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.