cameras

5. Blogger.comAdobe PhotoshopBefore starting my music magazine I had never used Photoshop before. After creating my magazine I now realise that along with quark express, it is the most important piece of professional software to use. I learnt how to upload photographs and edit them to a high standard. This helped me to create a perfect image for my front cover. I used the “lasso” tool to select particular parts of my photos in order to move things around and create the perfect layout. I also found that the use of layers was really helpful as I could easily change parts that I felt un happy about. This made creating my front cover a lot easier. I experimented with a lot of colours on my front cover and found that I was able to create the same colour using the RGB code which I needed to keep the same theme going throughout my magazine. I was able to create bubbles and shapes to make the front cover stand out which I found easy to create using Photoshop.

6. Quark ExpressI used quark express to create my contents page and double page spread. Before I used it I hadn't heard of it before however I found the programme much easier to use than Photoshop. I was able to create rows and columns which benefited my double page spread as I could create an article using columns to make it look more professional. I also found that the use of layers was helpful as it allowed me to move around parts of my contents page towards the end when I felt that I needed to tweak parts. I felt that using this professional programme made my magazine look conventional like other real media products. Another part of quark express that I favoured over Photoshop was the picture box tool. This allowed me to input images on any part of the page and move them around easily. I found that you couldn’t do this on Photoshop. Again using the RGB code I was able to create the same colours that I needed in order to continue my pink theme onto the contents page and double page spread. The image on the left is an example of what my contents page looked like using quark express. I had the option to keep the outlines on each of the layers which helped me to align my contents and made it look more professional.

7. DSLR Camera – Nikon D60I used a Nikon D60 DSLR camera to take the images for my magazine. I hadn’t used a professional camera before and found it really helpful to choose different options for different effects and images. I mainly used the colour saturated setting (baby) on the camera in order to make the photos brighter and for the colour to stand out. I took my photos in the photography studio and found that using the stand for the camera created the perfect size image for my front cover. The camera had a good depth-of-field which meant I was able to zoom in and out and the quality of image would stay the same. I now feel that I could use a DSLR camera again from this experience.

8. Blogger.ComAt the beginning of the media course we all had to sign up to Blogger.com. This was the first time that I had heard of this programme. I found that blogging throughout the course was very helpful as I was able to look back on any previous work, it also allowed me to compare previous work with recent work. It helped me to keep all of my work in one place, and if I had any unfinished work I was able to upload it and know it was safe. I felt that keeping a blog was good because I could add pictures and power points to keep it interesting. It was quicker than recording everything onto paper, and I found it easy to access. Also, the fact that you can access all of your work from home made it a lot easier to complete assignments.