Evaluation Question SixWhat have you learnt about technologies from the process of

constructing this product?

Online TechnologyBloggerBefore beginning the course I had heard of Blogspot/Blogger and the blogging community before, but I had always considered it to be another form of social networking. I had art and fashion blogs on other websites but I hadn’t considered Blogger to be an effective way of creating an online and interactive portfolio. Using blogger has enabled me to display multimedia work in an organised online storage space that I can access from anywhere. I have also developed my knowledge of HTML coding when embedding codes from slideshare,

YouTube and GoogleDocs.

HTML Coding when editing posts

My Blogger overview

Online TechnologyPrezi

Although I found it slightly confusing at first, Prezi has enabled me to brainstorm ideas (such as ‘initial ideas’ for my product) and present them

in order to gain feedback in an efficient and interactive way. Prezi is an alternative to PowerPoint and is more suited to visual display of ideas so has proved useful throughout the planning and reasearch stages of my

production.

Online Technology

Google DocsI was unaware that Google Docs existed at first and assumed it was just a Google version of iCloud so I had no idea it could be used for surveys and audience feedback. I found this google extension extremely useful when getting audience feedback as my surveys were easily accessable and the

data was all organised and displayed by the software.

iPhotoI had used iphoto before but hasn’t used it to its full

capabilities before the course, as I had never needed to organise or edit a large selection of photographs. The editing

feature is similar to the ‘adjustments’ bar on adobe Photoshop but it allowed me to make alterations to photographs quickly

during the image selection process e.g. the contents page main image’s contrast levels were increased on iphoto before I

chose to use that image in my product.

Software

SoftwareAdobe Photoshop Photoshop was the area where I developed my skills most. I had used Photoshop for my media GCSE last year so I understood the basic principles of layers, image format, applying text and making adjustments to the images. However, as I wanted to achieve a professional and well-established aesthetic to my product, I aimed to develop my Photoshop skills to look similar to a professional standard. I mimicked the techniques of professional image retouchers by learning how to properly airbrush. Previously I had used the blemish removal tool to correct lower-resolution images; airbrushing using layer masks, blur filters and the correct airbrush tool meant I could give the artist’s skin the ‘otherworldly’ glowing porcelain effect I wanted to achieve.

Adding text to images on Photoshop was an other area of improvement. For the copy on the double page spread, I struggled with formatting such a large amount of text to fit into the conventional three column format but after improving my skills, I was more comfortable when it came to formatting the dozens of text layers on the front cover.

PhotographyBefore the production, I had never formally set up a posed photo shoot using a professional standard camera. Before the practical production began I took some test shots to develop my photographical skills in terms of manually focusing, framing shots and selecting the correct setting on the camera depending on the subject and location. I further developed my photography skills when re-shooting the original test shots for my production. I learnt that in order to achieve a studio effect on my images I would need bright diffused lighting. For this I used a ‘slave’ which is a type of wireless flash extension so I could light my model from more than one angle.