1. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do
you feel you have learnt in the progression from it
to the full product?

2. I have learnt so much in the progression from my preliminary task to my full product.
When completing my preliminary task I had carried out no real research into how a
school magazine should look and what it should contain. Little planning went into
producing both the front cover and contents page. The images that I used were taken
quickly and with no real thought going into certain vital aspects such as costume and
location. At the time I didn't realise just how important it was to have good, strong
images for my magazine. To take many of the photos I had used my 5 mega pixels camera
on my phone, which is why the images were so poor in comparison to the images I used
for my full product. The main image on the front cover of my school magazine is
especially poor, the image is blurry and the model looks distracted. I can see now that is
not at all suitable as the main cover image. For my full product (music magazine) I put a
huge amount of thought into how and where the photos should be taken. I had done my
research and after analysing several other music magazines, I could make informed
decisions on what sort of images would best appeal to my target audience. I also used a
professional camera that was double the mega pixels of my phone camera, so that my
images would come out much clearer and look more professional. I took a wide variety of
images to make sure that I had lots to choose from when it came to picking the best ones
to use for my magazine. I took very few for the preliminary task and so limited the
amount of choice I had.

3. My Photoshop skills have also improved dramatically. My school magazine cover and
contents (preliminary task) look very cheap and amateur. I had used the magnetic
lasso tool to cut out my main cover model, which I found extremely difficult. The
edges around her head look rough and the image stands out like a sore thumb - not at
all as it should. At the time my Photoshop skills were very basic and looking back now
I should have at least tried to soften the edges using the eraser tool. The cover's blue
background looks very basic and the shade of blue I have used clashes badly with the
bright red. The contents page looks slightly better in comparison to the cover,
however it is still very basic. All in all I have learnt a great deal in the progression to
my full product. During production my Photoshop skills improved very quickly,
enabling me to produce a much more professional looking magazine that would be
better suited to the audience I was aiming it at.