Evaluation - Point 6

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

1.) Learnt how to use my camera 

Before I had taken part in a media project involving the use of my own individual creativity I had never really understood much about the importance of technology. While creating my magazine I learnt that using a good camera is essential for taking photos - especially photos for a magazine. When I had created my first magazine front cover for my magazine 'Renegade' I had used an iPhone to take my images for my front cover. At the time I thought that the quality of my photos were great, but after I had conducted further research into camera angles, editing techniques and shooting material of other relevant and existing magazines, I found that the photo quality was no longer up to standard or something that I was satisfied with. Therefore I came to a decision to reform my magazine. Here are images of the before and after of my learning process:

Before

After

As you can see there are some dramatic changes in the process of the creation of my magazine front cover: the font of the text, the talent on the cover, the information and tag lines as well as the image itself. Most importantly, overall, the quality has improved.

For my second and improved front cover on the right I used this Canon Power-shot camera which I am very grateful for.

2.) I learnt how to edit my photos using editing applications and software:

To edit my photos I used three key applications which I now use as my go-to's whenever I am editing a photo!

- So to begin with I used an editing software known as 'Afterlight' which if you read my previous posts you will know plenty about. I used this application to carry out my initial photo editing process and found it to be very useful to me. It provided a wide variety of elements to consider changing, including saturation and sharpness of my images - both of which I had previously not known anything about. Before using the programme I thought of photo editing as adding filters and adding a splash of colour to my photos. This application alone changed my entire view of photo editing as it made me aware of the first stages of editing, before the filters and the text, and most importantly taught me how to manipulate an image and make it suitable for the context of its use - which in this case was my Hip-hop music magazine.

- Next, I used a programme known as 'Pixlr'. I found this to be useful to me because it taught me how to effectively add text to my photos. Not only this, but I learnt how to edit the text itself too. For instance, I used a font called 'American Typewriter'. I learnt how to change the colour of the fonts - to use both black and white colours on the cover as well as change the intensity of each and every font and colour that I chose to use. This was great because it enabled me to clearly portray the tag lines which I felt would attract audience attention in a manner that would make them stand out amongst the surrounding text.
- Lastly I used 'Piclay'. I used this mainly for techniques such as mirroring and layering my photos. I found this particularly useful as I was able to mirror some of my photos multiple times to create the 'quadruple' effect on my double page spread - that has received lots of audience attention!

3.) Learnt how to use a blog:

- Despite the fact that I technically already own a photo blog account known as 'Instagram' I would not refer to myself as a 'blogger', Using Blogger has shown me a new method of blogging, not just through images, but through videos and voice clips, and presentations, and editing text on the blog, the layout of the material on the blog as well as the style of the blog itself. I could go on and create an entire list of things that I have learnt but that would take too long! Instead I will say that I have found the blog so useful to the extent that I now believe I could start my own blog for free, using Blogger, not just for media purposes but for lifestyle. In addition to this I learnt that a blog can be used in many ways including embedding information from other websites such as 'YouTube', this is how I was able to share my audience feedback videos which I am thankful for - while doing this I learnt how to embed links from other sources onto a blog which I did not know was possible before I started using Blogger. I am now confident in the purpose of, and how to use a blog and this has changed my entire perspective of using a blog in a positive way.

4.) Learnt how to upload presentations

- Slideshare and Prezi: While using a blog I learnt how to present my ideas using a combination of words and photos in a fun way... I have learnt that creating presentations as a means of sharing information can be time efficient, easy to produce and a lot easier for the consumer to want to read through!