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

Since completing my preliminary task, I have learned a lot about the codes and conventions of music magazines, the magazine industry, how to complete successful audience research, photography, using technologies and time management.

From the above photograph, you can clearly see how far my photo editing skills have improved since I began the project. The photographs I took for the school magazine were less effective, with less control over costume, setting, variety of camera shots and quantity. The photo shoot for my main task involved many different camera shots, locations, costumes, models and generally looked much more professional!

The editing on my preliminary task is quite basic. I did edit out the background to create a plain white background, inserted a logo and text however the overall effect is not very professional or realistic. My main task on the other hand, involved a lot of editing! This involved resizing images, cropping images, adjusting colour settings (hue, saturation, contrast,brightness), creating new layers, using magnetic selection tools and magic selection tool, replacing colour and airbrushing! The house style and general presenation of my main task is much more professional! The language and cover lines I used are also much more effective.

I also have learned alot about magazines; the ways they are distributed, the codes and conventions, the differences of different magazines genres and the many conventional features included in a magazine! I think the writing style of my article is also better, due to the music magazine articles I read in order to become familiar with this area of the media.

I learned the skills of time management, due to a long planning process, sometimes difficult photoshoots and time consuming editing. No matter how frustrating the project could be at times, deadlines are always there and so I learned to work more efficiently and learned the importance of deadlines. Creating a call sheet and schedule helped me to do this.

I have learned about many technologies that I did not previously know - such as Slideshare and Photobucket, both of which will help me in the future with documenting work. Some other skills and knowledge I have acquired / improved are:

• Communication skills - Taking photographs of people could be frustrating if communication was not effective, therefore my skills in this area have improved after many photo shoots!
• Blogging skills - I now find it easier to blog regularly instead of leaving things until the last minute.
• A passion for photography and magazine editing!