Induction Evaluation

For my first media project, I designed the front cover of a music magazine. For the cover I had to take my own photo in which I could use as my main image. I had a very limited amount of knowledge when it came to photography, so I learned all about the manual/auto focus settings, the focus rings and the t-stance.

When it came to using the camera I used manual focus, so I had to focus my own image and make sure it was clear. I focused my image by turning the ring at the end of the lens to focus my image and make sure that my partner was clear and the background was blurry so he stood out more. I also learnt about the t-stance which is where the photographer places their feet in a ‘t’ and then leans so they do not have to use the zoom ring and cause a photo to turn blurry so they have to re-focus it. My image was taken portrait since my magazine front cover would be A4 portrait sized. I also learned about lighting and about how natural light is usually better than artificial. For my image I made sure that I had plenty of natural lighting by going outside to take the photo, and also making sure that it was not directly in his face and it was to the side. I however did not use the rule of three, but it looked well composed and the eye line looked to be in the right position for my front cover. I didn’t handle my subject too well either, as I didn’t know what to say to him or tell him how to stand/pose. This sort of effected my front cover because now I just have a simple image, whereas if I had the confidence to tell him what to do, or even know how to word it, then I would have been able to take a picture which could relate and represent everything which my magazine was about.

For Photoshop, I honestly had no idea what to do or how to use it. I had very limited knowledge on how to use it and what certain tools were, so editing my photo was a whole new experience for me. The tools I ended up using were the text tools, the shape tool, gradient fill and effects. I found it slightly confusing to use at first, but quickly got the hang of what to do and how to use everything. Text was the easiest tool to use and it was fun getting to experiment with the different effects I could apply to it to either make it bolder or transform into another shape, and there was a wide variety of different fonts that I could choose from. I added effects to my font by using drop shadow for my magazine title, and also making a stroke (black outline) for some of my sell lines to help them stand out and catch the audience’s attention. I mainly stuck with the colour pallet theme of what my main image was made up of. This meant that I used blues, oranges, black and white. This helped to tie everything in together, and to make my front cover look professional.