Evaluation 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

EQUIPMENT

Whilst taking my original photography for my media product I used a variety of different cameras:

I used the Canon EOS 550D to take the most of the photography for my media product. The images placed on my product which were taken using this camera were the cover photo, double page spread and on the contents page the images stating ‘fest photos’ and also the cover story called ‘new talent’. Using this camera for these shots I learnt how to focus the camera better whilst taking the live shots at the local festival as it was hard to get a good shot when they were moving around stage a lot. Also by playing around with the camera settings I learnt how to change brightness, contrast and change the effects within the camera.

Camera tripod I used this briefly when taking the photographs for my front cover and double page spread as some of the photo compositions were at awkward angles so this piece of equipment was helpful in getting the shot I wanted.

 

Another camera that I used was the camera from my iPhone 4. This camera was used within one of the gig shots (the one with the ginger wildheart story). I had to use the camera on my phone as in many gig venues you are not allowed to take in any cameras over 8mp. As I had never used this camera phone at a gig before I had to learn and figure out the right way of getting the clearest shot. I learnt that the best shot is taken without the flash on, whilst trying to keep steady hands when the crowd is pushing.

Finally the last camera I used is from the Blackberry touch 9100. This camera was used for the ‘music icon’ content story. This camera was the hardest to use as the camera quality isn’t very good, I had the same problems that I had with the iPhone about trying to get a clear shot and not being allowed in a better camera. I also had to learn how to get a good clear shot as I had never used that phone at a gig before.

COMPUTER PROGRAMMES

I used InDesign for creating my media product; this included me learning how to use the different variety of tools. A new tool that I learnt to use in the production of my magazine was the wrap text tool. I used this to wrap the article text around the initial that I placed at the beginning of the article. Another new tool that I learnt to use was the eyedropper tool, I knew previously how to use it but I learnt that you could pick out the colours from an image. I used the tool for this reason; it is where I got the house style colours for my magazine by picking them up from my photos.

I used Photoshop briefly to add brightness to my original photography; I learnt that I can select certain areas of an image using the magic wand tool to highlight the certain areas that needed to be brightened. I used this new skill for my cover photo to make the brightness of the wall appear whiter.

iMovie was used to edit my video clips together. I learnt how to add a voiceover recording over my video, and also how to zoom into different sections of an image to show it clearly what I was talking about in my voice over. Also I learnt how to cut and crop clips, and add different transitions into the videos to make them run smoother.

Prezi allowed me to create interesting PowerPoint’s which zoom into different elements that I want. I learnt how to use this site to create better presentations, learning how to add images, text and create the link path for the presentation.

YouTube was used when I uploaded my video recordings of audience giving me feedback on for final media product.

Slide Share was also a new programme that I used for my media research and evaluations. I learnt that you are able to create presentations simply using PowerPoint and then all you do is upload them to the site account that you create for yourself.

Blogger let me upload all of my work onto one site. I learnt how to create new posts and follow existing blogs, as I had never used blogger or created a blog before this was all new to me.

Flickr was used briefly to show my annotated versions of my draft designs, I learnt how to upload images to the Flickr site that I created.

 I used the social networking site Facebook to post my final media product to see if I would get feedback from an online audience, which includes friends and people I know

I also used Twitter to post my final media product, as I was trying to get audience feedback. because on Twitter the audience seeing the post are different to Facebook. Posting it to Twitter was better as the people who follow me on Twitter listen to the same music as me which is Indie Rock.