Sixth Evaluation Question

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

During the production of my media product I feel that I have learnt a lot about the ways in which technologies are used and manipulated in order to get the goal I set out to achieve.

Firstly, when dealing with technological hardware learnt how to use a Canon SLR digital camera. This camera was used to take the photos of my model that would appear throughout my media product. This took a lot of time getting used to, as I only had previous experience on a small handheld digital camera, of which many of the settings and features are different to the SLR. This meant that the photo quality and resolution was greatly superior to the camera I used to take my preliminary photos. This improved from 4 megapixels in the preliminary work, to around 12 megapixels in my final media product coursework.

During the production of my media product, I also used technological software, of which was put to use in designing and editing. This software programme was called Adobe Photoshop. In photoshop I learnt a lot about how the software is used and how most tools and features work within it. This started off with “Layering”, where I learnt that everything on photoshop has it’s own designated layer, of which you can go back and edit any time without effecting any other surrounding images or text. With the use of layers, it means that you can easily move and directly edit that particular feature of your magazine front cover. Also, you are able to “Hide” each layer so instead of deleting it, you can simply click on a certain box within the layer toolbox and it is hidden from view. However, the biggest thing I learnt about layering is that you can move the layers around into any order you wish. Meaning you can select a certain shape and put it below text, but above the background.

Within Photoshop I learnt how to change the colour of images, so that I could make certain features stand out more from the background. An example of this is the shutter shades of which my model was wearing on the front cover of my magazine. I made colour of the glasses from a light pink colour to a deep red colour, of which matched my magazine colour scheme. Using the “Magic Wand Tool” I selected the pink colour on the glasses. I continued to use this tool until the glasses had been completely selected. I then copied and pasted this onto the background image and overlaid it on top of the background image, but in exactly the same position as the pink glasses were underneath. Then by using the “Hue/Saturation” toolbox, I changed the background image to black and white, and the glasses to a deep red. Moving sliders up or down changed the colour.

In Photoshop I also learnt how to use lots of other tools such as the “Lasso Tool”, which is used when you want to cut something out. “Magnetic Lasso Tool” jumps and follows the outline of a picture depending on the colour. This is used to save time as it makes the cutting out process a lot faster. Where as the “Polygonal Lasso Tool” uses straight lines of which you would use to achieve a cut out with a higher degree of accuracy. Finally, the last is the “Lasso Tool” which is the one where you click and draw, however this can unreliable and often cut out wrong parts of the image.

Finally, I learnt about the “Text Toolbox” of which was used to control all the text in the Photoshop document. It controlled the size, style, shape and numerous other features that would effect the appearance of the highlighted text. Once I had the hang of it, it became very easy to use as I learnt what each feature in the toolbox did. I felt that this was one of the most vital toolboxes in the construction of my product as it was the 'backbone' of the text, of which many people base their opinions on.