Titles
I tried out a few more names and texts for my masthead. I designed them on dafont.com ( http://www.dafont.com/ ) I then edited them on Photoshop to delete the background and have them transparent and also to add more colour. I normally add a shade on the back of them for example on the 'Vintage' picture. Originally it just said 'VINTAGE' in black but I deleted the background and then copied the text and made it grey I then set it to go behind the black text so it looked as if it had a shadow and I think it looks amazing. It really stands out and bolds the font, I tried to change them as much as possible so that I could give them all my own touch.
These are a few of the types of text I wanted to use for my music magazine cover. I intended on calling it RETRO from the very beginning. I think it is a very good name for a magazine. However, when I did a mock up I don't think it looked particularly good. It didn't fit my mix genre idea so I decided to change it, I thought vintage would be a good idea as vintage is also a range of different things, but its a range of different old things so I was unsure about that. I also didn't want to use a white background on my cover, my idea from the start was to use a black and white blurred effect background and I made 'vintage' transparent so it wouldn't have been noticed on my cover. A black title on black background is not noticeable. It wouldn't have worked and I wanted it to be a visible title not one hidden away in the background. I deleted the background on all the texts except M as I set it toohave a black background. I finally settled for the M for my title as I think it works the best with my layout on my cover. I am happy with my title. As I had been doing a lot of research on Q I thought M would work best. I just wanted it to be simple and using M, I thought I it could stand for Music. My magazine is a mix genre from Disco to Rap so I wanted a title that would stand for everything. I ensured that it is noticeable. On my magazine it is slightly faded. I did this by blending it into the background, I wanted it to be noticed but I didn't want it too bright. It looked tacky so I faded it slightly and now it works perfectly, so I am very happy with the overall outcome of the title.
My inspiration for my magazine.
Q was my inspiration for my Music Magazine as I thought the cover picture was very interesting and it stands out I also loved the colour scheme and the style of lexis and font. I love the masthead, as it is just Q which is why I went for a similar name, M. The overall layout did it for me, I thought it was all very bold and well layed out so this particular cover was my favourite. I do like the cover picture but because my picture wont be as extravagant and as sexual I settled just for a mid shot as using a full body shot on my cover may have looked good but I couldn't do it as extravagant as this picture. I created my magazine so that it looked similar to this as my first mock up was empty and repetitive so I'm glad I found a good inspiration.
This is the kind of contents page that I particularly like. This is not a music magazine contents as all the music magazine contents pages where the same. They all were very bland and simple. They didn't have much information on the covers and I wanted to break through that mould, they were boring and repetitive. I wanted the readers to feel as if they have a connection with the readers. To do this I looked into other genre's of magazines and I found out that in fashion magazines or gossip magazines they have 'Editor's Say' where the editors leave a little comment and talk about what to expect in the magazine that they are reading and also what to expect in the magazines coming up, for the future magazines. My contents page is not 100% similar to this, however it does have the same flow, I have used a small block picture and a Editors Say section. I have used a lot more colour on my contents and I also did a mock so I could see if I was happy with that layout or not and I wasn't sure at first, but now I have done my final, I am very happy with it.
First mock up of contents
This was a quick mock up of what I wanted my contents page to look like and I am not overally happy with it. I think it looks dull and it does not match my cover or 2 page spread. I could do with more lexis. My masthead and colour scheme just does not fit with my overall magazine, the matches better with the cover than the contents. I did use the 'Editors Say' idea and I am really happy with it. I think that is the section I like the most. It looks professional and different to all of the other music contents I have looked at and I know think that after a mock up, I can break through that mould. I was going to use a picture of a group of girls I took, but when I edited it on Photoshop it looked even more dull than the original, I hadn't done anything wrong on Photoshop, I used all the same tools I normally use and I am familiar with them, but I think the picture was too pixelated and wouldn't take to the colours I wanted to use. So I took a picture at a concert I went too, so that it looks as if it is 'festival season' and fits in with some of the pages on my contents page. I also added a paragraph from the editor explaining to my 'readers' as to what would be in the magazine and what they can expect in the future. I think that gives it the extra personal touch and invites the readers in more.
These are my three original ideas. I drew these on an A4 piece of paper and designed them in the way I wanted my magazine to look. I started of with the RETRO masthead in my mock ups, which I did originally really like, I ensured that I had drawn lots of different designs and ideas, I knew for certain that I wanted a bold picture that would connect with the reader using direct mode of address. These scans came in very handy as I had a very good idea as to what I wanted my layout to look like on my cover.
Edited Photos
My cover picture. This cover picture is using direct mode of address. I edited this picture on photoshop. I was particularly confident at using photoshop as I have used it several times before. On this picture I used the blur effect for the background which is located in the 'filter' tab. I also made the background of the picture black and white, I thought that doing this would cancel out the background and make 'Lady Smith' stand out more and also make her brighter and bolder. I used a variety of the lasso tools to select the parts of the pictures that I wanted to use. I used the patch tool and the clone stamp for sections of the skin where I thought I could improve them, such as frown marks or to make sections darker. I also used them for sections of the background, which definitely improved afterwards. I also used the Dodge and Burn tool where I made the girl in the pictures skin brighter and also make the tone slightly darker so that she had a tanned effect, she was already brown in the first picture but when I had finished editing it, she looked darker and that what I liked. For this picture it took me a really long time and I am glad that I put so much effort into this as it looks fantastic, I am very happy with it.
This is the original picture that I took, I took it with a high megapixel camera in a full body shot, I didn't intend to use this as my double page spread picture, but I think that this picture comes accross as quite innocent as there is no direct mode of address. If she had been looking up, from this angle it would look quite evil as you wouldn't see all of her eye, I didn't think that this picture needed much editing and I hadn't intended on doing so, until I put it on my article and it looked dim, it doesn't really have much light too it.
After editing the picture, I still wasn't happy as I thought it looked too dark so I used the burn and dodge tool on Lady Smith's face to highlight her skin and also her hands and shoes. They looked dull on the previous picture so I simply highlighted them so that it would make the picture softer. I knew that it looked so dark due to the background and because of the size I originally had it at. It took up one side of the double page spread however it did not look right so I simply used a small picture probably a little bigger than this on the two page spread and I think it looks great after being softened up, I am very happy with it.
Tools I Used
I used Adobe Photoshop throughout the course of my media project and I have learnt a lot about it. I previously knew how to use the old Photoshop but I now know quite a lot more, I am familiar with the tools and can quickly edit and design pictures. I used several tools repeatedly as they were the ones that I found most useful for what I needed to get done for my cover picture, contents picture and my 2 page spread picture. The main tools I mainly used was the Lasso Tools.
The lasso tools I used where the lasso tool, polygonal lasso tool and the magnetic lasso tool. I was familiar with just the normal lasso tool and going around the pictures and selecting sections to change the colours or too add a particular filter. But I wasn't to sure on the polygonal tool or the magenetic tool, but after some practice on my preliminary task I got used to them and found that the polygonal lasso tool was the better one, or the one I preferred most.
The blur sharpen and smudge tool are also a few of the tools I regularly used, it wasn't as useful as they did really blur or smudge your work and didn't do a great job, whereas the clone stamp worked better job in some cases, but every now and again on a dark colour I would need to smudge or blur sections to make the colour blend together better. I used a blur filter on my background and it worked very well, but as my cover girl had a earphone/headphone wire dangling from her ear, I used the smudge tool and also the blur tool to make the blur bolder around the edges, which worked very well.
The clone stamp tool and the pattern stamp tool where very popular tools for me especially the clone stamp tool, I used this on most pictures that I edited, I liked the idea of being able to copy a section of the face/colour and move it onto another section. This worked for me on the faces of my cover picture, contents picture and also my double page spread picture. As I said at the very start of my Preliminary task I have always liked the idea of having a flawless picture and when I found out how to work the tool properly I ensured that all of the pictures on my blog/magazine where flawless, no spots no blemishes, just perfect skin. I also used the tool for copying sections of a shirt for the cover of my magazine, I added more texture to parts and made the shades, darker or lighter where I needed them to be.
The quick selection tool and the magic wand tool where handy but I didn't over use them as they sometimes select sections that I don't want too select and its not as good as selecting the sections yourself. It tends to select the sections which are all a similar colour and the majority of my pictures where multi-coloured or not all the same shade so it wasn't great. It did come in use if you where selecting the background and making it white but I attempted that once and it didn't quite go to plan.
This is one of my favourite tools, I did use this a lot on a day to day Photoshop editing day, it worked for every picture that I edited and it makes my pictures flawless. I always try not to get Red Eye on my pictures but every now and again there will be a picture which you will get Red eye and not be able to change it. So this tool came in handy when that happened, I sometimes just used it on a normal eye, it just makes the eye darker and bolder, and I think for a cover you need the eyes to be bold and visible, because that is the first thing you look at, so I wanted it to be very bold! The patch tool came in handy as well I used that for patchy skin or where the background had faded I would simply copy sections and make them look better - very good tool, one of my favourites.
In Design is now one of my favourite Adobe programmes, I used In Design to create all my mock up magazines, my contents pages my double page spreads, I used it for everything and I now love it. It doesn't let you edit much on your photos, but I usually edit everything on Photoshop and then put them into Bridge to then put onto In Design. I like how on this programme you can use layers to put all different sections of the cover or contents or two page spread into them, you can add one thing to one layer and another thing to another layer, you can hide sections so that you don't change them. The layers on this programme really helped me, as on Photoshop I sometimes select and change the wrong things, whereas on In Design you can hide sections and they can't be clicked. This programme has really helped me and I am glad I know how to use it properly, it's a very good Adobe Programme and now one of my favourites.
Bridge is what I use to put pictures into In Design and have them all open and ready. I do like the programme but I didn't really use this, only on my preliminary as I found out that I can drag and drop things into layers just from 'My Pictures' or 'My Documents' or where ever the picture/text I needed. It is a good programme, but not when I used often.
DaFont.com is where I got my titles for my Cover Title. You have thousands of different types of text varying from sci-fi text to western text. It has everything, it was very useful. I was going to use some for my contents page but in the end I found a text on the Fonts which I used most as it was different and it did make an impact, here are some that I was going to use..
DaFont.com - Haunted - Shaun Of The Dead.
DaFont.com - Calligraphy - Chopin Script
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