Looking back at your preliminary task (the college magazine task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

When looking back at my preliminary task and my finished products I can see a huge difference in the quality of the products.

Before I had started making any of my media products I had already had quite a lot of experience in Photoshop. There wasn't much more I could learn, however my preliminary tasks are nothing compared to my finished products. I spent a lot more time on my finished products and I was able to make them a lot more professional.

The first thing that I changed is the fact that on my preliminary task I didn’t cut out the model at all. As you can see she is still standing against the wall the photo was taken on. This doesn’t look that good, and if you look at a lot of professional magazines most models are standing against a plain coloured background. This is why I chose to cut out my model on my finished product. The easiest option to cut my model out would have been the magic wand too or even the quick selection tool but although my model was just standing against a plain black wall the magic wand tool didn’t work as they're were too many colours surrounding her. The tool I used was the magic eraser tool, as you can zoom in to cut the model out perfectly with it. I then just added her on to a plain white background.

A second thing I changed was the actual appearance of my model. On my preliminary task I didn’t really change my model that much. I changed the brightness contrast, but I didn’t really edit her features. she doesn’t really look that "perfect" compared to the model on my finished product, which is the look on most professional magazines. On my finished product I used the liquify too to change some of my models features such as her face shape and nose. I also used the dodge tool to enhance some of her features like her eyes.  I also changed the contrast, vibrance and curves of the image to make the lighting more flattering. The photo on my preliminary task also looks stretched inwards.

Lastly I also didn’t use that many different fonts and colours  on my preliminary products. on my front cover and contents page I only used a couple of colours, and one type of font. this made it look quite unprofessional and boring. where on my finished products I used lots of different fonts and at least 3 colours which made it look more eye catching. I didn’t want to use too many colours however as I didn’t want to overdo it. the logo on my finished product also looks a lot more professional as I downloaded the font, and used a drop shadow and stroke. it looks like one you might find on a real magazine whereas the one on my preliminary front cover looks very amateur.

Overall I think that my finished products look a lot better, and a lot more professional, compared to my preliminary task, and I have learned a lot about making media products since the preliminary task.