Evaluation : Technologies

I have learnt a lot about modern technologies from this magazine project. Lighting was an issue I found of huge importance as bad lighting can make a model look terrible whereas good lighting could connote anything; also I found that lighting could be fixed on programs such as Photoshop with brightness and contrast. I also learnt that contrast could be used stylistically to bring a different look to a picture and reducing graininess. I had to get the right props for the shots including drum kits, keyboards, mics etc. These fitted in with the musical aspect of the shots, I also made sure all my models were in clothes that would be deemed cool by my target audience. If the clothes were deemed against the target audience’s style it would reduce the chance of them purchasing it. I learnt about using house style to make a magazine appear more cohesive and give it a look. I also learnt about editing pictures such as removing backgrounds or fading them out, as well as messing around with colour filters. I also learnt that strangely using the rule of thirds makes the double page spread look more professional, and some conventions such as having a big letter to begin a piece improve the look of the magazine a lot. I also found that giving headings black outlines makes them look a lot more professional and eye-catching. I looked at a lot of different music magazines to make sure I didn’t miss out any conventions and took a few style ideas from them as well. From this I learnt the best way to set out the front cover e.g. masthead at the top, tagline underneath as well as the price, the artists names bigger than the rest to draw the audience in, the writing to the side to give the main image space and barcode bottom left. The main image has been edited so it looks more glossy and the background has been cut out using the lasso tool, also one of the people has been made bigger to fill up empty space. The contents page uses black shapes to separate the different sections and make it look more stylish, it also makes it easier for the reader to see the different sections And again using outer glows to provide definition for the text. I used quite smart looking font and only used a few colours to keep within the house style. I had trouble getting the black shapes to look good until I used an outline in a different way to create the right shape for it. I had trouble with a rectangular photo that needed to fit into a square box, to fix this I cropped the photo so the main image was still remaining but it fitted and did not get distorted. For the double page spread I found a way of using markers on every 6th length-ways and text boxes to make the columns the same size each to make it look more professional, I also found a way to copy colours from other sections and use them in different areas, this allowed me to maintain a house style. I also found cutaways and introductions a learning experience match different fonts and styles to different areas etc. I also gave the main image a shadow and a slight slant to give it 'a photo thrown on the page' look.