Evaluation – question 6

EVALUATION – QUESTION 6

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of

constructing this product?

Technology

During the composition I used several different technologies that help the research, planning, creation and evaluation of my magazine. These technologies consist of:• Canon 600D• Lighting • Photoshop• Blogger, Slideshare, Youtube, Messenger (Internet Explorer)• Microsoft PowerPoint

Camera

I had never used a Canon camera before this project therefore I had to watch several tutorials on both the cameras (the other camera a Panosonic DMCLX7 was optional however I ultimately used the Canon 600d) in order to change the ISO, F-stop, shutter speed and aperture.

Aperture is the unit of measurement that defines the size of the opening in the lens that can be adjusted to control the amount of light reaching the film or digital sensor. The ISO setting on a camera is something that has carried over from film. Ratings of 100-1600, the numbers refer to the film’s sensitivity to light. The higher the number, the more sensitive to light the film is. Shutter speed is the unit of measurement which determines how long shutter remains open as the picture is taken. The slower the shutter speed, the longer the exposure time. F-stop is the "lens focal length" divided by the "effective aperture diameter." The smaller the F- number, the greater the amount of light that passes through the lens. Each change of F-stop halves or doubles the image brightness as you step up or down.

The images were easy to locate and therefore see where any issues arose, especially after watching the tutorials I could locate the relevant settings/buttons that were required.

Lighting I used two pieces of lighting equipment in order to create the image on the right, to create dramatic lighting effects, a Softbox and a Brownline light.

This light assisted with this image:

This light assisted with this image:

PhotoshopI hadn’t used Photoshop before my preliminary task and even after then, I still wasn’t an expert. I wanted to know the rudimentary aspects of the system in order to easily edit my images and construct my pages. Therefore during the preparation of creating my magazine, I used several tutorials to help me around the program. I used a general ‘How To’ tutorial to begin with and then an ‘Airbrush’ tutorial. I learnt how to adjust the contrast on the images, how to create a monochrome image, and how to airbrush and filter images. Photoshop help me accomplish my final outcome and was easy to access and alter any sections of the image and the pages.

Here is an example of an image after I used Photoshop:

Microsoft PowerPoint

I had used PowerPoint several times before this project, therefore I didn’t need a tutorial to guide me. I used PowerPoint to display a more visual representation of my research, especially for my codes and conventions. This gave a professional ascetic to the research and was easier to refer to at a later date.

Internet Explorer

I used the internet a lot during the creation of my magazine, I used blogger to present and record each step I took in making this magazine. Blogger was really useful as I could go back to a post and edit or alter it according to the circumstances. I used slideshare to upload my presentations on codes and conventions (during my research) to my blog, in the form of a link (a similar link was used for the YouTube tutorials), I used YouTube to research tutorials on Photoshop and the camera. Lastly, to refer easily to my focus group, to keep my target audiences preferences my primary focus, I used Messenger to compose a focus group chat, therefore whenever I took photos or created a page, I could refer it to them before posting it on the blog.