Final Skills Audit

AS Media Production: Final Skills Audit Print Production

Name: Louis Hurst       Tutor group: 174              Date: 25.04.14

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		I have used this skill particularly when it came to creating my final product (photo-shoot). I wanted to get the best quality images for my front cover and double page spread so I used the manual focus features to get the best image quality. I also used the manual focus features for other parts of my project e.g. Shutter speed light photos and landscape photos.
Shutter Speed	X		I experimented with different photos when using different torches and lights to create a wider variety of different shapes and strobe effects, these pictures appeared later on my blog.
Aperture control	X		I used this when it came to taking the different composition shots as experimentation and also for my front cover. Surprisingly I experimented with this setting more when it came to my composition photos as most of the time in my final photo shoot I relied on the different lamps and perspectives to capture the most light.
ISO Control	X		Similar to the aperture control I used this only on my composition photos and my final photo shoot. I relied on this setting mostly on my final photo shoot due to the fact the lighting had to differ from side to side on my photo shoot to convey the good and bad effects of gaming although my cover models helped to convey this through their facial expressions and body language it was important that I got the lighting right to convey the mixed effects of gaming.
A tripod	X		I only used the tripod during my photo shoot sessions for my front cover and double page spread, I used it to get the camera at the right angle and to prevent any blurry photographs - getting the photo shoot done much more efficiently.
External flash	X		I experimented with this feature very briefly when it came to taking my final photo shoot however it was too bright of an image so it didn't appear on the final photo.
Self timer facility	X		I used this on my final photo shoot to give myself time to get the cover models positioning right as well as adjusting the facial expressions and allowing myself to enter the appropriate camera stance.
Light meter	X		I used this in both my shutter speed photos (to check if the light generated by the torch could be seen easily) and on my final photo shoot to detect whether or not my double page spread and front cover images needed more or less light.
Composition grids	X		I only used this feature when taking my composition photos - particularly I used it to measure the distance between models and capture close up and facial shots well.

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 for a number of things when designing my front cover. I used it to create my magazine masthead, adjusting the font size, deciding which font I should use, positioning my text and adding effects to my text. The final masthead does look good in my own opinion as it fits in with the modern theme of gaming well. I also used this tool to adjust the sub headers and subtext, particularly I used this tool is order to select the font type, position the font, and change the size.
Filters	X		I used filters on every photo I edited, I used them to quite a high level, there was a number of different tools that I used to add these filters e.g. hue saturation, photo filter, channel mixer etc. Seeing as they are simple to use they were easy to master and could be used on a more professional level.
Brushes	X		I used snow flake brushes for my Christmas card. I downloaded these brushes from a website. I didn't apply lots of effects to these brushes really, the only thing I really changed was the thickness of the brushes in order to make them more visible and I changed the colour of the brushes from black to white so that they could be distinguished better from the background better.
Layers	X		I used the layer control for everything that I did on Photoshop - vampire transformation, cross processing, spot manipulation, front cover editing, photograph editing. The level of layers used varied from project to project for example when doing my vampire transformation I added one new layer to create the vampire teeth. When doing more complicated areas of the course like designing my final front cover many layers were used for things like editing text, adding and adjusting downloaded imagery and personal photographs and selecting certain parts of the page to edit e.g. changing colour hue.
Opacity control	X		I used this very briefly on my front cover to adjust the visibility of my cover models, it was something that I was thinking about including on my final front cover but eventually I decided to dispose of it as the title models were hard to see even with the smallest adjustment and the fading of the cover models did not fit in with all the bold text and video game sprites placed around it.
Shape creation	X		I used shapes very briefly when it came to the experimentation on my Christmas cards initially they were going to be in place of the snowflake brushes but this was soon changed - weren't used to a great extent.
Brightness and contrast control	X		I used the brightness and contrast tool on most of the photos that I edited e.g. for my vampire tutorial I used this tool to dim the image slightly so the skin would appear darker and much grayer in tone and I also used to contrast tool to add more depth and colours to the background. However this was only a brief use of both of these tools. I used this tools to their biggest extent when it came to editing my front cover. The background on my finish product looked a bit to dark as the lighting I had chosen for the photo proved to be slightly to dark, using the brightness tool I very carefully adjusted the brightness so that it was brighter than the original background but not to bright that the cover models couldn't be seen. Similarly I also used the contrast to to very carefully adjust the cover.
Gradients	X		I used this tool briefly on my spot removing tutorial, it is an effective way of adjusting the light, even though I only used it for some brief light transformation, I found it easy to use but I stopped using it as the brightness and contrast tool is easier to use.
Load selection features	X		Initially for my front cover I wanted to include a background for my front cover - as in my graphics course in year 11 I used a background for the book covers I wanted to create. I thought this would look good on my magazine cover, but I couldn't find an appropriate background to experiment with and it ended up not appearing in the final cover design.
Feathering		X
Colour curves adjustment	X		I used this on my cross processing tutorial - it was used very briefly due to the fact I only edited two images using this tool. However it is a relatively easy tool to use and not much practice is needed to use it professionally.
Resolution setting control	X		I used the resolution setting on my finished vampire and on my final front cover. I did not rely on this effect an awful lot just to correct some minor imperfections e.g. the lighting used on my camera made the final portrait image of my photo shoot look slightly blurred. Unfortunately I couldn't see it on the camera at first but using this tool I was able to fix it, but only a few things needed changing much like the vampire touch ups so I didn't have much experience when it came to experiencing its full potential.
Magnetic lasso, polygon lasso tool	X		I did not use the polygonal lasso at any point but I did use the magnetic lasso tool on a number of occasions. First of all was for my vampire tutorial where I used it to copy the vampire tooth that I had made and place it on the image. However here it was used only briefly here, I began to use it on a more professional level when it came to designing my final front cover. I used the magnetic lasso tool here in order to copy the cover models from a different layer over to the layer that was going to be my magazine cover here it was much harder to do as the models needed to be cut out well in order to make them look good.
Cropping tool	X		I used this numerous times to move images in from layer to layer. Used mostly when designing my front cover
Clone tool		X
Retouch tool	X		I used this once briefly on my spot brush tutorial, however I did not use it to a large extent as it was only used to retouch and adjust some of the unwanted effects that the brush tool had left behind.
Other skills			Photo Filter Tool Threshold Tool Cross processing tool Layer adjustment  Colour curve tool Channel mixer tool Other colour editing tools

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
Margin and column guide creation	X		I used this tool to select the appropriate position and size of my text boxes, I used it to quite a large extent due to the fact I had to create, move, re size and position 6 text boxes for my double page spread.
Inserting an image ID	X		I inserted my double page photo into in design and my small downloaded images from Google images altogether I moved 5 images into the In Design document.
Resizing images in ID	X		I re sized five images in my In Design document. The video game sprites were made much smaller due to the fact that they were only meant to fit into a small section of the double page spread. My main photo was made much larger as it symbolizes the whole topical issue of gaming and is important for explaining what my article will be about in a concise way.
Text manipulation – resizing, rotation	X		I used this tool to re size the articles masthead and also the main text - using this tool was important otherwise the text would be out of proportion and the front cover would not look aesthetically presentable as a result.
Text manipulation – controlling kerning and leading	X		I used text changing on a regular basis throughout the process of designing my front cover. First of all was creating the drop cap at the start of my article.
Text flow creation		X
Using transparent imagery in ID	X		I briefly experimented with this feature in design, however I only used it shortly as it did not fit in nor suit the theme of my magazine article properly.
Shape/line creation In design	X		I used this tool briefly to create a red border around my magazine to add more colour to the pallet. Before these lines were completed I added more thickness to them so that they would stand out more.
Exporting to PDF from In-design	X		When my double page spread and my Photoshop front cover was put into in design I exported it to the QE moodle page. All that needed to be done was to change the format.
Text Wrap	X		I used the tool on a regular basis, my text needed to be placed from column to column in order for all of the text to be seen. Often it was used just to pass the main part of the article around but I also used it briefly for the verdict box which contained a different sub header and font colour.
Other Skills			Adding downloaded images Cropping images down Adding borders Adding drop caps

Number of new skills achieved:

(compare with your initial skills assessment)

Photography

Aperture control
External flash
Self timer facility
Composition grids

Photoshop

Shape Creation
Retouch tool

In Design

All features that I was previously unable to do