What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

The programs and technology I used to help me produce my magazine were-

Photoshop, Blogger and Flickr.

I used Photoshop to help me edit and put my magazine together to become what it is now, I had never used Photoshop until AS Media and I believe I have learnt a lot. For example I knew exactly what type of background to use to take my images so it’s easier to crop the person out. I learnt how to add borders in my own way. Also I developed my own techniques and tricks to use without any help as I started to progress and develop my own skills. For example my front cover, on the original photo they weren't that close together, but because of the 'easy to work with' background, it was managable to crop the boys out and re-add them closer together.

Advantages-

·         The layout is simple and you can find what you’re looking for because the categories are set out well.

·         If something went wrong or didn’t work out well you can undo it at any time using the ‘History’ tool.

·         It’s easy to crop people out of photos and add them into other photos with a professional look using the ‘magic wand’ tool and the ‘eraser’.

·         A lot of control over text layouts and arrangements.

·         Helps you improve your images using the ‘Image’ and ‘Filter’ options.

·         Its gives the overall finished project a professional look.

Disadvantages-

·         It can be quite difficult to get use to the variety of different options to use. Usually you would need someone who knows Photoshop well to guide you through the basics and then soon you can figure the rest out and find your own tricks.

·         The files also take up a lot of memory on your hard drive.

I used Blogger to publish all of my work, even my ‘Flickr’ items. The homepage is very well set out and you can add ‘new posts’ quick and easy.

Advantages-

·         It’s free and easy to use.

·         You can group sections of your work.

·         You can style them to be your own.

·         Publish all of your work.

·         It saves your work automatically.

Disadvantages-

·         Your blog could get deleted by ‘Blogger’/’Google’, so they aren’t really entirely in your control.

I used Flickr only to add tags/notes to analyse images such as magazine covers and contents pages.

Advantages-

·         There isn’t a storage limit so you can upload as many photos as you want.

·         It’s free.

·         Easy to use and manage.

Disadvantages-

·         Well personally I only really used it to add tags to my images and didn’t explore the site very much because I preferred blogger.