Question 6) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

-         Photoshop

Previously I had not used Photoshop before so this was an entirely new experience for me. I did find it difficult when starting out however I was able to hone my skills during the process of creating my music magazine. I worked out how to use different aspects of Photoshop to create different effects with the picture, such as the effect of having the cover star in front of the masthead, creating the cover-lines and moving them around to fit and align with the other ones and more. Over the course of creating the college magazine to the music magazine, I became more comfortable on Photoshop and was able to use it effectively, although sometimes I would create mistakes.

-          InDesign

Like Photoshop, I had previously never used InDesign so it was again, a new experience for me. Through the process of using InDesign I believe I managed to gain good working skills however, I did find that it was a difficult software to use. I managed to learn how to create pull-quotes, drop caps and work around to create a nice layout. However there were things I found tricky, such as with the pictures, there were two separate boxes that came up which did different things therefore I sometimes got confused on which one did which meaning that I would incorrectly shape my image and have to go back which could cause frustration. I found the layout easier than Photoshop.

-          Illustrator

Illustrator was also a new software I had never used before. I didn’t use it as much through this process as I had decided to create a simple masthead on Photoshop, rather than a detailed but did manage to learn some things through the trial in the classroom and also when using it to create a signature for the editor’s letter – I did this using the pen. I learnt how to create new designs in terms of masthead such as blocking out holes from letters by ‘creating pathways’ as well as adding a ‘textured background’ to text. Although I didn’t use any of these for my final magazine masthead I managed to experiment with them and see if I liked it, as well as pick up the skills  I now have.

-          DSLR Camera + Photography Studio

This was my first time using a proper camera, and working in an actual photography studio so I was basically unfamiliar to everything. Through the introductory lesson we had where we were taught how to use the DSLR Camera, the 3 point lighting system and how to adjust both to our liking, I managed to have a simple understanding of how to use the studio. My skills and knowledge have definitely developed from where they had been before, as I know how to work with the 3-point system in terms of adjusting it with lighting etc – and also had the experience of working in a proper studio with a camera that I could adjust to make my pictures of a high standard.

-          Prezi

This was my first time using the software Prezi, and it was an extremely helpful + good one. The creative but simple aspect of the software has enable me to be able to use it to my best ability and create visually pleasing, informative presentations.

-          Cincopa

Again, this was my first time using this program. I had some issues with the program as the pictures weren’t loading, or being saved into galleries due to the file type and I was not able to properly embed it onto the blog with all of the pictures. However, I managed to learn how to us it, and it started working in time for me to put it on my blog so I now know how to use this software.

-          ThingLink

Thing-Link was a software I hadn’t used before but became very fond of. It was very easy for me to learn how to use it as the layout of the website was very straight-forward and everything was placed in a way I could use easily so it was easy to develop my skills of this software; even the process of embedding was very easy for me on this sire. This program allowed me to specifically focus on details of what I was analysing, and make my points/thoughts detailed but concise so I like this website a lot.

-          Blogger

Blogger was easy to adapt to, so learning how to use it was not difficult, and I had a basic understanding of how to use it beforehand. The only thing that caused me to develop new skills on this software was learning how to embed things onto my blog, how to fit images onto a blog post so that it was organised and little hacks to organise my blog posts better. I learnt how to embed videos, documents and other software’s such as google slides.