What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this production?

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this production?

Using both hardware and software, I have learnt a hefty amount of knowledge about using new and old equipment.


Apple Mac: Although being a windows user, having used the Macs in media studies, it has inspired me to purchase an Apple Mac of my own because, normally speaking, Macs are more reliable, better value for money, faster, simpler to use and support better programmes and applications. iWeb and iLife make the designing and creating of a website on a Mac simple. If I had my own Apple laptop, then it would have been far easier to complete the website, because I would have been able to take home the file and work on it at home.

Photographs: As well as taking a few pictures on the school cameras; my group also used a simple mobile phone to take the majority of the animal photos. It is remarkable how highly pixelated mobile phone cameras have come in the modern time. The ‘Samsung Pixon’ has an 8 megapixel camera and its quality rivals any digital camera or professional camera. With a red-eye detector and flash, its high tech qualities are an asset to the website.


iWeb: As a person with no previous experience on how to create website, iWeb is an exceptional way to get started. The fact that making a website on iWeb means you allows you to start your design completely from scratch and use trial and error methods in order to get the image you want. Simplicity is iWeb’s main focus and this is noticeable because of the lack of coding required to make the site. No HTML codes are necessary to be typed by the user but iWeb manages to integrate basic HTML codes automatically. E.g text boxes. As simplicity is its main attribute, it is not professional enough to be used by a qualified website designer because where iWeb gains in some areas, it lacks in others, for example there is no tool which allows you to add a ‘viewer hit counter’ to your site; which is a convention of most websites nowadays. But other than these minor flaws, iWeb is fantastic for the usage I needed, as a beginner on an Apple Mac.


Adobe Photoshop CS4: Photoshop itself is the most advanced image correcting programme available to the public, however it is very complicated and mastering being able to use it, is a task itself. However, it is the best for a reason, and this is because literally any effect can be done to any image, along with image defining and editing. Because of the pictures we took at the Animal Sanctuary were already of high quality, there was no need to edit them, thus resulting in using Adobe Photoshop CS4 very little. Having said this, I learnt how to change backgrounds of images and crop foregrounds, so skills were learnt in the little usage.