Evaluation Draft

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

 Throughout the making of my magazine, I have mainly used the software Adobe InDesign as it is much quicker and simpler to use than Photoshop. At the beginning, I created a simple template on InDesign with the help of the guide lines which I used for columns throughout the different pages of my magazine. As I went on, I started to fill this template in with my own ideas for the content. Creating the basic template was very easy. As soon as I set up the page, I used the shape tools to create boxes and then filled them in with certain colours with the specific editing tool at the top where you could choose what colour you wanted from the options or indeed find your own. On InDesign you could also save specific colours that you wanted to use again as colour swatches. This helped me with the house style of my magazine and also made it easier to click my colour instead of having to find it again. These boxes that I made for my template would later be images which I would choose and edit. I also created text boxes for where my text would go; again the columns and the guide lines helped me.

 When I later placed my images and text in, it was extremely simple. All I had to do was go to ‘file’ then press ‘place’ and choose my image I wanted in the boxes. Placing the text in was just as easy; all I had to do was copy and paste the text I had written in the text boxes and if there was any leftover that didn’t fit, I could simply put it in the box beside. On my front cover I also used the shape tool to act as a border for my names of different bands I listed. On InDesign it was also easy to change the size of the text as well as move it up or down and side to side. I found this particularly helpful when creating my sell lines as I wanted some parts of text to be bigger than others or more spread out. For my specific magazine, I also created a paragraph style that I could use on my contents page and for pull quotes. Creating this would simply put a red line under my text if I selected it however if I didn’t want it to appear I would simple click the normal paragraph style option. This was a much faster way to design my magazine, especially my contents page instead of having to make a new red line for every page.

 Software I also used for my magazine which I used a lot before during GCSE was Photoshop. I used this for editing my chosen images and removing the backgrounds of them so there wasn’t a white box surrounding my images. I edited my photos by airbrushing them and adding effects to others. For my last double page, I used black and white images of Vanessa and these were accomplished in Photoshop then placed into InDesign. Although Photoshop is ideal for editing my images, when creating my entire magazine I feel as though InDesign was much more useful and quicker.

 The hardware I used was the equipment I used during my photo shoot. The camera I used was a Canon SLR camera as this took high quality photos which would later make my magazine look more effective and professional.  When I was taking my photos I could also adjust the focus to blur out the background and make my model the main focus. I also used lighting during my photo shoot and changed the positions of the lights depending on the type of shots I took. All my photos were taken against the white screen to make it easier to edit them later on. 

Overall, it is clear that InDesign is very beneficial to use as many popular magazines use this Software when creating their own media products. Using this type of technology will also help me design and create other media related products later on plus the different effects and short cuts I have learnt throughout this project will make my work easier and quicker.