DPS Progress Two

I have now started to piece together the basis of my DPS page, and have started to make small alterations and adding in photos. I have also started to sort out my breakout box down in the corner underneath my text, and have started to add in shapes and text which I have to include in my breakout box.

With InDesign, I have learned to use shapes and how to edit the stroke, colour and transparency of the shape. I also learned how to place photos in my shape and how to alter the size without it blurring the image and also how to change the quality of the photo to one which is of a high quality level.

I am still yet to add a background texture, in order to give something more to the blank canvas which it currently is, and I have to change the photostrip down the side into something more realistic. I believe I also need to upscale the size of my main image, and position her in a way which takes up more of the blank space. I also have to finish off my breakout box and make it look appealing and bold in order to capture the audience's attention, as it should do.

18th March 2014

Over the past week, I have gained skills which will enable me in creating my magazine to the highest of standards. I have learned how to take photos in focus, with the right lighting effects, and then editing effects which can be used in Photoshop. For my photoshoot I used a Cannon 400D which had a wireless sync to the flash. I leanred about how the flash works and goes off when you take a photo, and also how to set up lighting and soft boxes.

In Photoshop I have developed my skills when it comes text control, brushes, layeers, opacity control, dodge and burn, and the polygon lasso tool. I have used these when editing my  photos and when piecing together my magazine cover. I have also learned how to insert shapes and manipulate them in size to make sure that they are perfect for my cover. I have also learned how to change the colour of images (such as the logos of All Time Low and Asking Alexandria on my cover headline banner), and have learned how to align things with the use of margins Photoshop have.

I segmented my cover up into 4 columns with small spaces at the side and on the top as the margin gaps to make sure nothing is too cluttered or close to the edge. I have sectioned the page into the different columns in order to align boxes and sections of my cover to make sure nothing is too cluttered.

I have also developed my photos, and have ended up experimenting with 3 different shots, the first one which I planned to use, but then changing it to the one I wanted to use on my DPS, and then one of the ones I wanted to use on my DPS down the side in a photobooth strip. I edited the photos with auto colour, auto tone, auto contrast and also the dodge tool in order to make things lighter (such as her hair) to make it stand out and not look as washed out.

For the cover I also experimented with the different sized photos by enlarging the photo and moving it around to see whether or not it looks better on the cover. I have also moved around some of my text to make sure it is centralised in the shapes and then also moved my sell line around to make it fill the majority of the page, so it is obvious that it is my main sell line.

For the cover, I have also learned about layering and have manipulated the layers some of my photos are in, shapes are in and text is in, in order to overlap things and to send things backwards or forwards. I have done this mainly when it comes to the text overlapping and the text being brought in front of the shapes that they are on.

Progress of my DPS page - 1

This is my first draft of my magazine DPS page. At first I created a blank document in InDesign, based on the measurements of the magazine article I had deconstructed originally. This helped me to kick start the initial process of creating my magazine DPS. From this experience, I learnt about the spacing needed on the sides of the pages and from the top and bottom page, in order to make sure everything fit on, yet didn't look too cluttered or crowded. I planned out the spacing needed between the columns of text which is my article, and also the space the columns needed to have around the edges of the breakout box which I have located underneath.

For the writing in my DPS, I learned all about the use of drop caps, kerning and leading. Drop caps is used for the start of the  article/a paragraph, and attracts the eye of the audience in order to pinpoint where  exactly the article starts at, and looks aesthetically pleasing when scanning over the page as it adds a little bit of variety. The leading of the article is essentially the spacing between the lines of the article, and how wide/narrow they are. The kerning controls the spacing between the letters of the words, and either spaces it out or squashes it up together. I also learnt how to text wrap things (my quote inserts) in order to fit them in the middle of two columns of text, and to make it look more out of place and different, just like the genre of pop-punk. The quote inserts have been text wrapped so the article moves around the quote and doesn't overlap on the quote, or gets hidden behind it. This makes the whole article look more interesting as there are added extras which are very appealing and zone ion the audiences attention.

When writing my article I learned all about how to use colloquial language, different language features, narrative voices and semantic fields. All of these techniques I used in my article in order to make it professional, fun to read and also appealing and interesting/relatable for my target audience. Colloquial language is used as a technique to entice the attention of certain people due to their interests. It is language and terms in which relates to themselves and their interests. When choosing a narrative voice I had to decide what exactly I wanted my article to be about, and when I finally decided on making it factual, I decided to use 3rd person, as I also include quotes from other people, yet nothing is of my own opinion as I didn't want it to be biased. For semantic fields, I picked  topic in which related to my article and started to generate words and phrases in which fell into the topic category, and then scattered them throughout my article in order to keep the topic theme strongly backed up. I also learned about introductory paragraphs, and how certain effects can be created (e.g.; descriptive, question, anecdote, action/adventure, summary, shock/horror).