media presentation

1. Question 6 – Technology – What have you
learnt about technologies from the process of
constructing this product?

2. Hardware
Hardware, in the computer world, refers to the physical components that
make up a computer system. There are many different kinds of hardware that
can be installed inside, and connected to the outside, of a computer. I used a
lot of hardware in the process of making my magazine and getting the
finished product. I used the Apple Mac with all its accessories, a camera, SD
card and reader and lighting with a backboard for imagery. The hardware
itself was all a key part in the making of this magazine and without all the
hardware I had access to my magazine would not of been produced at the
quality it looks as a final product.

3. Apple Mac and
accessories
The apple mac was the building blocks to my media work
as it allowed me to form everything on one piece of
equipment. The Mac HD-
Processor- 2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory- 3 GB MHz DDR2 SDRAM
It came with all the software available for me to get started
from the get go and get the best final product possible. I
found it very easy to use as a desktop as all the
accessories especially the keyboard and mouse were so
easy to get used to.
The keyboard itself made it extremely easy to speed up
work with short cuts such as-
apple+shift+4= allows me to crop a image of anything
selected which helped when it can to analysis of my
magazine and zooming in on small things.
The mouse made it easy to cut and drag parts of images
and allow me to set out all of my work in the way I want it.

4. The Camera, strobe flash and Horseshoe
flash trigger
For my photo taking I used a Nikon
D3100. The camera itself allowed me to
get some very vivid and HD shots to give
my magazine cover, contents and article
a professional style making it as eye
catching and attractive to the target
audience as possible. Having this quality
of camera allowed me to change the
cameras shutter speed(1/300th) to the
level of output to the strobe flash which
allows me to get a modeling light effect on
the images I took. Using a horse shoe
flash trigger allowed me to link together
the camera and strobe flash light using
the infa red signals. Putting a flash trigger
on both the camera and lighting gave the
camera a flash in-sync with the lighting
giving me top quality photos.

5. Soft Boxes and Backdrop
The soft box gave my shots an
edge over amateur photography to
give it a sense of a professional
modeling photo shoot. The soft
boxes used disperse the harsh light
to give it a softer, rounder light on
the subject I am taking photos of.
By using this it allowed me to get
full quality and also allowed me to
be adventurous with my shots as I
could move it about to get side and
back drop shadows. The backdrop
is lit with two other strobes on the
highest level to give a high intensity
exposer and further allow
shadowing.

6. Software
The software used in this project has been vital
to creating the finished product with the best
visual quality possible. Obviously without the
hardware like the Apple Mac I would not of been
able to even run the software I included in
creating the magazine however I feel both
hardware and software were as important as
each other as without the specific qualities of the
programs the quality would not of been up to
professional standards. I used a variety of
software in the process of creating the magazine
but also in the planning and final analysis. The
main software used when creating the magazine
were ‘photoshop’ and ‘indesign’. In the planning
and analysis safari, a blog, powerpoint, and
word were the key pieces of software for the
work to be completed in the correct way amd
allowed me to be creative with the work I was
doing.

7. Photoshop
Photoshop was the main piece of software when creating the
cover, contents and article of my magazine. I found it quit easy to
use as a program as it is set out in a simple but effective way.
The ability to have layers really helped with the layout of the
pages but mostly the cover page as I wanted a multi layer look to
fit the style of my magazine and the genre I focused on. The
program also has extremely useful tool such as adding effects to
the images and using the plaster tool to take out blemishes etc.
Photoshop is also very useful when it comes to moving objects
and pieces of text around, The ruler tool made it very easy in the
contents and parts of the cover to get thing in line so it looks
attractive to the eye and not a bit rushes and messy.

8. Photoshop examples
L
a
y
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The ruler tool was
very useful

9. Power point and word
Power point came in to use when I had
finished my cover ,article and contents
and had to do analysis of the finished
products. Power point was a useful
program as I could make the analysis
visually appealing by including a lot of
imagery as well as the text. I felt I could
go into a lot of detail compared to a
simple page of writing as I could use
imagery to explain my points. Power
point also is more interesting to look at
for the reader of my blog and gives it a
lot more appeal. Word came in useful
mostly for my article and planning the
questionnaire and the answers. It made
the text easily transferable onto ‘in
design’ so I could spend more time on
the imagery and layout.

10. In Design
I only used in design on my
article due to the amount of text I
had. It was extremely useful as I
could set the text out exactly how
I pictured it as in design allows
you to set out equal text boxes
and set the text that I import to
flow over to the three text boxes.
In design also has a set grind
around the article so I know
where the pages end so none of
my work gets cut out and I can
set it out so nothing gets
squished in making it look rushed
and without the visually
professional look.

11. Safari
I used safari throughout my media
project for multiple reason, I feel that
the prep was when it was most
useful as it allowed me to look at
professional magazine and get
inspiration to get started on my own,
for example using safari I was able
to make a mood board of artists I
felt linked in with the theme of my
magazine. It also really helped in
analysis when finding out about
different publishing and distribution
companies for my magazine.