2. What have you learned about technologies
from the process of constructing your
product?
• During the process of my magazine, I have had to learn
about new types of software in order to produce my
front cover, my contents page, and my double page
spread. For each of the 3 pieces of media I had to create,
the first thing I had to do was to take photographs with a
digital camera. I rarely took pictures on cameras before
this so the first few images came out blurry and out of
focus. As the process went on I began to take clearer
photographs and managed to adapt to this new
technique to take better quality pictures.
3. Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop was the next piece of
software which I had to learn how to use.
This was the first ever time I used it; however,
by the end of the course, my skills had
drastically improved. The difference between
my Photoshop skills from the preliminary task
and the final task was amazing, and I feel I
had massively improved. Since beginning
with Photoshop, I only knew how to crop and
trim parts of an image, but as my production
course went on, I began to learn how to
duplicate layers, as well as add text in
different colours and fonts throughout my 3
media pieces. Whilst polishing off the design
of the front cover, I made sure that the
person featuring on the cover Declan Kinnear
was of good quality, I made changes to the
contrast and brightness which then made the
colour of Declan look more natural as the
bright flash had previously made him appear
a lot paler than he was.
4. Quark
Quark was another programme in which I
had never used before, and yet again, I
believe I managed to get to grips with it
quite comfortably. What made the concept
of getting to grips with Quark more difficult
was that it was recognised industry
standard software. It was very important
for me to get the basic understanding of
this programme as it was essential in the
production of each of the 3 media pieces.
The contents page and double page spread relied
on Quark as it had the capability to add columns to
structure both the contents and double page
spread in a professional manner. Any images that
were used had to be edited in Adobe Photoshop
before being imported into Quark. After learning
from self research, however, I managed to get to
grips, and just like my progress with Photoshop, the
difference between the preliminary task and the
final product had a massive difference
5. Internet and Microsoft Office
• The internet played a key role in the production of my
magazine. This was so that basic research could be done. The
research consisted of looking at codes and conventions of
magazines as well as getting ideas on how to structure the
magazine. I also needed the internet to import in a barcode
for the front cover, which finished off the design, to give it a
sleek and professional look.
• The other 2 pieces of software used was Microsoft Word and
Microsoft PowerPoint; however, as these are basic IT
programmes, I had already learned how to use the word
processors and I knew how to create titles and text boxes for
each programme.
