TechnologiesEvaluation

PhotoshopI used Photoshop to produce my front cover for my magazine. I had to develop my skills in Photoshop to help me create this front cover, I used a variety of tools in Photoshop to help me create the magazine front cover, such as the polygonal lasso tool, I used this to cut the background of the image I had taken for my front cover out, I learnt how to use it all you have to do is click all around the picture, and then once you have clicked around the outside of the image you go on select and click on inverse and press delete and the background will be gone, this was useful because I was then able to cut the background out and then use a custom background to make my front cover suit my house style.

I also used the rectangle and circle tool, I used these to create circles and rectangles as graphics for the front cover, I used the circle tool to create the graphic of green circle behind the price of the magazine, I did this because it made the magazine look more like a real magazine and more appealing to the audience, I learned how to use this, all you have to do is click on the tool that looks like a shape, select the circle and draw it on the page and place it where you want to place it, you can change the colour of the shape as well, by clicking on the top where it says colour and then it lets you change colour to what you want it to be.

I also used the same tool except to make a rectangle to go as my sky line and the rectangle down the side of the front cover, you do the same as you do when you was making a circle but select a rectangle instead, draw it on the page and change the colour by selecting colour on the top of the screen

I have also used the gradient tool, I have done this by clicking on something I wanted a gradient on, for example my mast head, I right click on the layer and then click blending options, then you go the gradient tool and choose the two colours you want the gradient to be, you can change the angle the gradient, this is useful because it helps make the magazine look more appealing to the audience and help me fit the mast head into the house style of the magazine by bringing to colours that suit my magazine together to make a more appealing mast head, you can also do this with rectangle shapes and also the circle shapes

I have also used the drop shadow tool as well to add effect to the cover lines and the mast head on the front cover, this was so I can make the mast head look more appealing to the audiences and catches there eyes making them want to buy the magazine, to do this you have to right click on the layer and click on blending options, then click on the drop shadow option, then it gives you choices of what you want to do with it, I chose to give it a green shadow for the mast head, you can change the angle of the shadow, and you can change how far away from the word it is and how far it spreads out from the word, I learnt how to do this by experimenting with Photoshop and the tools available.

I have also used a similar tool called stroke, I have used this around the cover stars image, and I have done this so that it stands out more and attracts the audience, for this you do the exact same as you do for the drop shadow except you click on the stroke option instead and then you can do all the same things like change the angle of it, I have made my stroke green again and I have learned how to do this by experimenting with the blending options tools

I have also used opacity settings in my magazine front cover, I have done this for the rectangle down the side and the background rectangles for the cover lines, I have done this so that you can see patterns in the background and also the effect that will attract the audience to my magazine, I have learnt this from knowing what it already means, so I know that changing the opacity changes whether you can see things in the background or not, I have done this by right clicking on the object or text I want to change the opacity on and then the first option give you a slider, and this is how you change the opacity of the object or text

I also used the tool levels to make the image that I have used better, this is good because this makes the image look better, and if the image looks good then the audience are going to be attracted to the magazine, whereas if I had left it then the image would look less appealing and therefore the audience would not buy the magazine, I have learnt this from experimenting with the tools in Photoshop, to do this you have to click on the image that you wish to enhance the blacks on, and press Ctrl L, by doing this you bring up the levels tool, when on this you can change the slider to make the blacks on the image, and all the darker colours look like the actual colour, and then adjust the brightness so you can see all the lighter colours as well, this is good because this makes the image look more professional and attracts the audience to buy the magazine

QuarkI used Quark to produce the contents and the double page spread of my magazine, I had to learn the skills of Quark to of been able to produce the contents page and double page spread, I used a variety of tools to help me do this such as the rectangle tool and the opacity tool, I also had to use a tool that had to insert an image box, so I could actually insert images on to my contents page and my double page spread

This is the tool that you use to insert an image, this is used, I had to be told how to use this tool as Ididn’t know I had to use this to insert an image.This is a good thing to use because it allows you toadd images to the page, and this can make thepage more attractive to the audience, making themwant to buy it more.

This is the tool you use to insert text, I already had knowledge on how to use a text box, this is tool is useful because it is the only way to insert text onto the pages in quark, and without text you don’t have a magazine

This is the tool you use to rectangles, but I thinned the rectangle downs so they would look like lines so I could outline my contents page, this is useful because this has enabled me to outline my contents page and this makes the page look more attractive to the audience so they feel like they want to buy the magazine more

I also learned how to use the SLR camera’s, I learned how to zoom in and out, focus the camera, and actually take pictures on the camera. This was good because if I was never taught or told how to do this, I would have never got images for my magazine, and the whole of the magazine would just be text, and if all of it was just text then the magazine would not be a magazine and would not attract audiences at it would have no coverstar to attract the audience, here are the images I was able to take because of my knowledge of the technology