Progress Report 4: Last Week of Production/Final Product

My final project, overall, was a success in my opinion. I think that it went well considering that I had never used Photoshop or InDesign before. I had some issues when creating my break-out box and given the chance to do so again, I would make it a bit more exciting as I struggled with it and I would spend more time on it. I learned especially that it is so important to get the composition of the photographs correct and take my time with getting the lighting correct rather than panicking to get it done quickly and having pictures that are underexposed. I found creating the film strip interesting as I had never done anything like that before. It was a very fun and enjoyable experience creating this final product and given the chance to do it again, I would only make a few small changes. I think that my work has captured what I wanted it to from planning but it also has changed considerably with regards to the actual layout.

Progress Report 3: Front Cover, Photo Shoot and Initial InDesign

At this stage, my front cover is nearly finished. I am very happy with the progress I have made considering I am not confident with using photoshop and I have never really used it before. I feel that I have gained more experience getting the lighting right within my photographs by editing the brightness and contrast and making it look professional rather than either under or over exposed. I think that getting the text spacing right was my biggest struggle and it was very time consuming to get all of my text in exactly the right place that I wanted it to be in.

The photo shoot overall went very well and I have achieved all that I wanted out of my photographs. Given the chance to do the photo shoot again, I would make sure that the models had a very clear idea of exactly what they were doing before they started. My photo shoot took longer than expected because of the fact that the models weren't as prepared as they should have been.

The initial InDesign work was basically a case of getting to know the programme better. I have never used InDesign before so this was a particular struggle for me and have had to ask a lot of questions as to how to do things and if I was doing things right. However, I feel that I have grasped InDesign and my project should come together much easier now.

Progress Report 2: Front Cover

Here is a screenshot of my front cover created in Photoshop. In all honesty, I have never really used Photoshop before and because of this, I have found creating my product very difficult but have also gained many skills. I have constantly needed to ask questions to make sure I am using the product properly but I do think that this has improved my skills a great deal. Before, I didn't know that the best way to get text spaced properly was to create different layers and move them closer together or how to download and use fonts within my document and create button sell lines. I had learned how to download and use fonts in my initial introduction to Photoshop and InDesign but I had to refresh my memory. Overall, I am very happy with my progress within Photoshop and working on my front cover but there is still a lot of work that will be need to done on it to get it to a professional standard that I am happy with.