Media coursework.

1. Evaluation:
Question 6
By Ty Widdas

2. Upon the start of developing my magazine - for my media
coursework - I wanted to make sure they software of
which I would be using would be capable of the needs I
wanted. When we was getting brief about the coursework
that we have to create, we was informed that they main
two pieces of software would be Photoshop and InDesign.
Both of these pieces of software have been used
professionally in the magazine industry. This gave me
confidence as I have access to professional software,
meaning the limitations are minimal.
Software

3. When I came to use Photoshop for the first time, I was baffled by the
over complicated interface. When we did our preliminary task, we
was given a small booklet from our teachers, explaining the basics of
Photoshop. Previously, I used a software call After Effects - made by
adobe - this software is video editing based, however I adapted the
software as I was able to use it for still photographs. Because of the
use of another adobe product, I had a vague idea of what some of
the tools did. In addition, I also understood some of the effects which
can be created in this software. When I was further trying to develop
my skill in this software, I want to expand my knowledge of what
could I could achieve with the built in features. To do this I did basic
searches on YouTube, finding tutorials which would aid me to make
my work more professional.
Photoshop

4. InDesign was completely new to me. I had no background knowledge
of what it was used for and why people used it. Again, at the start of
the course we was given a small booklet referring to the simple
basics of the software. With the use of this booklet, I was able to find
out why this software was used, but also some of the basic effects
which could be created inside of it. After doing some personal
research, I found that InDesign was mainly used to piece different
images together. Therefore, this meaning all the pictures I had edited
in Photoshop, I could import them into InDesign, giving me control of
where I could input them on to my magazine page.
InDesign

5. Because both of these products are created by adobe, the file
transfer process was easy. However, when I first started using
these products I would save the file from Photoshop as a JPEG and
save it into my media folder. After this I would then re-open
InDesign and import the image straight in. This was a slow
process, but also at times could be frustrating, this is because the
files could go missing. To solve this issue I found using Adobe
bridge is a much more efficient way of transferring files. It
enhances the process files being switched from software to
software, making it more time efficient.
File Transfer

6. Development of creative skills
After learning the different effects of using Photoshop, I was enabled
to be able to make my images look more professional. A good example
of how my creative skills have developed would be with the image of
the band. Pictured below is the before and after of the image. To make
my image look more professional, I wanted to change to location of
which the image was actually taken. When taking the picture I had
already had the editing in mind. Therefore I set my image up
accordingly. Because of my new skills with the use of Photoshop, I
was able to achieve this effect, this meaning my image look more
aseptically pleasing. With my new creative skills it opens a new
creativity. Because of this, I can think outside the box, thinking how I
can edit my pictures to further impact the viewer.