Sunday, 16 November 2014

My School Magazine Evaluation


About Yourself
During this project I had to make sure that I had confidence, to ensure that I would be happy with my work and be confident in what I’m doing, I think if I didn’t have confidence I would not be able to go on in the project. I also think that I had to depend on my creativity. This allowed to me to come up with any new ideas when making the front cover and the contents page. In the stage of photo taking for my front cover, I had to use my photography skills that I learnt previously before I started the project. I used my ICT skills to help the process of making the magazine cover easier, as I was already aware of how to use certain programmes and functions on the computer.
One skill that I had to develop on was to push myself more to enable me to create a good quality magazine. I think if I didn’t push myself to work harder, none of my work would be done and also would not be at a high quality. I also had to be very persistent when doing my work to allow myself to meet deadlines and finish in time to move on to the next step in the project. I found this quite challenging as I am quite a slow worker; but after learning how to manage my time sufficiently throughout the project, I found it a little easier.
I think to improve for next time I would definitely improve on meeting deadlines, as I did struggle to meet them during the project. I think I would also improve on my accuracy such as using skills to make the magazine better, for example using the rule of thirds and using alignment. I think I would also ensure that I put much more effort into the work as I feel like I did not give my full potential and it could be at a higher quality.

About the Technology
During the process of making my magazine front cover and contents page I used ‘ADOBE In Design’ for the first time, which I thought was very easy to get used to as the layout was simple. When using this programme I used tools such as ‘The type tool’. I liked using this tool as it was easy to use and I found the different functions that it had quite interesting. Such as being able to change the font colour and changing the width/length/italics/boldness made the writing more fun and interesting. I would say that this tool was the most useful during my work as I changed and used text and fonts quite a lot. I think also the ‘Selection Tool’ was also quite useful as I used it mostly to select images and text to move. On Photoshop I think a tool that I need to get to grips with is the cloning tool because when I used it to blur out blemishes it did not give an accurate finish. I think once I have fully understood the tool I will be able to give a good quality photo. To take my photographs I used my DSLR camera (A Nikon D3100). From doing this work I have learnt how to take photographs in natural lighting, and how to make them look professional. To take my first set of photos for m front cover I used artificial lighting without a flash to make the photos more natural. For the contents I took the photos in natural lighting, with the model standing by the window. While taking both sets of photos I tried taking some photographs using sheets of paper to reflect light onto the model. I also tried taking photos with artificial lighting and a flash, but the photographs were exposed to too much light which meant that they were too bright. In my future work I will have to choose better backgrounds as I think the places I chose to position models were not appropriate places as the walls were dirty. Also I will need to learn to position the model not so close to the wall so that a shadow isn’t formed.

About the Layout and Structure
The layout features that I have learnt about are what I have used on my front cover such as making any images and text float, rather than being on the edge. Also I have learnt about the rule of thirds and how to position my photograph. I also thought about alignment. I applied this to my work floating my images on the front page and also using the grid lines to keep the text and pictures in line with each other. I think the layout features came out mostly successful; however there were some disadvantages like the title not being in line with the writing, and the bottom line of the writing not being in line with the barcode. If I was to do this work again I would be more creative when designing my front cover as I feel as though it is very basic and not very exciting. I would do this by maybe adding a photo to the front cover or adding another colour, and making sure everything is in line and every image is floating.

Organisation and Use of other people
For my front cover I used a friend outside of school and for my contents page I used another friend from school. As I am quite close to the model I used for my front cover it was very easy for me to take the photos as she didn’t want to disappoint. The model that I chose for the contents page was very easy to deal with as she doesn’t mind having her photograph taken as she is very photogenic. A problem that I had with both models was that in some photos they did not take the work seriously, which resulted in the laughing in the photos. When I do the next project I will ensure to be stricter when taking the photographs so that the models know that it is serious and that the photos need to be taken. I persuaded them to let me take the photos by rewarding them after, as this worked quite well I will use this technique next time.






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