Q6 - what have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing your magazine?

I have employed and made appropriate use of technologies that were new to me in the making and refining of my music magazine.
The main change in technology that I experienced was the use of Photoshop. I was used to using InDesign, which I used to develop my preliminary piece, but felt that PhotoShop would be more useful in my second piece due to some facilities that were more cumbersome or inaccessible in InDesign. For example, I could simply edit my images to what I needed them to be and put them straight back into my magazine without having to change the format. I particularly learned a great deal about photoshop, and how to properly photoshop images. I mainly used the magnetic lasso tool to cut my images out from the background, and modified the models that I used in my images slightly with the use of red eye remover and spot remover. I also used the spot lightening tool on the front cover image as the lighting had previously been too dark.
As to using stills cameras, I learnt a great deal about composing an actual image as opposed to actually using the camera. I made use of a reflector, different lighting and adpated to different locations whilst using the stills camera. I used a reflector on the front cover image, but I learned not to position it to close or the features of the model would be washed out and the features difficult to make out. As it turned out, the reflector may have been positioned too far away from the model as his features turned out to be quite dark, and had to be edited.
Once the images were finished being edited, I needed to compile the images how I wanted throughout the pages of my magazine. I was more familiar with this process than some of the other functions of PhotoShop, as the use of layers was similar to how InDesign worked. I used layers to control how the coverlines, masthead and other texts were placed over the front cover image.

I didn't experience any problems with making layers and fitting them together in the magazine, the only part that I found at all frustrating was the constant moving around of the layers and images to fit them without overlapping.

Overall, I was faced with many new technologies throughout the making of my final magazine piece, but learnt to use them effectively and appropriately towards the task.