Evaluation Question 6

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

I have learnt a huge amount about different forms of technologies in the process of completing my research and planning section and then in the construction of my product. This includes learning how to use software that was new to me such as the equipment in the photographic studio, iMovie and Adobe Photoshop.

Altering the exposure in iPhoto

Almost all of my work was completed either on my personal macbook or an iMac, both of which I am very familiar with using, therefore when editing my photos initially I used some software already on these computers - iPhoto. This allowed me to review the photographs I had taken and narrow them down to the few I was going to use in my final work. I could make slight alterations to them, such as removing minor blemishes on my model to give her a flawless look, and altering the exposure of the images before opening them in Adobe Photoshop to edit them properly and incorporate them into my designs. 

Constructing my double page spread in Photoshop

Photoshop was a programme I had previously used but only to design fairly basic products, therefore in order to create my magazine on this software I needed a lot of practise to get to grips with tools such as editing the shadows, using the magic wand, and how to function the many different layers involved. For my double page spread, I was advised to use InDesign as an alternative to Photoshop as it allowed you to create perfect columns, however the computer I was using had problems opening the programme so instead I found it was as easy to arrange my text perfectly in Microsoft Powerpoint and copy it over to Photoshop afterwards. Although this is not as advanced a method it was the only one available and worked out really well in my final product.

DaFont.com

As there was not a huge range of suitable and interesting fonts installed onto my computer already, I visited the website 'DaFont.com' which offered hundreds of fonts for absolutely anything, and narrowed it down before downloading fonts such as Bebas Neue onto my computer to play around with before I found a one suitable for my product. 

To edit the video footage I shot of my audience feedback, I used iMovie for the first time, I had to first experiment with the programme to work out how to crop, cut and edit my video clips to remove any unsuitable parts or join more than one clip together. After establishing how to use it correctly I used iMovie to create short video clips which I then exported and uploaded to my blog as part of my research and planning, and evaluation which was very useful as it allowed me to put real footage of members of my target group feeding back to me on my work. I taught myself how to add transitions such as a blur and fade out, and also how to edit the audio of the clip to change the volume or speed of it. 

For taking the photographs for my magazine, I hired out the photographic studio at Sunderland University and was then able to use all of their professional equipment, such as the studio lighting and backdrop. As you can see in the image below, it was quite a small set but took some time to get to grips with, the owner of the studio was the one who helped set up the camera however then left me to experiment myself with the various lighting. To change the colours of the lighting I simply covered the studio lights with large filters, which were like coloured cellophane to create accent colours which came out well in my images as they cast shadows and gave an unusual lighting effect rather than bright harsh white. These can be seen in the photos below where my models are holding them up. A round metal dish was also used and positioned at various angles throughout the shoot to manipulate where the lighting and shadow was cast on the models face and the outcomes of this were also effective.
 

Some images of the studio set up including lighting and a plain white backdrop.

 

The camera I used for this was the Canon EOS 600d, which was extremely good for the purpose as it was in HD quality and gave me photos which were extremely good quality. I was already familiar with using this camera as it belongs to my family however not in this scenario, so I had to experiment quite a bit before I got to grips with it. The camera was connected and adjusted accordingly to the external flashes of the studio lighting, rather than its own flash which would make the photos come out dull and dark as you can see in the images below, the ISO was lowered during these adjustments. The detailed specification of this camera can be found here. 

 

 

 Other technologies I used, were google docs to create a questionnaire and feedback form for my audience profile, social media such as Facebook for making my arrangements with models, and emailing to make arrangements with the studio and book a slot. I also used Blogger which is something I had used slightly in the past so came to grips very quickly with but found an extremely useful way of documenting the whole process of constructing my product, in a way in which I could easily refer back to previous work and track my own progress as well as displaying it all in an interesting way. I used Prezi to create presentations which is something I struggled with at first as I had issues creating a path which worked properly however once I knew how to work it, this free online programme proved extremely useful as a way of displaying information for my evaluation in a logical and unusual way. Other programmes I used for the first time for my evaluation was Animoto in which I made a short video of images representing the distribution techniques I discussed and this made it slightly more interesting and exciting to look at. I used Flickr to add annotations to my final products which was another way of highlighting exactly which aspect was being discussed like I did on Prezi. Overall I have learnt a huge amount of skills and acquired a lot of knowledge about different technologies, old and new in order to carry out the whole process of constructing my products, from initial research and planning to my final products and evaluation. Without this wide range of technologies my project would be much more dull and a lot of it would not have been possible.