Final Skills Audit

AS Media Production: Final Skills Audit Print Production

Name: Kira-May Charley                      Tutor group: 1.10               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	YES		I have used manual focus in all of the photographs present on my blog except the one demonstrating the heal brush tool. I found using the manual focus easier than using an automatic focus as it was less time consuming and I could change and have control over how in or out of focus the photograph was.
Shutter Speed	YES		I have used shutter speeds within my light experiment and in this I tried out different shutter speeds to see how much light I could capture in the photographs. I feel that this went well and was not a particularly difficult skill to master.
Aperture control	YES		The aperture control experiment that I did was good to do and I feel that I have grasped the idea well. I could do with some more work on it but I do feel for a first attempt at developing my skills, the photography went well.
ISO Control	YES		The Iso control experiment was also very fun to do and I feel that this was also not particularly a difficult skill, although I will need some more practice at it before I get it perfect.
A tripod		NO
External flash	YES		I used the external flash during my photo shoot for my unit 3 project and overall, I found it gave a very professional look to my photographs. I was very pleased with the way that my final photo shoot turned out.
Self timer facility		NO
Light meter		NO
Composition grids		NO

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	YES		I used text control within my final project front cover. I found this a particularly annoying feature to use because of its lack of spell check. Text control was an easy feature to use but it was also very time consuming as I had to check over my text multiple times.
Filters	YES		I had previous experience with filters as I use them on my own photography to a basic level (preset filters on mobile phone camera) but the filters on Photoshop were much different. I used filters within my final project photography and I think that I used filters subtly and well to make my product look professional.
Brushes	YES		I used brushes within my Christmas card tutorial on my blog but only to a basic standard.
Layers	YES		I used layer control all throughout my product and I found this easy to work with and it helped me a lot.
Opacity control		NO
Shape creation	YES		I used shape creation within my induction activity and on my front cover to create a button sell line.
Brightness and contrast control	YES		I often use brightness and contrast control in my own photography (settings on mobile phone camera) but using it on Photoshop was different. I had to be much more subtle with it in Photoshop and I used this mainly within my final project.
Gradients		NO
Load selection features		NO
Feathering		NO
Colour curves adjustment	YES		I used the colour curves adjustment in the cross-processing tutorial.
Resolution setting control		NO
Magnetic lasso, polygon lasso tool	YES		I used the polygon lasso tool within my heal brush tutorial when I changed the model’s eye colour. The polygon lasso tool is a very simple skill to gain but I feel that I used it well.
Cropping tool	YES		I used cropping within my final project to remove some of the outer edge of the photograph.
Clone tool		NO
Retouch tool		NO
Other skills

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?		NO
Margin and column guide creation	YES		I used this in my final project and first attempt at InDesign to help me position my columns and photographs in the right place.
Inserting an image ID	YES		I used this in my final project and first attempt at InDesign to insert my images.
Resizing images in ID	YES		I used this in my final project and first attempt at InDesign but I found this quite difficult as I kept on getting stretched images. Learning to hold the shift key every time I tried to resize my image was difficult to remember to do but by the final project, I feel that I have developed that skill well.
Text manipulation – resizing, rotation		NO
Text manipulation – controlling kerning and leading		NO
Text flow creation	YES		I used text flow in my initial InDesign and final project to make the text flow on into each box smoothly.
Using transparent imagery in ID	YES		I used this within my final project to create the film strip of photographs.
Shape/line creation In design	YES		I used this to create my break-out box in my final project.
Exporting to PDF from In-design	YES		I used this to finally export my project out.
Text Wrap	YES		I used text wrap to make my photographs move around my quote insert in my final project.
Other Skills

Number of new skills achieved:

(compare with your initial skills assessment)

Since my initial skills assessment I have gained 26 new skills.