equiptment table

What equipment have you used over the past year?	Advantages	Disadvantages	What did I create with it? What features did I use?
Photoshop	Extremely good for image manipulation You can create different effects- different hair, eye, spots Range of tools and filters You can use the pen tool/ lasso tool to cut people out Layers You can change the brightness and contrast of your image You can create transparent images Good for downloading brushes You can change the colour of things Industry standard High resolution imagery  Manipulate text Drop shadows Polaroid pictures Strokes on fonts	Not good at dealing with lots of text You cant work on multiple page documents Complex to use You can not manipulate a single item if they are on the same layer Images can be too big	Cs6 Screen shots Front cover DPS Vampire Cross processing Christmas card Brushes Masthead When creating my front cover on Photoshop I added a Masthead which became one of the main focus points of my magazine cover. I decided to make this on Photoshop because I thought that it would be the easiest and most efficient way of doing it as I know that I would be able to make changes at a later date quickly and easily. Before u started creating my front cover I measured the magazine that I had analysed so that I could get the measurements for my cover. I had to enter these measurements into Photoshop before I started to create my product. When creating my Front cover I used several layers, text boxes, shapes, this allowed me to get my product to look the way I desired. My photos were not as bright as I would have likes so I used the brightness and contrast to adjust this so that it looked the way that I desired. I also created a Christmas card, when doing this I used brushes. I downloaded these onto Photoshop, this enabled me to add badges, small Christmas images and different brush effects to make my card look professional. This was easy to do since it was my first time using downloaded brushes on Photoshop. . I decided to make a square card so I had to enter the correct measurements before I started on my card.  When creating this as well as adding the brushes I changed the background colour and made the card the shape that I desired. I then went on to add the brushes changing the colours to get the effect I wanted for my card.
InDesign	Good with text unlick Photoshop You can view all pages on one document Good at allowing you to control your text Column guides Link text Drop caps Lending and curving of font Text wrap You can export it as a PDF Good at creating page design Can create shapes on it	Not very good with imagery Complicated to use (industry standard) You have got to learn how to use it- not so straight forward Crashes easily	Cs6 I created two DPS documents in InDesign one was for a trial so I could work out how to use the software and the second was the final DPS for my product. Before I started to create the product I had to set the size for the document, I measured the DPS that I was analysing and used the same measurements for my own DPS. When using InDesign I created several text boxes so I could insert my article. I linked the text boxes together so that my article would flow threw out. After I had done this I inserted my picture, I found it difficult to get the picture behind the text because of the text wrap tool. Once I had overcome this I found it easier to use InDesign to make further changes. I found that InDesign crashes a lot when you are using it so I kept saving the document as new copy to ensure that I did not lose any work.
Cannon 350d	Automatic and manual settings Zoom- 55mm 8 mega pixels Range of different functions Shutter speed can be changed Aperture Continuous shoot mode Allows you to change the ISO setting Change the white balance setting Self timing Can store images on USB card	Expensive Big and bulky Aperture and shutter speed settings don’t have a massive range 8mega pixels isn’t a very high pixel capacity relatively complicated to use	Front cover Shutter speed Composition pictures
Other cameras, Iphone 5	Light Can store lots of photos Can edit photos Grid High quality pixels Easy to get your pictures of your phone	Resolution may not be brilliant Basic settings	I regularly take photos on my phone, if I am taking a photo outside sometimes I use the grid available on my phone this allows me to see what section of the photo is going to be the main attraction.  I also use the panorama option of my phone. This allows you to capture a photo on a larger scale. It allows you to expanded the view that your normal camera can capture giving you a wider picture.
Arrilite continuous lighting	Easy to use Good at allowing to see what the light is going to be like on the photo Don’t need to use a flash meter reading Can put different colour gels in front of them Spot lights	Extremely hot Make people look yellow/ orange Not industry standard	I used this in my photo-shoot to brighten the room so that my photos became as bright as possible. It was easy to set up and adjust so I could change the lighting depending on my photo, it was also easy to move around so I could change the height depending on the location of my model. When I was moving the Arrilite I found that I got very hot very quickly. This made it harder to move because it was to hot to hold. Therefore an easy job became difficult, all because of the heat. It also made it difficult for my model to stand in front of it for a long period of time because it made the photography studio hot and un comftable.
Bowens flash lighting equipment – discuss softboxes/umbrella fill lights	Industry standard They don’t have a orange/ yellow hue Not hot Can use gels an filters with them You can have complete control over the lighting Higher quality pictures Can create spot lights Can move them around relatively easy Can tilt them easy	Have to use a flash meter reading to set up lights correctly Complicated to use Time consuming
Reflectors	Portable Allow you to illuminate certain parts of the model Can get different colours	Quite bulky Easy to break
Lastolite paper backdrops	Come in a range of colour Crease free Disposable Easy to set up	Expensive Gets dirty quickly Tear easy Heavy and large to set up	When doing my photo shoot I used the white backdrop. I decided on this because I wanted my photos to be as light as possible. The only problem that I found with the white background was the dirt on the floor. Every time my model moved the white backdrop got dirty, this showed up when I was taking my photos. Luckily I was able to get rid of this on Photoshop.
Fabric backdrops	Light Cheap Reusable Come in a range of colours	Creased Long washing process

Equipment Evaluation

Fill in the following table: DO NOT copy and paste the advantages and disadvantages into these boxes

final skills audit

AS Media Production: Final Skills Audit Print Production

Name:                         Tutor group:              Date:

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		Composition, production pictures. I used this on the first set of photos that I took, this was also the first time that I had used a cannon camera so I was unsure. When I used the manual focus for my final piece I felt like I was better at using the camera. This enabled me to take the photos the way that I desired.
Shutter Speed	x		Water, leaves and torch. When I was using this it allowed me to set a time on how long it takes the camera to take the photos. When I was taking pictures of water I set the shutter speed so that it took the photo really fast unlike when I took the torch photos, when taking these I changed the settings so that the camera took the photos really slowly. This allowed the camera to catch the moving torch so you could see the trail that the light was leaving behind.
Aperture control	x		Change depth of field
ISO Control	x		Changing the light that is been allowed into the lenses from 200-800 to brighten the images and avoid black images. I used this when I was taking my photos outside. I found that when the IOS setting was at 200 my photos were coming out black. Obviously this was not how I wanted my photos to look so I turned the IOS setting up to around 800. This drastically improved the look and brightness of my photos.
A tripod		x
External flash	x		Flash to enhance the picture and lighten images. I did not use this for my final project because I used the light meter to make my photos brighter. I decided against using the external flash because I wanted the background to stay bright. I did not want my model to look bright and then have to sacrifice the brightness of my background.
Self timer facility		x	To allow for movement, an example of this being used maybe getting a group photo. Instead of someone missing out on the photo it gives the group the opportunity for them all to get into the photo. The camera gives you an option on how long you want it to wait before the photo will be taken. When you activate the timer the camera count down then takes the photo without any assistance.
Light meter	x		For magazine photos to get the right settings for our product, this allows you set the lighting that you want for your product. You can make your photos really bright or dark by adjusting the light meter.
Composition grids	x		Rule of thirds to help position and balance the image. This shows you what rule of thirds the main subject of your photo is going to fit in. It also gives you an indication on who/ what is going to look more dominant in the photo. It also allows you to line thing up into the position that you want to desire. Finally it allows you to see what is straight up and down left to right.

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 moved text either closer together or I made longer changing size and shape of the text for my magazine front cover. I did this because I think that it looked more professional
Filters		x
Brushes		x
Layers	x		Layers used in Photoshop in order to make sure each layer was changeable and doesn’t effect the real image
Opacity control	x		Making a block colour more transparent
Shape creation	x		Creating shapes for front cover to give a professional effect
Brightness and contrast control	x		Changing the contract in order to achieve the best colour
Gradients		x
Load selection features	x		Put model on front of magazine front cover title
Feathering		x
Colour curves adjustment		x
Resolution setting control	x		Put pictures at 300 pixels per inch
Magnetic lasso, polygon lasso tool	x		Placing image on front of other objects
Cropping tool	x		Cropping out imperfections, I used this when I was editing my photos to cut out bits of the photo that I did not want on my cover.
Clone tool	x		Changing colour of glasses to get rid of the shine
Retouch tool	x		Getting rid of spots and blemishes –I used this when I was editing Zoë’s face.
Other skills Stroke tool Warp tool Doge and burn Margin guides Rotate Drop shadow Transform	x		I used the drop shadow on my header to make it look more professional. I used margin guides to make sure that all my text lined was in the same position. This made my cover and DPS look neater.

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
Have you ever used In design ever before?		X	I had not used InDesign until I made my first DPS.
Margin and column guide creation	X
Inserting an image ID	X
Resizing images in ID	X
Text manipulation – resizing, rotation	X
Text manipulation – controlling kerning and leading		X
Text flow creation	X
Using transparent imagery in ID	X
Shape/line creation In design	X
Exporting to PDF from In-design	X
Text Wrap	x
Other Skills

Number of new skills achieved:

(compare with your initial skills assessment)