Final Skills Audit

AS Media Production: Final Skills Audit Print Production

Name:                Lauren Wilson  Tutor group:     1.25  Date: 28.04.14

Photographic Skills

Which of the following photographic features/equipment have you used on a camera before:

Feature	Yes	No	Comments if yes – where have you completed this skills and to what level
Manual Focus features	X		I developed this skill considerably during all of my photo shoots, particularly in my studio shoot, as the cameras I used were DLSR cameras.
Shutter Speed	X		I developed these skills through our photography experiments with the torches in a dark room. I changed the shutter speed so that it was a lot slower in order to get the effect of a pattern of the torch light. This can be seen on my blog on the 22nd October 2013.
Aperture control	X		I used the aperture control in my photography experiments, using a prop to show the depth of field that changed when changing the aperture settings.
ISO Control	X		I developed this skill in my photography experiments, which can be seen on my blog.
A tripod	X		Although I used a tripod in GCSE Photography, I did not develop my skills with using a tripod.
External flash	X		I used this in the studio shoot, including lighting such as soft boxes.
Self timer facility		X
Light meter		X
Composition grids	X		I used this considerably during my photography, particularly the rule of thirds and the eye line for my studio shoot.

Photoshop Skills

Which of the following features of Photoshop have you used before:

Feature	Yes	No	Comments if yes – where have you completed this skills and to what level
Text control	X		I used this skill when developing the cover of my product, to create the masthead, sell lines and other text.
Filters	X		Although I had used this skill already in GCSE Photography, I did not develop these skills any further during my production.
Brushes	X		Although I had used this skill in GCSE Photography, I did not develop my skill with brushes any further during the production process.
Layers	X		I developed this skill considerably from GCSE Photography, as I used a lot of layers through the editing of my images for my final product, and for the development of my front cover.
Opacity control	X		I used this on my front cover, to make the button sell appear more see through.
Shape creation	X		I used this on my front cover in Photoshop, to create a button sell.
Brightness and contrast control	X		I used this in editing the images for my final product, in order to make the images appear darker and fit the tone of my magazine.
Gradients		X
Load selection features		X
Feathering		X
Colour curves adjustment	X		I used the colour curves adjustment again on the images for my final product, for both my front cover and my DPS.
Resolution setting control	X		I used this when I imported my files from Photoshop to InDesign, in order to maintain the high quality of the images.
Magnetic lasso, polygon lasso tool		X
Cropping tool	X		I used this to resize the final product images for my DPS, and also during my experiments with Photoshop.
Clone tool		X
Retouch tool	X		I experimented with this during my Photoshop experiments, which can be seen on my blog.
Other skills	X		Elliptical marquee tool, spot healing brush tool (seen on my blog), paint bucket tool, sharpen tool, burn tool, dodge tool, hue and saturation, levels.

In Design Skills

Which of the following features of In Design have you used before:

Feature	Yes	No	Comments if yes – where have you completed this skills and to what level
Margin and column guide creation	X		I used this to formal my final product in the beginning stages of production.
Inserting an image ID	X		I inserted images into my final DPS, and also to put my front cover into the InDesign file.
Resizing images in ID	X		I used this so that the images I had inserted into my DPS fit properly, and were well placed.
Text manipulation – resizing, rotation	X		I used this for my headline and kicker, and also the text within my breakout boxes. I also used this for my main body text.
Text manipulation – controlling kerning and leading	X		I experimented with this technique in the body text of my DPS, but did not like how it looked so it did not appear in the final version of my product.
Text flow creation	X		I used this in the main body text of my article, so that it was easy to read throughout the different sections and columns.
Using transparent imagery in ID		X
Shape/line creation In design	X		I used this to create shapes in order to split my body text into determined sections and columns/
Exporting to PDF from In-design	X		I did this when I had finished my final product, in order to hand it in officially.
Other Skills

Number of new skills achieved: 27

(compare with your initial skills assessment): 11.

Final Product

Above are the final versions of my front cover and my DPS.
When compared to the very first magazine cover I made at the beginning of the year, my skills in using Photoshop, Indesign and camera and lighting equipment has developed extensively.
While I had a basic knowledge of Photoshop, as I had used it in GCSE Photography, I developed these skills greatly. Particularly with the initial editing of the images and then creating the text and shapes to create a complete front cover.
I had never used InDesign before starting the course, so my skills with InDesign have developed considerably since my first use. I have especially developed my skills in inserting text and formatting it, with tools such as drop cap and text wrapping and text flow, as well as formatting the original file before I begun editing.
While I had used cameras before, I had not used the manual settings very often and so I have learned a lot throughout the course of how to adjust manual settings, such as the aperture settings, ISO settings, and focus settings. I had also never used external lighting equipment before, so this was another skill I developed through the course, and used in my studio photo shoot.

Final Stages of Production.

Since my last blog entry, I have completed the final stages of production for my product.

Firstly, I changed the layout of my product on InDesign to have three columns on each page rather than two on the left and three on the right. This enabled me to balance out the content of the magazine without it looking cluttered, and so it looked like a much more organised DPS.

I also learned how to change the corners of shapes I created. I did this in order to soften some of the boxes that I used as backgrounds for text, particularly the white boxes holding the main sections of the article and the red ‘verdict’ boxes. I also learned how to create drop shadow, and used this on the titles of my verdict boxes, the subtitles for my articles (all in separate, slightly rotated boxes in a ‘label’ style) and the circular breakout box I created to feature a fact. I also learned how to create a drop cap, which I used on my introduction and at the beginning of each article.

After doing this, I then increased the size of the introduction font and put it in its own separate section, which would separate it from the body of the article and work to hold the reader’s attention for long enough to read the body. To aid this effect, I changed the colour of the drop cap to the same red as the verdict boxes, creating diagonals of colour across the page. 

This was my product before the final edits, which turned out to be much larger than originally planned in order to create a magazine that was successful in achieving its purpose and being appealing to my target audience.

Here is the image featured on my last blog post, as I began the process of further editing my DPS. You can see the beginnings of the introduction in the top left hand corner, where I began to learn how to adjust corners, and also to create a 'highlighting' effect on the text through the use of underlining and increasing the weight of the line.

This is my product after the final changes were made. The layout is a lot more organised, and the different sections are easily visible to a casual reader of a magazine. The increased size of the introduction text and separation of it from the body of the article would again be more visible to a casual reader, and more likely to hold their attention. The main body of the article has also been separated more clearly, through the use of blocks of white with rounded corners. The text in these is still separated into columns, evident through the use of a dotted line. The 'verdict' box is also made more obvious through its bright colouring, contrasting with the white background, and its varying black and white text. I then used drop shadow on all of the titles, the red 'verdict' boxes and the break out box to achieve a sense of layering, which helps to give the magazine a calmer, less cluttered appearance.