What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I used a variety of different technologies in the production of my magazine, both in terms of software and hardware. Before I could begin any of the designing stages I had to take photographs, for which I used a digital camera. However, even before I did this I had to research real life music magazines to get an idea about how to pose my models and about what to include in terms of mise-en-scรจne, and these are things I've described under Main Cover Image on the first evaluation question. Once I'd thought (albeit vaguely) about these things I had to take the actual pictures. I decided to use a digital camera as it allows for easy transfer via SD/xD card to the computer, which was important as all my photo manipulation needed to be done on the computer. For the first photoshoot I used a Kodak EasyShare 9.2 megapixel camera, and took photos on a variety of different settings. This was very easy to use as it was a lightweight digital camera for general use, but I wasn't totally happy with the quality of the shots. That's why for the next two photoshoots I used a Nikon digital camera which I borrowed from one of the girls who I was taking photos of. The camera was much better and more meant for the type of serious photography I wanted to be doing; the only problem was that I was unused to it and found it quite difficult to use. However, I got a lot of practice and feel much more confident now in using such cameras.
The other hardware I used were computers, and there isn't really much to say about them as I used them more for the software which ran on them. The only thing that is worth mentioning is the types of computer I used: at school I used one of the media room's Apple iMac machines while at home I used a Dell XPS computer running Windows Vista. Both machines are quite different from each other and I was originally much more confident in using my own home computer, though after practice I was able to adapt well to the iMac. I still prefer my computer though, as I feel it allows one much more freedom, in terms of running programs, editing files and settings etc. However, these sorts of things weren't too important in the creation of my magazine and the Adobe software (which was important) worked just as well on both machines.
The main way in which I used technologies in the creation of my magazine was through computer programs. This includes more professional software like Adobe Photoshop CS4 and Adobe InDesign CS4, as well as casual things like Grab (on macs) or Print Screen (on Windows), Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel, Firefox and the websites one can access via it, such as Blogger, Wikipedia, Youtube etc. I used all of these and more at one point or another throughout this project, but all except Photoshop and InDesign I was already adept at using before the media studies course began. As this evaluation question is asking specifically what I have learnt I feel that it would be pointless to waste time talking about things I already knew about. Therefore I shall focus on how I used Photoshop and InDesign to great effect in the creation of the magazine, and also what I've learnt about in each.
I used Adobe Photoshop for all the photo editing and manipulation that I had to do in the creating of my magazine, and it was also the program in which I did all of my contents page and cover (as opposed to the contents page, for which I used Photoshop to do the editing of the included elements but InDesign to compile everything together to manufacture a finished product). This ranged from things as simple (but long-winded) as cutting out the backgrounds from photos to the more complicated, such as applying make-up effects to a person's face and filters. The screen grab above-right demonstrates how I did the finishing touches of cutting Jonny out from the background for use on the second draft of my contents page. This particular stage involved me first using the lasso tool to cut a rough edge which went around Jonny, so that all the far outer bits were excluded. Then I had to go around Jonny's body, erasing every bit of background that still remained around him (this is the process pictured). Finally I used the blur tool on Jonny edges, so that did not look too sharp as this makes it clear that an image has been cut out from its original background. There are easier ways to remove the background from an image, such as using the magnetic lasso or magic wand tool, but these are really only effective when there is an obvious discrepancy between the foreground image and the background, like having the model pose in front of a white screen. The original picture of Jonny had the intricacies of cupboards, bricks and work tools in its background, so it was too complicated for Photoshop to automatically cut out. These were all things that I learnt as I went along through the project, experimenting with different techniques with varying degrees of success (or more often failure).
The screenshot to the left depicts the differences between an original photo and the edited version which I used as the band image on my double page spread. I feel that it looks so much better after having been edited, and will talk through what I did to make it that way. The first thing I did was to pump up the exposure, using the exposure adjustment function on Photoshop. Exposure is defined as being the total amount of light allowed to fall on the photographic medium during the process of taking a photograph, and so increasing it using Photoshop but the whole picture brighter and also made the background plain white. Having a plain white background made it easier for Photoshop to distinguish it from the people in the foreground, and so the next thing I did was use the magic wand tool to cut out the girls so a transparent background was left. The picture above-left shows what the photo looked like when selected by the magic wand tool. The only problem left was that certain parts on the girls were unselected, while some parts of the white background were selected. To solve this I used the quick selection tool, to de/select certain parts of the image more carefully. The final end product can be seen in context on my double page spread. Once again, I learnt this mainly through trial and error, though I also had help from various internet tutorials.
As I mentioned previously, I found InDesign really quite difficult to get used to after having grown accustomed to Photoshop. However, after a lot of t&t (time and tutorials) I had learnt a lot about it and its usefulness when working with primarily written content. One particular feature that I found useful was the ability to text wrap. This was where you can set a margin around an image and then make the text wrap around it. Having this meant I was able to properly use up all the space around the image without having random masses of white, and as wrapping text around images is also what real music magazines do it helped add to the realism of it.
I learnt a considerable amount about different technologies during the creation of my magazine, especially regarding Photoshop and InDesign. There are other instances where I explain the technology I've used in my step-by-step cover and contents page sections and also elsewhere on the blog.
I used a variety of different technologies in the production of my magazine, both in terms of software and hardware. Before I could begin any of the designing stages I had to take photographs, for which I used a digital camera. However, even before I did this I had to research real life music magazines to get an idea about how to pose my models and about what to include in terms of mise-en-scรจne, and these are things I've described under Main Cover Image on the first evaluation question. Once I'd thought (albeit vaguely) about these things I had to take the actual pictures. I decided to use a digital camera as it allows for easy transfer via SD/xD card to the computer, which was important as all my photo manipulation needed to be done on the computer. For the first photoshoot I used a Kodak EasyShare 9.2 megapixel camera, and took photos on a variety of different settings. This was very easy to use as it was a lightweight digital camera for general use, but I wasn't totally happy with the quality of the shots. That's why for the next two photoshoots I used a Nikon digital camera which I borrowed from one of the girls who I was taking photos of. The camera was much better and more meant for the type of serious photography I wanted to be doing; the only problem was that I was unused to it and found it quite difficult to use. However, I got a lot of practice and feel much more confident now in using such cameras.
The other hardware I used were computers, and there isn't really much to say about them as I used them more for the software which ran on them. The only thing that is worth mentioning is the types of computer I used: at school I used one of the media room's Apple iMac machines while at home I used a Dell XPS computer running Windows Vista. Both machines are quite different from each other and I was originally much more confident in using my own home computer, though after practice I was able to adapt well to the iMac. I still prefer my computer though, as I feel it allows one much more freedom, in terms of running programs, editing files and settings etc. However, these sorts of things weren't too important in the creation of my magazine and the Adobe software (which was important) worked just as well on both machines.
I used Adobe Photoshop for all the photo editing and manipulation that I had to do in the creating of my magazine, and it was also the program in which I did all of my contents page and cover (as opposed to the contents page, for which I used Photoshop to do the editing of the included elements but InDesign to compile everything together to manufacture a finished product). This ranged from things as simple (but long-winded) as cutting out the backgrounds from photos to the more complicated, such as applying make-up effects to a person's face and filters. The screen grab above-right demonstrates how I did the finishing touches of cutting Jonny out from the background for use on the second draft of my contents page. This particular stage involved me first using the lasso tool to cut a rough edge which went around Jonny, so that all the far outer bits were excluded. Then I had to go around Jonny's body, erasing every bit of background that still remained around him (this is the process pictured). Finally I used the blur tool on Jonny edges, so that did not look too sharp as this makes it clear that an image has been cut out from its original background. There are easier ways to remove the background from an image, such as using the magnetic lasso or magic wand tool, but these are really only effective when there is an obvious discrepancy between the foreground image and the background, like having the model pose in front of a white screen. The original picture of Jonny had the intricacies of cupboards, bricks and work tools in its background, so it was too complicated for Photoshop to automatically cut out. These were all things that I learnt as I went along through the project, experimenting with different techniques with varying degrees of success (or more often failure).
The screenshot to the left depicts the differences between an original photo and the edited version which I used as the band image on my double page spread. I feel that it looks so much better after having been edited, and will talk through what I did to make it that way. The first thing I did was to pump up the exposure, using the exposure adjustment function on Photoshop. Exposure is defined as being the total amount of light allowed to fall on the photographic medium during the process of taking a photograph, and so increasing it using Photoshop but the whole picture brighter and also made the background plain white. Having a plain white background made it easier for Photoshop to distinguish it from the people in the foreground, and so the next thing I did was use the magic wand tool to cut out the girls so a transparent background was left. The picture above-left shows what the photo looked like when selected by the magic wand tool. The only problem left was that certain parts on the girls were unselected, while some parts of the white background were selected. To solve this I used the quick selection tool, to de/select certain parts of the image more carefully. The final end product can be seen in context on my double page spread. Once again, I learnt this mainly through trial and error, though I also had help from various internet tutorials. 
As I mentioned previously, I found InDesign really quite difficult to get used to after having grown accustomed to Photoshop. However, after a lot of t&t (time and tutorials) I had learnt a lot about it and its usefulness when working with primarily written content. One particular feature that I found useful was the ability to text wrap. This was where you can set a margin around an image and then make the text wrap around it. Having this meant I was able to properly use up all the space around the image without having random masses of white, and as wrapping text around images is also what real music magazines do it helped add to the realism of it.I learnt a considerable amount about different technologies during the creation of my magazine, especially regarding Photoshop and InDesign. There are other instances where I explain the technology I've used in my step-by-step cover and contents page sections and also elsewhere on the blog.
No comments:
Post a Comment