Reflecting on My Construction - Contents Page

Contents Page

I composed and manipulated the main photo for the front cover well. I understood that the photographer should move the 'models' to how the photographer wants but what I wanted was a natural shot to make the photo look as natural as possible. The photo itself was taken in a Food

Reflecting on My Construction

Magazine Cover

I composed and manipulated the main photo for the front cover well. I understood that the photographer should move the 'models' to how the photographer wants but what I wanted was a natural shot to make the photo look as natural as possible. The photo itself was taken in a Food Technology class during a practical, the boy in the photo was talking to a friend during this take and he laughed which is what I wanted my intended photo to show; a natural smile to portray enjoyment. Keeping in mind that this magazine will include anchorage texts on the side I made the majority of my photographs portrait and made sure the person in shot is to the side. Normally magazines have the person on the cover looking directly at the camera, the boy in my magazine is looking away from the reader and is instead looking at his pan of pasta, this directs the readers to what he has in his hands and will recognise the magazine as a school of cookery.

When taking the photo the context was easily recognisable as a cooking class because of the environment it was taken in. Ovens, stoves, posters of food and aprons are all in the photographs. Despite having the photo I wanted I noticed that there are a lot of objects and posters with text in the background which when putting text above the photo will become confusing for the reader to distinguish the actual magazine text from the background text. I will take the background into consideration when taking my next photograph.

So what I did to fix this was that I selected the whole background using the Lasso Tool whilst excluding the boy so the only area that will be affected by the editing will be the selected area. After the selection-making I wanted it to be more accurate, to achieve this I zoomed in at the smaller details which I missed during the initial selecting, if I were to miss the smaller details it would make the photo look uneven.
Next I used the Blur tool at its highest strength so everything in the selected area will appear distorted and objects will appear less distinct, I also decreased it's opacity so that the boy in the photo will stand out and be the main image for readers to concentrate on.
To make the boystand out even more I toggled the Saturation tool to make the background desaturated (lose colour) and saturated the colour of the boy.

Despite being happy with the conclusion the anchorage text could be improved. The reason for this is because it seems too similar to the Masthead and banner when it should look different.

I had used the time I had during Media lessons to continue working on the front cover and since I have my own copy of Photoshop at home I used my free time to find the right font for the Masthead.
However, at some point within working on the front cover and contents page with the school's Adobe Photoshop programme and my Adobe Photoshop Elements it had made the .PSD file unable to open on either programmes. This has made me more cautious about my work and I have decided from now on to save a copy of my work as a .JPEG file after every editing session, that way I can always make sure to have a back-up file of my work in case this were to happen again.

My favourite subject has always been Art and I've spent a lot of time on my computer at home, having these two traits it seemed to be a necessity to have my own Adobe Photoshop programme. I've become accustomed to it's tools and photo manipulation effects after many experiences with the programme at home and at school. The following effects I used on my original photo for the front cover were:

• Lasso tool
• Selection Brush tool
• Blur tool
• Saturation/Desaturation tool
• Brighten tool
• Decreasing opacity in the Layers tab

Generic Conventions of a Music Magazine

In this blog I will be sharing the generic conventions of a magazine which appeals to me.

The house style used in this particular magazine shows a simple mixture of colours. The colour scheme used is grey, black, white and red.

The obvious convention, in my opinion, of any magazine would have to be the masthead/logo. This title is partially blocked by the main image of the magazine, this makes the magazine come across as being confident in that the audience would still recognise the name due to it's popularity amongst their intended audiences. The text itself is black against a white background making it have an impact to the readers' attention and also gives it a distinguishable image.

My next convention needed will be the main image. This main image is of a band at a medium close-up whilst the camera is taken from a slightly low angle so the band are made to look like they are looking down at the reader. The eye contact produced in the image is eye-catching and it also creates a direct impact on readers.

The main story in any magazine will always have an image of it as it's cover and therefore will need a cover line to inform the audience of what the content of the magazine will mainly contain. The large, bold, white text with a black outline has been made to stand out against the black in the main image. The 'PANIC!' in the band name has been made larger than the rest of the name which makes it instantly recognisable to its intended audience who are familiar with the band.

Buzzwords are basically short simple yet eye-catching texts to show the readers that there are more than what they would expect in a magazine, for example in this magazine includes a free poster making readers know that they are getting their moneys worth.

Extra cover images show the reader what else are included in the magazine making it appealing to those who might also like the extra artists/bands shown on the cover and therefore will make them want to buy the magazine.

Coverlines are more articles that are included in the magazine. The use of the buzzword draws the attention of the reader to the coverlines to show the variety of articles they have.

The barcode, date release and price are found on almost every magazine. The price is important depending on what the target audience is, the price will have to be made affordable to it's target audience e.g. KERRANG! is a teen music magazine and therefore has to be made affordable for teenagers.

Photo Permissions

All the class were issued with the attached proforma. This enabled us to use any students in the Oldershaw Academy as models or actors for our media coursework, permission was gained from parents and guardians.