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. Throughout the whole process of constructing my end product, I learnt a lot about programmes such as Photoshop and equipment that was a first for me and how difficult they could be, but through practice, trials and investigations into them, technology is a handy and resourceful way of constructing a magazine efficiently and effectively

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 help me make a successful magazine that they would like. Through my audience research online via msn, I was able to effectively and quickly take in their answers and opinions from my questions. Seeing as many teenagers constantly go on social networking sites, 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 than an online survey as we were able to feedback quickly to one another and compose a new idea instantly from what we just discussed. 


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 about various technical elements that make an image and how to produce high quality images by putting it on focus with good angles and lighting. 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 in 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 a good quality picture, 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 put 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 using the spot healing brush and the smudge tool to hide these and to blend in the colours so it seemed natural.