Question 6 media

Hardware

Hardware is known as the parts of

computer you can physically touch, pick

up, hold and take round the room.

Examples of these include keyboard,

mouse, monitors.

During the course of my work I used

several pieces of hardware to help with

the making of my project. These helped

me physically be able to make my music

magazine.

Computer

Throughout my media project the most important

piece of hardware I used was the mac itself. It is a

IMac which includes the mouse and keyboard.

Without the mac I wouldn’t have been able to do any

of my coursework at all. It is the most essential piece

of the whole project. Before this media coursework i

had never used a mac before so i had a challenging

start as i didn’t really understand how to use it.

Thankfully, a bit later on i really started to get the

hang of it. The network from my school is rather slow

as it is linked to all the apple mac’s in the school but

the computer itself is fast.

Camera

The camera I used to take my photos was a Fuji

Finepix. It was a very simple camera to use as I’ve

used several like it before. It has a 16 megapixels,

good enough to shoot my photo’s as they turned out

great. It also improved my photography skills as I had

to think about how to position my model and how the

lightening enhanced the final image.

Apple keyboard and mouse

As I previously said in “computer” I

have never used a apple

mac/keyboard/mouse before before I

started this project. As it was pretty

similar to a standard keyboard on

window’s PC’s I got used to it quite

quickly. Although, it did have some

differences I had to get used to a

different position for the @ button and

different shortcuts for screen grab.

The keyboard and mouse was

essential was to be able to control

what was happening on the monitor. I

got the hang of the mouse pretty

easily as it is similar to a standard

mouse.

Shortcuts on the keyboard are

different to ones on window’s PC’s so

I had to get used to those.

Shift, Command, 3 for screen grab

SD Card

I used the school’s SD card reader to transport the pictures I took off the camera and

put them onto the apple mac. This was used by putting the camera’s SD card into the

reader then plugging it in to the apples USB port.

SoftwareSoftware is known as all the programmes on the computer, the things you can’t physically touch or pick up. These programmes may include word, PowerPoint and the internet.

During the course of my work I used a lot of software to help me put magazine together. I used:

- Word for writing up my interview with my artist

- PowerPoint for writing my evaluation questions

- Photoshop for editing photos/making my cover/contents/article

- InDesign for inserting the text into my article

- The internet for research, YouTube and blog

Adobe Photoshop CS5 version 12

I had never used Photoshop before I had use it to make my magazine. I used it to edit

my photo’s, make my magazine, and crop and copy and all sorts of other skills.

I learnt how to: Create a text box and

write a piece of text and

change the

font/size/colour such as

my headlines and my

mastheadCreate

shapes and

to send to

back for them

to be boxes

for text.

The lasso tool helped me cut out

images so there was no background, I

then inserted this on to my cover.

The bandage

tool helped me

airbrush images

so there was no

blemishes or

marks, I used

this on all of my

photo’s

I also used over tools such as the

rubber tool to help me erase bits of

the background when my cropping

went wrong.

I used the crop tool to edit and

resize images. I did this when I

didn’t want the whole image but a

zoomed in version.

After selecting a image Layer Via Copy helped

me to duplicate the image or if I used the lasso

tool to cut round an image it would duplicate the

image but without the background it was on. I

used this when Luna Jay’s image. I then

inserted it on to my magazine.

I also learnt how use

layers and how to

add new layers. I

also learnt how to

edit the layer by

double clicking it

and this box came

up. This allowed me

to include effects

and strokes.

Adobe InDesign CS3 Version 8

I had never used InDesign before this media project so it was completely brand new to

me. I found it quite complicated at first as it was completely different to Photoshop and I

had just got used to that. I found InDesign enabled me to use new tools and a better

option for some features.

The paragraph tool allowed me to

unhyphenate my text, this made it look a

lot more professional and neat. It also

allowed me to align my text so all the

writing was aligned to the left

The colour tool allowed me

to change the colour of my

text, helping me tie in the

text with my house style

Effect allowed me to

change the opacity

of the text and

chose features such

as:

The text tool allowed me insert

my article text, I also used this

to put my text in columns.

I used this tool to draw a box

and insert an image in it,

without this tool I would not be

able to use a picture.

I used the select tool to pick

up and move items. I used

this in photo shop as well.

I also learnt to import my article into InDesign so I could

insert text. I decided to use InDesign for this because it let

me have more control. Firstly I drew a box across the

whole page using the rectangle frame tool. I then clicked

on file then selected Place and chose the work I wanted to

import. This is placed my article across the screen.

After I finished my article I learnt how to export my final

piece to be able to save it as a jpg. This allowed me to

upload it to my blog, as a Id design document would

not upload.

Safari

Safari is the internet browser on apple products.

The only times I had used safari was on an

iPhone/iPads. I was familiar with it but I had never

used it on a Mac. Getting used to it was fairly

simple but some things I struggled with was how to

open new tabs and getting used to opening up a

new tab and getting used to not having the

program full screen.

Blog (Word press)

Word press was the blog website I used to

upload all of my work used for my teachers to

evaluate my work. I found using this simple

and I got the hang of it quickly. I learnt how to

upload posts, add new pages and

change/edit themes.

Word

During the process of making my article I used

word to draft my writing. I find word easily to

use as I have used it many times before. I also

used it to column my writing to see how it would

look.

PowerPoint

I used PowerPoint to create question 2,3 and

6. PowerPoint lets me easily create slides as

I’ve I used it many times it is very familiar to

me. I then upload these power points to slide

share which allowed me to post them to my

blog.

Slide share

I used slide share to be able upload my presentation question, before I uploaded my

questions I had never used it before. I learnt how to set up an account, upload my

PowerPoint and embed it in my blog.

YouTube

I used YouTube to embed video’s into my blog. I did this because I wanted to show

what kind of songs reflected my genre. I have used YouTube many times before so It

was not the first time I had used it.