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

When creating my final product, I used a variety of hardware and software, and in the process learnt a lot about them. The main piece of software I used was Adobe InDesign as it was the programme I used to primarily design and create my magazine. I had no experience in using the software before I initially started making the magazine. However in using Adobe InDesign top create and develop my magazine, I followed tutorials in order to give my music magazine a strong and professional layout. I used tools for aspects of my magazine such as making pull out quotes to make the magazine look more interesting. Adobe InDesign is usually the software that most if not all magazine companies use to create their magazine, i.e. companies such as NME and Q.

As well as using Adobe InDesign to create the main format and basis of the magazine, I also used Adobe Photoshop especially for the editing of my photos that were included within the magazine of which was not available in InDesign. I used the programme for basic editing of my photos, such as airbrushing with the blemish tools and adjusting to the correct lightings for the pictures, as that is a familiar convention used in all magazines, not just in music. I did this on all of my pictures in order to give my magazine and professional and well polished look as well to adhere with the typical media conventions. Photoshop was the perfect software to use to enhance my images and give my magazine a cool, yet original appearance.

The photos I edited on were shot in two different locations – one being the schools studio and the other being in and around the school. For my studio photo shoot, I used a variety of different models, their names were, Jessica, Tia, Ross and Jemini. I used a white background for most of my photo shoots which may or may not have been the wrong decisions as my images did turn out to be very bland. The lights which I used were the Interfit Stellar X studio flash lights and the camera I shot on was a Cannon 550D Digital SLR Camera. I used a prime lens which has a fixed zoom; the camera also allows you to take pictures manually and automatically. The 50mm lens acts like an 85mm and I chose to use this lens as I learnt that it was ideal for portrait shots which are what I used primarily in my photo shoot as this reflects the shot styling of most magazines. The camera had a 1.8 adjustable aperture which is the cheaper alternative to the zoom lens but still worked just as successfully for my desired shots. I used this camera as a hand held as opposed to on a tripod to create a more natural variety of shots and angles of the cameras.