What equipment have you used over the past year? | Advantages | Disadvantages | What did I create with it? What features did I use? How effectively did I use it also? |
Adobe Photoshop | - Photoshop allows smalls details within imagery to be controlled via lasso and selection.
- It also allows a preview of an image to be seen by the user before filters or effects are taken on board, allowing the user to decide before hand on certain effects.
- It has a vast number of effect functions built in for text and imagery.
- Good for creating graphic projects using layers, allowing for control over layer opacity.
| - Photoshop is not very good with lots of text, and the quality of the text tends to suffer.
- Not very user friendly, seems very complicated for the general user. Takes considerable time to learn how to exploit its features and use it effectively.
- File sizes can be quite big if images are created at 300dpi.
| I used Photoshop to create my final front cover, and used it to manipulate and place my drawn images onto the cover. I also used it to add certain effects to my front cover, such as stroke, which thickened the text and made it stand out more prominently, drop shadow, which creates a 3D effect to the text. I used several layers in my product, in an attempt to add depth. The most noticeable is the placing of the main image, which overlaps the main title, yet stands behind some of the other tag lines etc. I feel this created depth within my front cover. I also browsed the web for unique font types to use in Photoshop, to make my front cover stand out and create a more animated, manga driven style. I tried to stick to a three colour rule, in order to refrain my magazine from being anything but professional. |
In-Design | - In-Design is good at dealing with text elements. Text box control makes Quark Express ideal for creating text heavy print products.
- Can be used to export Adobe Acrobat documents.
- It is also good for working with limited colour palettes.
- Can create 300dpi work using much smaller files than Photoshop.
| - Main difficulty is understanding and working the program, as it is aimed towards a more professional background.
- The program is not good at handling imagery, only certain file types are permitted, and the functionality when images are inserted is only limited.
| In-Design was the program I utilised to create my double page spread. It helped me control my text and pages in relatively easy manner. I t is very similar to Photoshop, and offers many of the same effects as Photoshop, such as drop shadow and stroke. I deployed these in a similar fashion as I did with my front cover, using them to make my text and headlines stand out. I had some trouble when trying to import my images into my double page spread, and it took some time to learn how to, but once I overcame this obstacle, it was relatively easy to complete. I again imported the text styles from the internet, such as Sadfilms, which I used on my front cover, and Optimus Princeps, which I used for the column text. I also tried to stick to the three colour rule, the only exception being my image, which I coloured with multiple colours, so it stands out to my target audience. |
Cannon E350D Camera | - The camera allows for a self timing facility, which is good for avoiding camera shake.
- It has an 8 megapixel setting available, which is enough to take an A4 picture and print it out at 300dpi.
- Offers automatic and manual modes allowing photographers to take control of aperture and shutter speed settings.
· Has a bracketed exposure facility whereby the camera can take three pictures at different exposures automatically. - Has an automatic white balance mode that compensates for redhead lighting colour processing problems.
| - The camera is quite bulky and large in regards to a normal camera. Could prove to be difficult when taking it to multiple locations.
- The camera only has an 8 mega pixel range; whereas professional photographers would not go any lower than 12, ensuring that the picture quality is still high when printed to A3.
| I only used this camera for pictures that contributed towards my blog, as I did not take photos for my magazine. I used it to capture my depth of field pics, my aperture pics and side lighting pictures. I accessed the camera during lesson times, and started learning it’s certain features and settings that I could use at my own disposal. I used the shutter speed settings, aperture controls, and ISO ratings to see which effect would suit the style of my imagery the best.
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800W Arrilite red heads x2 continuous lighting | - This lighting is very good for allowing you to see how lighting will affect your subject. Flash lighting systems are far harder to work with and need a lot more experience.
· Doesn't need to be metered. Flash lighting kits need to involve metering in order to find out what aperture setting and shutter speed setting you need to set your camera to expose the photograph properly. | - This lighting is very hot to work under for models.
- Industry professionals would not use this type of lighting, they would use flash lighting systems.
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Bowems soft box and flash lighting equipment | - It is the ideal setup for professional photographers to work with.
- Provides complete control over light.
- Can use honeycombs to spotlight subjects.
- Can use gels or filters to illuminate backgrounds.
| - A flash meter is essential when using this equipment.
- It is quite a professional tool, making it hard to setup or use for beginners
- Very time consuming to setup and hard to setup, if not done properly, the final image could be ruined.
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Lastolite paper backdrops | - Crease free and disposable which means you can get brilliant backgrounds for your photographs.
- Fairly easy to setup and available in a range of colours.
| - Expensive because you keep having to cut old worn paper away.
- Easy to tear and gets dirty quickly.
- Heavy and large in size.
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Silk Tripod | - Excellent for tilts, pans, avoiding camera shake
- Highly portable and very stable
| - If not setup correctly shots could risk being not level
- Expensive and quite easy to break
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