6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

When carrying out the research for my magazine I found that using the internet was the most efficient way or obtaining information about my target audience. The internet made the process quick and easy and gave me access to a wide selection of people. Using QuestionPro made carrying out my questionnaire simple and effective as I was able to post them onto social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter which opened my questionnaire up to a lot more people. As well as benefiting me, it also benefitted the people answering the questionnaire as it was easy for them to complete online. If I had done this by hand it would have taken up a lot of time and people would have been less likely to answer it. This gave me reliable and valid results which made it easier to convert into graphs and charts for when I analysed my data. I also used the internet to easily attain secondary research from sites such as www.stageoflife.com.

During the construction of my magazine I used Adobe Photoshop to adapt and manipulate my photos in order to create a hyperreal effect which my audience wanted. This was the first time I had ever used this software before and was quite overwhelmed. However, with some guidance from others and perseverance I quickly grasped the basic techniques and found how quick and easy it was to edit my photographs. 

This was the initial picture.



I then used the Magic Lassoo Tool to trace around my image and get rid of the background.

I then used the spot healing brush tool to get rid of any imprefections on my models face.



I then used the auto contrast setting as this gave me my desired settings.

Moving onto my double page spread image, i also got rid of the background on this using the magic lassoo tool again.

I also got rid of any imperfections on this image using the spot healing brush tool.

As i wanted my image behind the text, i still had to make the text readable so put the offset adjustment on high to make it a little more transparent.

I then used the rubber tool to get rid of the offset adjustment on most of my image so it was only transparent on the part of my picture where the text would be.

This was the initial picture of my contents page.



I also got rid of the background on this image using the magic lassoo tool again.

I used the rubber tool to make my models legs slimmer.

I also used the same tool to make the hole here bigger for my model to appear skinnier. 
 

 After editing my photographs I was able to construct the layout and design of my magazine pages. I did this using Microsoft Publisher. I found this software very user-friendly and I was able to move things into my desired place quickly and easily. I had also been using this software from a young age so knew how it worked which saved me a lot of time and effort. Even though this programme is not as high quality as the programmes they would use in major publishing houses, I felt this was still sufficient and helped me greatly in constructing my magazine.