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

During this project, i've used lots of different types of technologies throughout the process. These included Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign, digital SLR camera, the internet, YouTube and blogger.com.


For my front cover, I used Photoshop as the tools it provides give me a final outcome which looks professional. The sharpen and smudge tool helped me alot to edit and define photos. I also used the brightness and contrast tools to make my front cover look less like a photograph and more like a strong, defined image which could catch the eye easily. Using image manipulating helped me learn alot about Photoshop as that's it's main purpose. The many layers helped me place images and text exactly where I wanted them and the magic wand tool was brilliant for making small blemishes disappear.

For my contents and double page spread I used Adrobe InDesign which I found really useful for the actual process of designing and creating an image for the layout of my magazine. After I'd got the hang of creating guide lines for my three column magazine and placing text boxes and image boxes in the places I wanted them, it started to become easier to use. I learnt alot during the process such as placing images in the image boxes, resizing them to fit and then moving them around to their final place which took a long time to do.

For all my photos I used a Nikon D60 Digital Lens Reflex camera and the setting 'portrait' which without, my magazine wouldn't have looked very good at all. The portrait setting allowed me to focus mainly on my models and blur out backgrounds. I especially like my three photos on my contents page as the light coming down on them gives the photo an added effect which I think works really well.

The internet has been a massive help during this project. I've used Google so many times to find images of real magazine which have lead me to inspiration for my own. It's also helped me to find out my target audience from using websites such as Facebook and Twitter.

I used YouTube to watch interviews with people such as Caroline Flack and Shenae Grimes which are my target audiences aspiring people. They wear the type of clothes and listen to the type of music my magazine audience would so it helped alot during this project.

Blogger has become so useful during the time of making this magazine. It helped me to keep track of everything I had done and was always somewhere I could go to see my time management see what I needed to do next. It's also easy to access from home which is a plus as InDesign and Photoshop aren't as easy unless you have them installed. The organisation of blogger is also really good as the sidebar tells you when you did different blogs which also helps me to keep track of my work.