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

I used two different cameras to take the photos that I needed for my magazine. The first camera I used was a Nikon D5100 DSLR camera. This camera allowed me to zoom in and to change the focus of the models I was taking pictures of. Although it wasn’t necessary, I could have used the camera to manipulate the lighting of the environment that I was taking pictures in. The advantage of using a DSLR camera was the high resolution that I managed to achieve and the Change to change the focus dramatically to emphasise the models expressions or props, such as a guitar. The second camera I used was a Fujifilm bridge camera. This camera allowed me to manipulate the lighting in the same way that the DSLR camera did, however it didn’t give me the same freedom to change the focus and resolution.

I created my final magazine in Quark Express. The advantages of using Quark were that it was simple to insert image and text and to change and edit these so that they looked how I wanted them to look. It was also very easy to align all of the text boxes and photos so that they were parallel, making my final magazine look more professional. In contrast to Microsoft Publisher, where I created my preliminary task, Quark offers more advanced tools and much better guidelines to help to make my final outcome look much more professional.

I used Photoshop to edit my images for my magazine. In Photoshop learned how to change the brightness and saturation of an image to make it look more attractive on a page. I also learned how to use the curve tool to change the exposure, contrast and saturation of an image. I used this tool on many of the photos used in my magazine. I also learned how to create drop shadows behind text to make it stand out more. I used this technique on the pull quote on my front cover.

 I have used PowerPoint and Prezi as tools which allow me to present research or evaluations. They both allow me to display things more visually than I can in Wordpress.  Both programmes allow me to add images and change text more creatively than in Wordpress

 I used Wordpress to present the majority of my research notes and to show my progression from my initial preliminary task to my final outcome. I was able to change the design of my blog to make it more readable and understandable, and to fit with the genre of my magazine and research, so it looks professional.