Q6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Technology has played an important part in constructing my music magazine in all areas of production where I had to carry out my audience research; plan my setting and all the equipment I would use to take the pictures. Of course the camera played the biggest role where I used it to actually get the job done. As a result of the planning and the task I needed to get everything together and edit my pictures and convert it onto Photoshop and eventually start constructing all the components to look like an actual magazine.

Firstly as my target audience were teenagers I had to reach out to this audience and gather up as many information from them that I could so that their ideas would make an input into it being a successful magazine that they would take an interest in. Of course it would be easy enough to talk to my closest friends and question them and then write up their ideas, however with all their work on their hands already this would be time consuming and honestly not the most intriguing topic of discussion. Therefore through my audience research online I was able to effectively and quickly take in their answers following up my questions. Of course the best way to do this was to create an online survey which could be sent to various people who would just have to click a few boxes. However, seeing as many teenagers constantly go on social networking sites for example msn, I thought this would be a more effective way as they were free to debate and type away on this online ‘forum’. In my view this is more convenient as we were able to feedback quickly to one another and compose a new idea instantly. 

 I used the search engine Google to access the web to search for various different magazines in different genre’s by simply typing in ‘music magazines’ and additionally the pages that I wanted for example ‘music magazine contents page’ as this was the easiest way of finding many magazines instead of going out and buying a magazine or standing around and comparing them all to each other. When researching about the case studies the internet was the biggest and most helpful source as I could browse through magazine websites and publishing houses. Although I created my drafts by hand I also used the scanner which enabled me to upload these drafts into my blog.

For the production I used a Canon EOS 400D digital camera. This was the first time that I used this camera where I learnt various technical elements that make an image and how to produce high quality images by putting it on focus with good angles and lighting.  

First of all the aperture I used was F 5.6 this number indicates a large aperture which means as I took the photos the lens allowed it to take a larger amount of the light meaning a higher quality and natural light so that my model and the image quality looks clearer. 

The shutter speed also took affect on the image quality where some of my images were out of focus due to the movement of my models alongside the low shutter speed which could also have been the result of the red dot targeted on the wrong area which meant that some of my photos were out of focus. 

There was also the ISO speed that determined this where some of my images differed where they either had a smaller ISO meaning that the pictures I took of my group models on a different day was much brighter than the one I took of my main model which appeared darker as it had a bigger ISO. Therefore I could have changed the settings on the camera or used Photoshop brightness and contrast in order to keep the brightness in all images similar to one another. 

Through all my mistakes I was able to improve and try again and have learnt that the best way to take a good photograph depended on having the aperture, shutter speed and the ISO in the correct settings. For the lighting it was crucial to have all the equipment (the flash unit, radio trigger, softbox and a circular reflector) in the right places and that as I took the picture I wasn’t too far away from the model as both the lighting and angle wouldn’t be as effective.

For the post production I edited all my pictures on Photoshop and actually putting all the text and shapes onto my pictures to look like an actual magazine.

As a beginner to Photoshop the first things I could really do to my pictures was sort out the image quality if they didn’t deem clear or sharp enough and therefore I used brightness and contrast. 

As I developed over my time with Photoshop I was able to use other tools and tackle my model’s face to smooth over her face and hide unwanted spots. When looking at my image I noticed that the hair and side part of the face didn’t seem right and looked as though it was a mistake therefore I used the spot healing brush and the smudge tool to hide this and to blend in the colours so it seemed natural.

I also used some shapes for my masthead which would make the words stand out more against it. If I spent more time and practised more on Photoshop I think that my magazine would look more professional looking having that ‘air-brush’ type affect. If I invested some more time I could also learn about other tools which may be better and the best options to use.