When I started the preliminary task, I already had previous experience with using Photoshop so I therefore didn't find the task too hard. However, I do believe my I improved when creating my final product as I began to understand the conventions of music magazines more so I could therefore apply them to my own work. With my final product, I stuck to a continuous house style which wasn't apparent on my preliminary task and I also included conventional features of a magazine such as social network links and a plug on the cover page. Although my knowledge of Photoshop hasn't increased significantly throughout this process, I do believe I have learnt how to apply the knowledge I already had in a more effective, professional-looking way.



One technique that I applied to my images which was a completely new experience for me was airbrushing. Magazines available on the market often do airbrush their photographs, so I therefore thought it fitting if I proceeded to airbrush my images as well as to give my magazine a more professional finish so that it could compete against other established magazines. In order to carry out this process, I had to learn how to do it, so I used the Google search engine and inputted 'photoshop airbrush tutorial'. I followed a link to a site which clearly labelled each of the steps in order to successfully airbrush my photograph, and I re-created the tutorial on my Blogger using my own image to show how I did it. 



Apart from airbrushing my photographs, I didn't learn any completely new techniques on Photoshop, I attempted to use InDesign - which I'd used throughout my work placement in Year 10 and occasionally throughout media in Year 11 for essay-writing purposes - but I decided against using this programme in the end for various different reasons. Firstly, when importing edited images from Photoshop onto InDesign, they lost their quality and became blurry. Furthermore, I didn't believe I had enough knowledge to successfully create an aesthetically pleasing, professional-looking double-page spread, whereas I was fairly confident with my skills on Photoshop, so I therefore believed it would benefit me and my work more if I continued to use Photoshop even though InDesign is industry standard, Photoshop was the more appropriate DTP.