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

Research & Planning:

Thanks to YouTube, I was able to gain other help from video bloggers around the world. The screen shot to the left is the channel of the 'Jazz Video Guy', a person I found incredibly helpful to help determine my target audience. In accordance with this, I also used social networking sites to help with this as well, and having never made a 'group' before, this was a new process for me. (the group is visible here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Media-Coursework-Jazz-Magazine-Feedback/336257513056225)

I also learnt how to scan drawings into the computer, a process that I have always struggled with, through scanning these images in, I was able to portray my ideas in a much easier medium.

Different file types such as 'JPEG', 'PDF' and 'indd' caused issues with my production and planning, causing me to have to change some of the files so that they could be presented in Blogger as Blogger only supports JPEG.










Production:

The Nikon Digital SLR's that I had to use had many different settings. Through the process of creating this product, I learnt which setting was best for the shots that I wanted to take and also learnt how and when it was necessary to use the flash feature as if used in the wrong shot, it can cause colour drain. A main setting that I used however was the portrait setting as it was portraits I was aiming to take.

A main element that I learnt about in the past few months is the use of the lighting kit which really helped with getting my photos the high quality that I wanted. Changing the amount of light on one side and keeping the light bright on the other can cause shadow which in my case helped with my photography as the photos themselves would not have been that good if it wasn't for the correct lighting.





Post Production:

Image manipulation was used a lot in producing my product, since starting this process my photoshop skills have dramatically improved as I am now confident doing much more on photoshop than I previously was. The main tools that I used were the blur tool and the magnetic lasso tool. (Here is a situation where I used the lasso tool and other such processes:  http://bentolhurstasmedia.blogspot.com/2012/02/ike-nova-lasoo-and-shadowing.html)

Using the desk top publisher InDesign was incredibly useful and having only used the software once before, I was able to improve my skills in using it greatly, learning how the ruler tool can be helpful for close detail of spaces and that when re-sizing an image, you should always hold down shift so that the image is re-sized equally and does not become pixilated.