Tuesday 22nd March

Production

Last week was a very busy one for me, as well as college I had a trip to London on Wednesday and an Art exam on Thursday meaning I missed two lessons of production. Because of this I stopped back on Thursday night after college however I struggled and found it difficult to work my way around photo shop without getting stuck and because I was on my own I didn’t achieve much. Monday, Tuesday and Friday’s lesson I managed to work out the layout for my front cover by placing boxes on my front cover to give myself a picture of what my final outcome will look like. Furthermore I did this for my double page spread but I haven’t developed this as further as I have my front page. In my own time I developed writing my article and I have very almost finished it.

    Last week I struggled to navigate my way around Photoshop however I am learning new skills every day and although I still struggle I do feel a lot more confident to work my way through the programme than I did when I first started my production. I find In Design a lot easier to use than Photoshop however I started using In Design after I had been using Photoshop, which has many of the same tools.  

     This week I need to have a first draft front cover and double page spread complete to be able to spend next week, my last week of production, editing the final parts of my work and making my products to the best standard they can be. I will spend Tuesday, and Wednesday working on my front cover and Thursday, Thursday night and Friday working on my double page spread to be able to achieve my target of having a first draft completed. Furthermore in my own time I need to finish the ending of my article and double checked it to make sure it best suits the theme of my magazine.

   The main problem that I worry about every week is if my work gets deleted or lost. I have all my work backed up on my memory stick and on my home computer in case of this occurring. Another problem could be that my files could become corrupt if I have problems with a computer or memory stick. This means that I should save my work in different places within my documents on college computers and on my home computer. The last problem that I could encounter is that if there is a power cut and I haven’t yet saved my work, to stop this from happening I save my work every 15 minutes to be stop this problem from happening.                                   

This is an example of the font that I have downlaoded from dafont.com I think that it looks mature and sophisticated for my target audience and suits the theme of a fashion magazine well. I played around with drop shadow and stroke on this font to see what it looks like with effects. I think it suites the idea of my magazine well and will look effective when put my front cover and double page spread all come together and I can view them as one. I would like to find another font from the website to use on my products to make them as visual as possible for my target audience.

Tuesday 15^th March

Last week, on Tuesday was my photo shoot. I was very well prepared with costume and props however I had a few contingencies which altered my plans for my production. On Tuesday morning the model I wanted to use for my double page spread photos couldn’t make the photo shoot and cancelled. This wasn’t a problem as I had my back up model Kaytee to fill in and cover her place. To add to this dilemma the venue where the studio is, the Arts centre had a power cut and all personnel were evacuated from the building, this could have been worked around with my back up photo studio slot the following week but thankfully the power came back on and my photo shoot went ahead as planned in the afternoon. Whilst doing my photo shoot Chris, the lighting technician, and I tested out what lighting worked better for my pictures before deciding on having two main lights facing diagonals towards my models that stood in front of the backdrop.

      On Wednesday of last week I looked through my photos and started to plan on which photos I was going to use and which that were no good. I decided on my final photos and started to develop my ideas through photoshop. I carried on working on photoshop and InDesign throughout Thursday and Friday’s lessons testing out my flat plan and how my ideas work with the final images.

This will be my front cover image.

This will be one of the images for my double page spread.

      This week I plan to carry on designing my front page, my double page spread and writing my article. I am hoping to have first drafts of my front page and double page spread by the end of the week so that I can discuss and get advice from Stef and Lee in how to develop my product to make them better. To be able to achieve these targets I need to spare my free time to dedicate it to developing my production to achieve the best products I can and continue improving them.

        During the week I am developing ideas and writing my article this means that I may have many technical contingencies which may affect my work such as work getting lost or deleted. My abilities in not being able to work in the photo shop programme even though my skills are developing as I go. The only way I can make sure that these problems do not occur is buy having all my work backed up on a memory stick and on my home computer to ensure that I always have a spare copy somewhere. For photoshop I am learning new skills every media lesson and I need to spare up my free time to be able to practice and have a play with it so that I can produce my production by my deadline.

Production

8th March 2011

I spent last week planning out what I wanted to create in my unit three. I planned out what I wanted as the idea behind my magazine and what I wanted to be in my photos and in my articles. To test out the ideas that I had I made two mock-ups as part of my pre-production work testing out different ideas and the ways in which I would produce them. I’m not very confident on photoshop but I am hoping that by doing mini tasks like the mock-ups I will gain more skills.

       At the end of last week I had decided on what photos I wanted to take, completed my photo shoot plan and had my models prepped and ready knowing what they had to do. Furthermore I had outlined two article ideas and I also knew by Thursday what I wanted to write in my article and what style I was going to write it in.

       The only problems that I struggled with was using photoshop and not understanding how to make what I wanted to. The way I resolved these problems was when Stef, an ICT specialist who comes in on a Friday afternoon, showed me what I was doing wrong and taught me how to use different tools effectively to get the effect I wanted. Whilst using photoshop I learnt how to use the free transform tool which I used to change the direction of an object as well as changing size. I am going to develop more skills as I start my production as I will be editing, readjusting and creating my magazine front cover.

        This week I am doing my photo shoot, designing the layout for my Indesign double page spread and I want to start designing my front cover. My photo shoot is on Tuesday 8^th and my models are prepared and know what costumes I want them to wear and I am prepared because I have collected my props ready for Tuesday. Wednesday is our long lesson and this is when I want to review my photos and check I have all the shots I need and that they look how I wanted them to. From there I will spend that lesson, Thursday and Friday’s on working on the editing and layout of my front cover to get started on making as many drafts as I can to make the best product possible. To ensure that I am learning the skills I need to be able to produce my product I am going to find a photoshop tutorial on the internet in the next couple of weeks and I hope to learn some basic skills that will help me in my production.

      Possible problems that could go wrong next week are that my photo shoot is cancelled or delayed because of camera’s breaking or Chris not being able to turn up. In case of this happening I have booked an additional conditional photo shoot in case of any problems with my first one. Furthermore another problem could be that my photos have not turned out how I wanted them in which case I will use my conditional photo shoot booking to take more which I will need to plan out. Another problem with photos is that I could lose them or they could be deleted; my contingency plan for this happening is to have my photos backed up on college computers, a memory stick and my home computer to ensure the safety of them. 

Skills Development 28th January 2011

Apeture
I took these photos to test different apeture setting on a camera. I really liked using lower apeture settings because the effect is really interesting and makes an object very dominant within a photo.

These two photos were taken using low apeture settings which give a thin depth of field. This means only the objects closest to the camera are in focus and everything behind the object is out of focus and gives a blurry effect. Using a lower apeture setting lets more light in and is good for using in dull light conditions; the stutterspeed is lower and the lense is open for a very short time.

These two photos are taken using middle apeture settings which gives a medium depth of field. This means objects closest are in focus and some of the objects behind it are in focus but the background is still out of focus.

These two photos use high apeture settings which give a maximum depth of field. This means that everything in the photo is in focus and the lense is open for longer. It is good to use high apeture settings of a landsacpe on a dark day becasue using high apeture lets more light in because the lense is open for longer. This is why the people in my photographs have blurred becasue the lense is open for longer therefore allowing the people to blur when they move.