Final skills audit print production

AS Media Production: Final Skills Audit Print Production

Name:       Melissa Flint              Tutor group:     1.25 

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		Manual focus gave me complete control over the cameras focus, by twisting the focus gage on the lense of the camera I could focus on the foreground of an object or the whole picture could be in focus. AF.S. Single Focus Mode This mode allows for the shutter release button to be pressed halfway down to bring the subject in to focus. While in this position the focus is locked. If you were to maintain contact with the shutter release button, focus and recompose, the original focus will not change. This was a good feature to use for individuality on a photo or for direct focus on a certain object for detail, e.g a ladybird amongst grass.
Shutter Speed	YES		I learned how to edit the shutter speed of a camera, making it faster and slower. I took photos where my model was jumping from a high step and experimented with fast shutter speeds which caught the model in mid-air whilst jumping proving this would be a helpful setting for high-speed motion shots like they would use at sporting events. I learned that a slow shutter speed should be used for a motion blur effect and dark lighting conditions.
Aperture control	YES		An aperture is the hole which light in a camera lense goes through. You can adjust the holes size in the lense. The darker the setting the bigger the hole must be to let in lots of light. The lighter the setting the smaller the hole to not let a lot of light in. The hole is called the F stop size. The smallest the F stop size can be usually is F22 and the largest setting F3.5. These help set the depth of field. I went outside on a sunny day, for purposely light conditions to aid the aperture effect I wanted. I then played around with the depth of field, using a range from F22 for the whole image to be in maximum focus. Then F11 for medium depth of focus, afterwards F5 for just the foreground to be in focus as seen on my blog photography. I learned a thick depth is in focus and a thin depth is used if you just want the foreground in focus.
ISO Control	YES		ISO are cells that react with the light coming into a camera. If the ISO is at 100 it means weather conditions are good this is the slowest setting to react with light. If in a dark setting the ISO will be at its highest speed and setting 3600. The normal setting is 200 for ISO. The ISO also affects the graininess/noise of a picture. The higher the ISO the more noise the picture has. You can tell this by the speckles on a picture becoming less soft and grainier. I experimented using different ISO settings ranging from 100-200-800 to the maximum 3600.
A tripod	NO
External flash	YES		I used this frequently when doing my photo-shoots in the studio for my magazine front cover and double page spread photos. I did three photo-shoots in total so I became very accustomed to using the external flash and positioning it in points that would give the best effect on the outcome of the photo. I used soft boxes, backdrop, extra lighting that I could adjust to heighten or shine lower. I also experimented with a honeycomb but I disliked the effect it had on the pure white backdrop I wanted, so I didn’t use it when producing my photos. The soft boxes where helpful in reducing the shadows created by the external flash. I found being able to use the external flash successfully an extremely important skill when taking photos and in the process of being able to edit the photos. On my first photo-shoot I did not use the external flash correctly resulting in unwanted shadows and underexposed photos. Therefore I was careful to position the flash and connect it to the camera so it went off at the same time the photo was taken.
Self timer facility	YES		I use this in order to take pictures of myself, or myself in the frame of a picture I wanted to capture. I used the centre button on the home screen and set different times, the longer the time the further away the subject can be from the camera before it takes the photo. This setting I found can also be used for self motion pictures, I experimented taking photos of myself jumping at different points.
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		It’s a basic but helpful tool, changing the fonts there size and colour of text. Being able to use text control allowed me to work on my project at a faster speed as I was familiar with how to change basic elements that would’ve made a subtle but important improvement to my project overall.
Filters	YES		I did a lot of experimenting with filters on Photoshop, as seen on my blog. I enjoyed a lot of the filter effects on my photo although many were too extreme and didn’t fit in with my ‘natural’ look of my photos. One of the most useful filters was the
Brushes	YES		I learned how to use the healing tool brush which improved my models skin condition overall. It gave her face a smooth matte look that brightened and youthfulised her overall appearance. I also frequently changed the diameter of the width and height of my brush in pixels. By controlling the sizing of the brush I was able to be more precise when using my brush resulting in a more professional end product.
Layers	YES		Layers in Photoshop are stacked so you can see though transparent areas of the layers. The layers are used in compositing multiple images or adding text to an image. The layers are organised in the layers panel, this makes the  simultaneous multiple layers manageable.
Opacity control	YES		I used the opacity control on my front cover on the main banners across the page advertising my article. This was a large part of my front cover so I was very concise in picking a peach shade to make slightly opaque as I found softer and less block colours were easier and more effective when making opaque. I also experimented making some of the text bolder by decreasing the opacity.
Shape creation	YES		I used the shape tool to create circular ‘buttons’ on Photoshop and rectangles that I rotated to put text on top of. The text creation was a simple tool to use but the shapes didn’t look effective unless I used the fx button to emboss them. I did this in order to add depth to the shape.
Brightness and contrast control	YES		The brightness and contrast tool was an essential skill to learn, it improved my photos significantly by editing the levels of brightness and contrast the photo contained. The slider let me do it manually so I got to see the best level the brightness and contrasted needed to be adapted too.
Gradients	NO
Load selection features	YES		This was a simple process simply go to the menu bar and select load selection; this allows me to select a area around a specific shape or text on a layer. This is helpful in editing the project as separate layers, instead of one whole project allowing my to be concise in editing to a high standard.
Feathering	YES
Colour curves adjustment	YES		I briefly experimented one lesson with the colour curves,I found this tool hard to control as the slight glide of the mouse could create an extreme colour effect on my photo. Yet with a concise hand I managed to adjust my photo using the colour curves into a more saturated red colour, as seen on my blog.
Resolution setting control	YES		When making or transferring the end product I had to manually type into the settings a high resolution of 300,this made my overall product a better pixel quality. Photoshop was the best option to edit my product on as it offered a higher resolution. If I forgot to save my work to such a high resolution the photo could appear distorted or bad quality, making it hard to edit.
Magnetic lasso, polygon lasso tool	YES		The magnetic lasso tool aided me to make easy selection of sections on my page on Photoshop; I instead decided to use the pen tool to make selections, as it was more reliable and easily controllable.
Cropping tool	YES		The cropping tool was not helpful for my particular project but I learned how to use it just in case. After selecting the crop tool, I then highlight and image to retain. Once the mouse button is released the area is selected and that is what the new image would look like.
Clone tool	YES		The clone tool or healing brush copy pixels from one area to another, therefore ‘cloning’ pixels. This can be used to cover over bad patches of skin on a models face, using her own shade of skin from a spot free zone of her face. Getting the right shade of pixels can be tricky as pixels differ in shade and colour on an image. You need to get the toolbar up with the clone tool on first and select the size of the tool to how large or small you want it to be depending on the area size your editing.
Retouch tool	YES		I learned to use the spot healing brush tool on Photoshop, this can also be used to lighten or remove wrinkles. Its similar to the healing brush tool but it automatically uses sample pixels from the surrounding area to cover blemishes. Its not as accurate with matching, texture, lighting, transparency or shading as the healing brush tool as there’s no control over the pixels selected.
Other skills 1)    Curving text			1) I individually learned how to curve text in Photoshop, this was a very technical skill for me as I was new to Photoshop and it wasn’t an essential skill. I watched a tutorial of how to curve the text. I firstly had to create two points on the page between these points would be the length of my curve line which the text would sit upon. The length could later be changed when the text was on top of it but it was fiddly to change and could distort the text. Then I clicked on the line and curved it to the semicircle shape I wanted. I then typed the word I wanted which would automatically curve how the line was curved, after clicking off the text I could move and place the curved text.

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		Margin and column guide creation was essential in achieving the right format for my InDesign document. I learned this early on when creating the document. I had to manually input the specific sizes I wanted my margins to be and how many columns I wanted. I also had to create text columns later on within the pre set page columns so that my text fit the page.
Inserting an image ID	YES		I frequently inserted images into InDesign as I had a equal text to image ratio on my double page spread. I had to create an image box/ ‘rectangular frame tool’ for the image to go into then place it in there.
Resizing images in ID	YES		After placing the image in a image box it could then be resized within the perimeter of the box, by enlarging the box the image would stay the same size. You had to click on the inner lines of the box and highlight the photo then drag the lines to allow the image to become larger. It was a simple feature once you could flick between resizing the image box accurately to resizing the image itself without distorting it. The image alike to text could be rotated which I learned on my own.
Text manipulation – resizing, rotation	YES		I frequently had to manipulate text in order for it to look the way I wanted. I created a stepladder effect by placing and resize my text to mirror steps. The text had to be carefully resized you could change the width or height of the text too. I also experimented with rotating my text, as I wanted a slanted effect on one of my words. You could rotate the text in sections e.g 90 degrees/ 180 degrees / 360 degrees or freehand depending on how accurate you wanted to be.
Text manipulation – controlling kerning and leading	NO
Text flow creation	YES		This was a little box at the end of a column where the paragraph had been cut off; I simply clicked on the miniature box and then clicked into the next empty column where I wanted my text to carry on too. I had to do this frequently as by changing the text font, size and length could effect how much text would fit and carry on into the next column.
Using transparent imagery in ID	NO
Shape/line creation In design	YES		I created several lines of different width, length and consistency. Some of the lines had dashes or triplet lines classed as one line creation. I experimented a lot with creating lines and adapting them to look how I wanted. I discovered there were many adaptations you could make to the line. I learned to thicken, slant, hash and make the line dotted.  I created many rectangular boxes as background fillers for text; I edited the opacity and colour of these boxes too. I had to remember to use the shift button when creating or enlarging/contracting a shape so it didn’t become distorted or stretched, as that would look unprofessional and untidy. I also created shapes to make a ‘polaroid’ I had to create a rectangle then an image box inside that to place my picture. I created three of these successfully and was very pleased with how neat they looked.
Exporting to PDF from In-design	YES		I watched a tutorial how to export a PDF from in design, I had to save the project under a different file name and format, to make it a PDF in order to export it so it could be reopened elsewhere not as an InDesign file.
Text Wrap	YES		There were three selections when using a text wrap; Wrap around a bounding box, this would create a neat square edge around the piece of text you were wrapping. The second selection is wrap around selection shape; this would wrap around closely and recreate an edge similar to the text shape. For example a jagged paragraph would have a jagged text wrap outing, this in my opinion was a less neat option. The third jump object selection, this would create a horizontal text wrap that would divide the text horizontally wherever it was placed. I also learned to adapt the text wrap size manually and by using a numbered stroller. I thought the manual way was quite complex, but gave me more control, therefore I think I learned how to text wrap to a high level of skill.
Other Skills 1) Grouping 2) Adding a drop shadow 3) Adding a drop cap and manipulate drop cap sizes 4) Importing images 5) Resolution setting control 6) Text spacing vertical and horizontal 7) Interchanging between direct selection tool and selection tool			1) I taught myself how to croup images, text and specific sections of my project. This involved highlighting around the objects I wanted to group then using the group tool to fix them all together. I used this a lot when moving sections of work that I didn’t want to ruin or change when moving them. This was a great timesaver and stopped the hassle of me having to rewind my steps if I accidentally moved objects to places I didn’t want them to be. 2) I learned how to add a drop shadow to text and my shape creations. This was effective in adding ‘punch’ or ‘gusto’ to my text or image so it gained attention and a bolder effect of importance on the reader. 3) I learned how to add a drop cap; there was a specific button that I had to use in order for it to look correct. I learned you couldn’t use the regular text button for a drop cap; therefore I had to also edit the drop cap sizes by an adjoining button that let me adapt the size larger or smaller. A larger drop cap usually looked more effective. 4) I taught myself how to import images from my files or Google into InDesign, this sometimes became a problem as the photos usually had to be a high resolution in order to look effective. The photos usually imported quite small so I usually had to resize them once imported. 5) InDesign as a mostly text based programme, would sometimes distort or blur my high-quality images therefore I had to regularly edit the resolution of the photos on the page. I did this by going to view then display performance and changing it to high quality. I found usually InDesign would change it back to a low display performance so I regularly had to check the photos remained high quality display performances. 6) I learned how to space the letters in text further or nearer together, this was helpful in fitting text on the page or allowing the page to ‘breathe’ b adding more spaces. The spaces between the lines could also be adapted to become closer or further away. Allowing me to compress paragraphs or make them more spacious and easy to read. This was a very helpful tool but needed a close eye as too much compressing of the text could result in the works overlapping each other. 7) Although interchanging between the black and white selection tools seems simple, it was an easy process to forget and could result in work being edited wrong. The direct selection (black) arrow is mostly used to move object once they’ve been edited, as it has no effect on the recent edition on the object. The white arrow is used when editing and using a specific tool; this arrow does have an effect on the object when it is clicked on using the white arrow. It became natural to interchange correctly between arrows after I had used InDesign for a while therefore allowing me to work faster and without fault.

Number of new skills achieved:

(compare with your initial skills assessment)