During the process of me taking photos and manipulating them to they can fit the conventions of a metal magazine, I came across multiple forms of technology along the way. These forms of technologies have helped me create a better product in the end and it wouldn’t have been this good without them.
During the photography stage, I used a DSLR Nikon camera that was supplied to me by the school I have enrolled in. I used this camera to take the photos for my magazine. Accompanied by the camera were multiple lighting equipment that has been set up. Some of the equipment was built into the ceiling controlled by a mix board and some of the equipment were portable and easy to setup. This would’ve been my first time using professional lighting equipment as I have never had to use them in life before. I however have used a DSLR camera but to only take simple photos, I’ve never used any colour correction or special settings to make the photos come out fantastic. This was my only drawback throughout that whole session since I knew how to set up the lighting because I had some help from a few of my colleagues who have had experience with the lighting equipment.
In the end I am pretty happy with the outcome of the photos as they looked great and lighting complimented some of my models. One thing I would like to do next time is to learn how to use the DSLR properly so I can take advantage of all it has to offer because I am sure if I knew my way around a DSLR camera, my photos would’ve looked a lot better.
During the construction of my pages I used 3 different types of software. Open Broadcaster Software, OBS for short, to record my speedwork videos which has allowed me to show different types of technologies while making my media product, Adobe Photoshop, which has allowed me to manipulate the photos into how I would like them to look and Adobe InDesign which allowed me to make my typography just the way I want it to look. All of these technologies have helped me make the music magazine I envisioned at the begging of the task.
Previous to the task, I’ve had 3 years of experience with Adobe Photoshop, which made editing the photo a walk in the park for me. I used many different types of filters and I downloaded many different textures to make my photos gritty, dirty and sinister. Since I didn’t know how to use the colour correction tool on the camera, I used the colour correction tool in Photoshop which allowed me to visually change the colours and how rich they should be. I then used the Black/White tool and made my photos black and white with a small hint of blue as blue is the main colour of this particular issue of the magazine. I then later found a website that would allow me to download grungy brushes to add to my brush collection on Photoshop, this helped me give the effect that the magazine has been worn and ripped which goes with the conventions of a metal magazine.
When creating the masthead and logo of the magazine, I published a survey asking what the people would think a good metal magazine name would be. The people responded that Hexagram would be a suitable name, I agreed. To get the font I wanted, I went to a website called DaFont which has a collection of fonts that users make and post online, this is a good example of web 2.0. Once I found the collection of fonts I would like to use in my magazine, I got started on the masthead which simply says ‘Hexagram’. The font I used for the masthead is called ‘Manhunter’. I then wanted to make the logo of my magazine. Since the name of the magazine is called Hexagram, it would be fitting if I got a hexagram to be my logo. Once I found the hexagram I wanted, I put it into Photoshop and made it look scratched up so it can fit with the ‘Hexagram’ font. These skills I’ve previously learnt from just watching YouTube tutorials when I was 13 to pass the time. I have now developed these skills so they can aid me with my school work. If it wasn’t for photo manipulation software such as Photoshop, it would’ve made the magazine industry less creative with their front covers and photos as it would be a lot harder to make photos look nice.
To present my work, I use Blogger (which is the website used right now so you can read this), Prezi, Slideshare and YouTube. These websites help me publish my work and creativity online so it can be marked and graded. I use Prezi whenever I want to make a flashy looking presentation and I use slideshare whenever I want to put in a lot of information into my presentations. I use Microsoft PowerPoint to make my presentation then upload it to slideshare. I also use YouTube whenever I want to upload a video showing how I made documents, this would’ve saved me a lot of time instead of typing out how I manipulated my photos as you can visually see it for yourself.
Finally, I use Google Forms for you surveys. The surveys help me with my research into making a better magazine for my readers. Google Forms collates all of the responses and puts them into charts which makes my life a lot easier when evaluating my responses.
All of these technologies have helped me make the media product for this task.
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