I used Internet Explore for research. I learnt conventions of a magazine through the research I made on internet explore. At first I found it hard to even find what I was looking for let alone analyse it. However over time I began to learn how to refine my searches getting me the results I wanted. I got used to analysing what I found, the easier it became. I also found the internet particularly useful for finding out about the different institutions of media, as I had heard nothing of Bauer Media group before, I now know exactly where each institution has its headquarter and what type of magazine each of them sell. I found the internet explore very useful in this project as it allowed me to find out the information I needed about the institutions as well as allowing me to find images to annotate. The most common search engine I used was google as it always refines your answers itself allowing you to find what you want quicker, this I found particularly useful.
I had begun using powerpoint before we started the project. Although I could use the software I still wasn’t aware of everything that the software did or how to change the layout on the page of the slide. As the project began to develop so did my skills on powerpoint, I learnt how to change the lay out of a slide best suited to the purpose I wanted it, I learnt how to put arrows and other shapes onto the slide as well as how to insert an image. I used powerpoint to display my research and show what I had learnt through the research I had made. Powerpoint allowed me to have a visual way of expressing my thoughts and opinions on what I should include or what could be included, helping me clear my mind and make it easier to come up with a plan of action. It also produced a neat way for laying out my work, which I found useful.
I had always had a digital camera at home but I had never actually used it. I always seemed to find some reason for putting off using it wither it was but its raining I don’t want to get it wet or but what if I loose it. This project forced me to use a my digital camera for the first time. Through the use of the digital camera I learnt that the macro mode makes your pictures turn out sharper and more focused, creating a better picture. By using my digital camera I learnt how use the camera as well changing the focus on the camera and zooming in and out. The digital camera is the best picture taking product out there as it has a higher definition than a mobile thus making my pictures look more professional, making it a very useful technology.
When we were first introduced to PhotoShop I began dreading the daunting thought that I would actually have to sit in a lesson working on a program I had absolutely no clue about. I had never even used the product before this project started. I knew it existed but to me it was to complicated to use. After a brief tutorial session on how to use the software I still was slightly clueless about how to use the program. However, after a while I began to be able to use it. The greatest achievement that I learnt on Photoshop was actually how to paste an image onto the software. I used screaming at the computer about how much it annoyed me that you couldn’t use paste as I could never find the paste button however, now I can tell you straight from the top of my head that its near the bottom of the edits list. However, pasting isn’t the only thing I learnt from photoshop. Another thing I learnt was how to edit an image. Yeah it may sound silly that I couldn’t use photoshop but now I can paste pictures into the program, I can get rid of the background, turn the background transparent, change the colour of the image and much more. By learning how to use this
software, my images looked more professional helping making my magazine look more authentic.
I had never heard of InDesign before this project. At first to me it was a lot like Photoshop, I began dreading working with it as I couldn’t understand it. In my opinion it was to complicated, you had to remember to do some many actions to get the results you wanted that I simply couldn’t remember all the steps and felt awful for constantly asking my peers for help. However, just like Photoshop I found the similarities between the two and as I grew more confident on Photoshop I began to grow more confident on InDesign. By learning to use Indesign the layout of my magazine improved and so did the standard of my work. I’ve learnt how to export an image, insert text and have even downloaded the program onto my own laptop so I can keep practising and learning new techniques to make my work even better in the future.
At first the very prospect of having to write a blog had be worried. When I was younger I was always writing blogs on my bebo about what had happened to me that day and my feelings about it and I had always got positive feedback from it. However, there is a big difference between writing a blog for personal pleasure and writing a blog for coursework. I had never heard of Blogger before and was so terrible at it I even managed to write my email address wrong on the day I registered it and it was a nightmare itself trying to change it to the right one. However, the more I went onto blogger the easier it came to me on how to use it. It becomes real simple after a while. What I found useful about using the blogger it has allowed me to keep my work in chronological order and kept my work organised making it easier to see what work I have done and which work needs improvement.
Slideshare was a lot like blogger to me. I had never heard of it before, however after using it in this project I have learnt how to upload my presentations the website as well as finding out how to delete presentation I no longer want up or to replace them with another presentation that is better. This has helped my improve my layout of the piece as there is no longer pages of the same presentation but with new slides its simply one slide for one selection making it a lot more organised and easier to upload to my blogger.
I still remember when there was this massive crazy about “Weird Msn Writing” bur with all my experimenting with fonts I never came across Dafont.com. Which to be honest was a real shame. it’s a great website for you to find a variety of fonts you can use. At first I didn’t understand how it worked or how we got the font to write the text we wanted however, I soon learnt that you simply had to print screen it and open it in photoshop and edit it, I have even managed to do a step by step guide on my blog on how to do it. The most useful thing I learnt from dafont was down to download the font you wanted, although that doesn’t sound like much, I learnt how to use dafont just like all the other programs I had never used before and I found it very difficult to get my head around how to use them, however, once you get your head around it, it is so beneficial to your work and makes the presentation of your work look so much more professional just because Dafont has a range of different fonts to use helping add to the convention of having various fonts on in your magazine.
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