During the construction of my hip hop magazine I have learnt to understand many different platforms of technology. Additionally I have been able to gain a quality understanding on how to operate these different forms of technology, whether it being hardware or software. Furthermore over the course of constructing my hip hop magazine I also managed to learn a greater understanding upon technologies that I was already familiar with. Therefore allowing me to really put all the features upon the technology to its full uses and really get the most out of it.

Apple Mac

To start off with AS media introduced me to using an Apple Mac for the first time, this was an operating system in which I was unfamiliar with as I had only used Windows laptops previous to that. However getting to grips with the Mac and its software was rather easy as I managed to learn the command key combos rather quickly, use the finder to find files and other files such as Microsoft office for Mac.

Adobe Photoshop CS6

In terms of the software that was used during the construction of my hip hop magazine Adobe Photoshop CS6 was used. This was a program that I was familiar with previous to taking AS media due to the fact that it was used in other subjects beforehand. However I still developed a further understanding of the program since as I learnt to use new tools such as the spot healing tool, magic wand and also patch tool. These were learnt during the use of Photoshop as they were required for the editing of my magazine photos.

Adobe InDesign CS5

Another Adobe program that I learnt to use during the construction of my hip hop magazine was Adobe InDesign CS5. This program was completely new to me as I had never used it before. Therefore I gained an understanding of how to use the program due to the fact that it was required for the construction of my double page spreads. However I picked up on using it very quickly as I learnt to format text, insert drop caps and exporting images through to Photoshop for editing during the construction of my double page spreads.

Quick Time

An additional form of software used during the construction of my hip hop magazine was quick time, a recording software program on the Apple Mac. I had never used it before but it was required for my magazine construction videos due to the fact that it captured and recorded the screen whilst I constructed my magazine. It saved me a lot of time as it easily allowed of for me to showcase every single element involved in construction my whole magazine. Another recording software that I had learnt to use during the contrition for my hip hop magazine was voice notes, a recording software upon my Apple iPhone 5S. By learning how to record my voice upon this program it allowed me to provide narrations upon construction videos and easily answer questions that I felt would be more understandable when narrated.

Wix

Over the course of constructing my hip hop magazine I was able to learn to use Wix, a program that was key to presenting my work from start to finish. Wix is an online website builder that allowed for me to neatly present my work on many different media platforms such as YouTube and Sound cloud. By using Wix to present my work it allowed for me to learn key aspects of web design such as presenting my work in a suitable layout for it to be easily navigated around by my audience.

Sound and Video Viewing Platforms (YouTube and Sound Cloud)

When constructing my hip hop magazine two different viewing platforms were used for presenting my narrations and videos. The first being YouTube, something that I was originally familiar with for watching videos. However in order to make my videos viewed by my audience I needed to upload them using YouTube. This was something new to me as I had never uploaded any videos before. However I learnt to do it by simply uploading files from finder onto my YouTube account that I had created. The other viewing platform used was Sound Cloud, this again I was familiar to as I listen to music through Sound Cloud. However I had never uploaded narrations onto Sound Cloud before so I learnt to create a Sound Cloud account and then upload my narrations to it recorded from voice notes.

Cameras

Next up is the cameras that were used and I what I learned from using them during my hip hop magazine construction. During filming and photo shooting I varied between to DSLR cameras. The first one being a Nikon D60 which I for recording audience videos and so on in school. I was completely new to this camera so learnt how to film with a good depth of field and the most suitable amount of focus. The second camera used during my hip hop magazine construction used was the Canon 600d with an 18mm-55mm lens, battery grip and Manfrotto tripod. This DSLR I was more familiar with as I used it for all of my photo shoots outside of school. However even though I was more familiar with this camera I learned many new things such as having the perfect focusing techniques, composition, aperture, and shutter speed techniques when shooting.

Editing Programs

For editing my videos I used two different editing programs. The first being Windows movie maker, a simple editing program that I started off using as I was familiar with using it. However as time went on I started using Sony Vegas Pro 12, a whole new editing program to me. I taught myself the basics of using Sony Vegas Pro 12 as I was able to put clips together, trim them, speed them up, place transitions in if required and also apply a soundtrack if needed to. By using it I think it really allowed some of my videos to look a more professional in comparison to those composed by Windows movie maker.