6 - Technology

Technology

A range of technologies were used in the creation of the front cover, contents page and double page spread produced for my magazine, ‘AMP’, all of which were crucial in achieving the end product of a professional and attractive publication.

When planning the photography for the images used throughout the issue, I needed to consider that the photographs needed to be of a good standard so that they would enhance rather than ruin the look of the magazines; had poor quality photographs been used, the magazine simply would have appeared unprofessional and may have been considered an ‘eye-sore’. For these reasons, I made sure that when taking the photos, I used a good quality camera. The camera that I used was the Nikon Coolpix L810 camera, of which produces large, clear photographs; this is exactly what was required, rendering this piece of equipment ideal for this task. 

This is the camera used to take the photographs included within the alternative music magazine, 'AMP'. It is a Nikon Coolpix L810.

Once uploaded, these photographs needed to be edited in order to enhance them so that the pages appear more aesthetically pleasing and coordinated. Although the photographs were edited, they were only adjusted slightly; the reason for this is that if they were edited to an obvious extent, they may have appeared unprofessional, immature and unattractive. I simply adjusted hue/saturation, brightness/contrast, vibrance and exposure and cropped them to the appropriate size and composition. Also, I made the backround blurred on the photograph on the contents page so as to draw attantion to the artist himself, who is the subject of the photograph.

From these 'before and after' images, it is clear to see that editing my images has made a subtle yet effective difference, making them more vibrant and attractive.

The computer programme that I used was Adobe Photoshop CS5.1; this is a relatively current version of the programme so includes many up to date features; this enabled further creative freedom so that my magazine could turn out to be innovative and of an attractive appearance, making it more enjoyable to read. Photoshop was, in my opinion, the most suitable programme to use for the editing of images. There are quite a few reasons for this, one being the vast amount of options for adjustments of the images compared to the choice offered by other similar programmes. Another reason is because I am familiar with the programme so was able to use it to edit the photographs with ease and expertise. Photoshop is commonly used in the media and publication industry because of how well suited to its purpose it is, therefore I have taken this into account in order to produce a conventional and professional looking magazine.

As well as being used to edit images, Adobe Photoshop was also used to assemble the magazine because it allowed all components to be altered and moved easily and without complications due to the use of multiple layers. It also meant that the files could be saved as both photoshop files and JPEG files, meaning that it could be both altered easily and viewed/added to other pieces of work at the same time. I found that this programme was useful to me personally because I understand most of the technicalities of the programme and how to use it, so found no difficulty in creating the magazine pages. Photohop enabled me to create effects that would otherwise be unachievable on many other programmes; an an example of this is how I was able to cut the masthead to appear to be behind the mosel's head. I would not have been able to do this on other programmes such as Microsoft Publisher or Microsoft Word. Below is an image of this example:

 I feel that I was able to demonstrate my abilities in this field by adding elements such as shadowing to add dimension and interesting text boxes such as that which is used over the image on the contents page. I could also be confident and creative when considering page design, making the magazine interesting and original. I also feel that through the practice that the production of these pieces of work has provided me with, my abilities using photoshop and knowledge of the creation and layout of pages in magazines has improved considerably.

To produce my work, I made sure to use a good quality computer. For this reason, I used the acclaimed MacBook Pro, which is known for its excellent abilities. The computer possesses a retina display, allowing me to see the pages that I was producing in great detail so that the end product is of an impressive standard. Also, the computer ran fast and so it's use was easy, allowing me to get plenty of work done and use my time efficiently. All in all, the wide range of good quality technology available has allowed me to produce coursework of an impressive standard and a proffesional standard.