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

During the creation of my product I used a range of different technologies in order to produce a professional looking magazine rather than one that looks student-made. The first technology I used was In Design, which I was new to, to create a basic template of what my magazine would look like. After gathering ideas from several other music magazines I decided to go with three columns of writing per page on my double page spread. In Design made this decision an easy one for me to carry out, as they feature a tool which enables you to carry text on across columns. As my article was already written, this made it a quick and efficient start, as I simply copied and pasted the text in. I drew out boxes on my contents page, ready for text and images to be inserted later, and did the same on my front cover. I used the master page to create professional details such as the website URL featured at the bottom of every page. The master page allows you to add any text or images you would like to feature in the same place on every page, which makes the magazine overall look more professional as everything is in its place. I used the master page to also create a mini logo in the top corner of each page I created, as well as the date being featured at the bottom of each page, along with page numbers. Although when I started, I was not familiar with In Design, I feel that now I can navigate my way around it rather easily.
I carried out a photo shoot, using a Canon 55OD DSLR as I feel it is a camera I am most familiar with, from creating previous work, and I am able to comfortably use and experiment with it. The fact this camera is digital is another helpful factor as I was able to take hundreds of photos and also check over them, deleting those I did not feel content with. I used this camera when taking photos of my model against a white back drop, lit by interfit portrait photography lighting, in order to create the right amount of light for my photographs to appear professional. Also, I used trigger lighting, meaning that the bright lights were in sync with the camera, so when I pressed the capture button to take a photo, the lights flashed in just enough time. I was then able to transfer the photos from the camera to my computer by inserting the memory card into a USB, which allowed me to save them onto my computer very quickly. Whilst doing my photoshoot, I asked a friend to also use a Canon camera behind me, to take shots of me and my model in action. This works as evidence as it proves that all photos in my magazine were taken by me only.
After taking a range of photos I then edited them, so they were appropriate for use in my magazine. To remove the background from the photos, I used the colour range tool in Photoshop, which I feel I am rather experienced with as I’ve used this tool several times before in previous coursework. After doing so, I adjusted lighting levels on the photos so that they were either brighter or darker, depending on my preference which varied from photo to photo.
I have also used other forms of technologies to construct my product, mainly the internet, by making use  of many sites available to me. Blogger, however, has been one of the largest contributors to the production of my magazine as it allowed me to document every stage of the production process and also let me constantly update my ideas, in my draft posts, before publishing them. Survey Monkey allowed me to create surveys to hand out to my target audience in order to gain information on what they would enjoy reading in my magazine, whilst Google supplied me with images and information about previous music magazines and their distributors. Google has also allowed me to collect images that inspired my photo shoot, or magazine in general, and post these to my blog in the form of a mood board.