Magazine Cover

I used manual focus because it makes me have more of an influence on the photograph. I learnt how to use the focus ring and zoom ring on the camera, and where on the camera they are located. I also learnt that the T-stance helps keep the camera steady when you are standing up or crouching down, that it helps keep your own balance when you are taking the photograph and it is a better body position when you are taking the photograph. I learnt that most magazines take their pictures in portrait mode and I learnt how to take the photograph in portrait mode. I took every picture in portrait mode. I took most of my images in focus, the ones that weren't I didn't use. To make sure I take every picture in focus in the future I will take more time adjusting the focus ring and take less picture that are better quality. I learnt that lighting affects your photographs so you need to be aware of where the sun is located and if it is affecting your photographs. Side-lit makes the photographs lighter on one side than another, front-lit sometimes will create shadows in the photographs and back-lit makes the front of the photograph darker than the back. I use the rule of thirds; I took some photographs with the eye-line too low so I crouched to make the eye-line where it is supposed to be: the first line down from the top of the photograph. The background for my photograph was easy to find because it was only a brick wall; I wanted this background because it was supposed to look like the model was in jail behind metal bars. My model was easy to handle and didn't cause any problems, he just did what I asked of him to do in my photograph. My people skills were good enough to be in control.

The tools I used on Photoshop were: the cropping tool, the marquee tool, the zoom tool, the move tool, the paint bucket tool and the type tool. I found it hard to use the paint bucket tool because the fonts that I was using were not compatible with this tool; also I found it hard to place different things in the final position because I was unsure where to place them. I controlled my text well by first of all choosing various fonts until one would be compatible with the paint bucket tool and one that I liked and thought would suit my magazine cover. I was careful when I was placing the text where I wanted because I didn't want it to look out of place or simply bad. I added a drop shadow and stroke effect on my masthead, I also added the stroke effect on my bubble at the bottom of the cover. I did this so that they would stand out more than anything else on the page. I did this by highlighting the layer and clicking effects which brought up a menu of all the different effects and then I chose the two I wanted to use and clicked on them; from this I was able to edit them and see how they looked. I downloaded various fonts but my initial choices were see-through which meant I couldn't fill them with a colour. The font I chose to use looked like typical bubble-writing, I chose this font because it is popular for people to use when they are designing something similar, this makes it a slightly mainstream font and my magazine would be about chart music which is mainstream. I downloaded my fonts by going to www.dafont.com and searching through the different fonts and then chose one. Once I had chosen one I clicked download, extract all files, browse, then chose my font’s folder in unit 2 in Media Production, I then copied the font and went to my C-drive and opened the windows folder then the font’s folder and pasted it into that folder. The colours I used were mainly red and yellow with black outlines and the background from the image. I used these colours because they are primary colours, bright and noticeable colours and popular colours. Another reason why I used these colours is that they suit each other, and they will reflect that the magazine includes popular mainstream music.

I really like what I have produced but if I was able to improve it in any way I would improve my image. The reason for this is that I would prefer if the bars were clearer and straight, also I would have liked it to be I little bit sharper and change the lighting. I would change the lighting because it is supposed to look like a jail cell which is stereotypically dark, but this may have also made it worse because if it was dark it may not look appealing. I think the strengths of the project as a whole are that the finished product looks like a real magazine and I learnt a lot on Photoshop and have developed skills on it that didn't previously know.