Final Skill Audit

AS Media Production: Final Skills Audit Print Production

Name: James Dent                       Tutor group:2.43                 Date: 24/04/14

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		Experimented with it at AS level media
Shutter Speed	X		Experimented with it at AS level media
Aperture control		X	Didn’t use at all in my course
ISO Control		X	Didn’t use at all in my course
A tripod	X		Experimented with it at AS level media
External flash	X		Experimented with it at AS level media in my photoshoot (soft boxes)
Self timer facility	X		Experimented with it at AS level media
Light meter	X		Used when experimenting at AS level media
Composition grids	X		Used when experimenting at AS level media

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 when making my final product
Filters	X		I used this when making my final product
Brushes	X		I used this when making my final product
Layers	X		I used this when making my final product to organise everything
Opacity control	X		I used this when making my final product
Shape creation	X		I used this when making my front cover
Brightness and contrast control	X		Used when experimenting on photo editing
Gradients	X		Used when experimenting on photo editing
Load selection features		X	Didn’t use at all in my course
Feathering		X	Didn’t use at all in my course
Colour curves adjustment	X		Used when experimenting on photo editing
Resolution setting control	X		Experimented with it at AS level media
Magnetic lasso, polygon lasso tool	X		Used when making my final product
Cropping tool	X		Used when making my final product
Clone tool	X		Used when making my final product
Retouch tool	X		Experimented with it at AS level media
Other skills	X		Burn and dodge tool and can be seen on my blog

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	Until this course I hadn’t used it before
Margin and column guide creation	X		Experimented with it at AS level media
Inserting an image ID	X		Used in final product
Resizing images in ID	X		Used in final product
Text manipulation – resizing, rotation	X		Used in final product
Text manipulation – controlling kerning and leading	X		Used in final product
Text flow creation	X		Experimented with it at AS level media
Using transparent imagery in ID		X	Didn’t use at all in my course
Shape/line creation In design	X		Experimented with it at AS level media
Exporting to PDF from In-design	X		Used when I finally exported the product
Text Wrap	X		Used in my final project
Other Skills	X		Inserting drop caps when putting in my article

Number of new skills achieved: 31

(compare with your initial skills assessment)

CD Cover

how I did this was I used two different brushes to create a CD cover for a band, I got the brushes from Brusheezy.com and I used two different styles of trees brushes both of which I downloaded and put them into photo shop be adding them to the default brushes.

Final Product Development

This is the final version of my front cover what i have learnt while doing this is how to do button sells and the ellipsis tool, I also learnt how to install fonts that can be seen on my front cover. If i was going to redo this i would make sure i had edited the background out of the image do that the blacks aren't different colours.

This is the final version of my DPS and what i had gained from this was the ability to wrap text around other text so I can single out important pieces of information. If I was going to redo this piece of work i would have added more facts to my timeline at the bottom and had it in a more chronological order.

Project monitoring 2

After a week of editing my DPS, I have added the photos to it and completely arranged where everything is going to be and leaving space for my chart at the bottom when I have finished it. I have also edited the photos in photoshop to brighten my models face up on the shot where he is meant to look happy and added a bit of colour to his face and also began to make the text wrap around the images.

these are the contact sheets for my photoshoot, where i planned to use narrow lighting, at first the lighting in my first few were too dark, so i tested with different angles on the shots and lighting amounts to make sure that it is of the light i wanted. Another problem I had with my photoshoot was the I had to get some of my images outside as they wouldn't have given the desired effect in the studio.

finally my front cover has furthered a lot i have added my images to my front cover and added more of my sell lines to my product including ellipsis and

exclusive sell lines. I have also added my sell lines to my header and kicker.

Your LIfe Your Times skills development 2014

Over the past few months I have various new skills as part of my production of my double page spread and front cover. First of these is in the double page spread processing using InDesign, I have learnt how to create documents of the similar size to the one I was using as a guild, I have also learnt how to use text wrap as seen in the magazine above where i have wrapped where an eventual image will be and have the text around them and also about quote inserts.

Another skill i have making sure the column guild are right and that they fit with my magazine template, another skill i have gained from this is how to place objects in the boxes and pass text from one text ox to the next. In righting my article I have learnt various article writing skills, these being Semantic field, collegial language such as compression words, slang ect. Another skill i have learnt in this is narative voice, 1st, 2nd and 3rd person.

In Photoshop i have learn a number of skill regarding making my front cover, i have learnt how to install fonts that I would like to use, another thing that I learnt in photoshop was how to use button sells lines using the shape tool and also adding rulers to my document.Also, in Photoshop i have learnt photo editing skills such as cross processing, colour correction, the burn and dodge tool and the healing brush. In the development stages of my products I have also learnt various photography skill starting with the T-stance, and leading to learning things such as studio lighting (gel lights and honeycomb), shutter speed technique and how to add backdrops with lighting.

Second Burn and Dodge attempt

Original image

Edited image

What I did here was I reattempted to use the burn and dodge tool. With the burn tool I began to add definition to the shoulders and the neck and jaw line and the red writing on the t-shirt, with the dodge tool i began to brighten the trees and the grass and white writing up on the shirt to make it stand out more.

Cross Processing 2

 Original Image

Cross Processed image

what we did in this lesson was an extension of what we did before in the cross processing of an image, which involves changing the colour and adding tone. I first loaded up the original image and then added some curvature adjustments . I did this by going to layer and then to curve adjustments and then curves. The idea was to change certain colours to different shapes.

First In Design attempt

In this lesson we had a first look at in design and make our first magazine attempts, firstly, I saved and imported my images and then moved them into the centre of the frame. I did this by using the white arrow. The black arrow moved the rectangle I had originally drawn. Then I drew the text boxes for my main article and then imported my text in and transferred the text from box to box by using the red tab arrow and to finish it off by changing the sizing and positioning of the fonts and added a header and changed the colour and text size.

Healing Brush Tool Usage

 Original image

Edited with Heal Brush

In this lesson I used the heal brush tool to change the appearance of Zoe, I went on Photoshop uploaded this image and began to edit it. I created another layer just in case something went wrong and then started using the heal tool, gave me a circle icon which i could hover over the image. Then I used the alt key over the image and then clicked on a piece of skin which was of a normal colour, this let me go over the red and spotted areas to make all the skin look the same and remove all blemishes.