planning/learning journey

The image above is of my model kneeling down in a park, an isolated area with a beautiful water view. The urban setting this image has been taken in represents the culture we are bringing to the magazine, the idea of youth and soul. The youth culture has been socially constructed through stereotypes of sex, smoking and fun. This picture represents this through individualism as the model is on her own however still expresses energy and youth in very minimalistic ways. The costume used is again very simplistic however is sexy and very modern, the Nike trainers represents materialism and the popularity of that brand in the youth. The black and white filtering matches very well with the costume, although all the colours are the same the main focuses is yet on the model, the model becomes an object of purpose. The magazine is based on a young female artists and in this image the object with all the attention is her, creating a clear link between the main attraction of the magazine and the focus of the image.

FLAT PANS 


DRAFT

Cover evaluation:As you can tell there is a big difference between the two cover pages, the main change is the manipulation of the text structure and the use of textual colour/form. The task was to create a magazine which either goes by the conventions and develops them or challenge the forms of a real magazine. My idea for my magazine was for it to go by the actual conventions of a real magazine, i've read a lot of magazines so i'm aware of the conventions. In my before cover i could tell immediately that it didn't go by the conventions which made it look very unprofessional and caught attention for the wrong reasons. My audiences views on the magazine is key therefore i got them to criticize it and mention the good aspects of it which then i could develop to create a better standard of work. They mentioned that the plugs were disordered and just clustered in a messy and unprofessional way, the white blocks looked very untidy and the structuring wasn't going by the conventions as in real magazines the number of words on each line are precisely balanced and shaped to fit around the main image to create a good tidy presentation for the audience to encourage them to buy it through just the glance of the outer appearance. Also most importantly the main artist focus of this magazine issue wasn't easily visible to the audience in my first draft as it was 'hidden' in the top right hand corner of the magazine, this made it unclear what the main headline story of this magazine would be and also no visible textual link to the headline story and the main cover image. "Exclusive Shynaa Special" also didn't stand out from the other plugs as it was also in white blocks same size and font, this avoids the immediate eye attention it should be receiving, therefore going against the typical intentions and conventions of a magazine front cover. After receiving such criticism from that i took it on board and decided to look up other R&B Soul magazines which are already available to the public and highly recognized. 'VIBE' magazine was a popular magazine, i analysed it and found key inspirations from it which i then applied to my own front cover. Vibe magazine mad me realize how important text structure is and how the changing of text size and colour is, from that i changed the structure of the plugs and made is smoothly adjust to the main cover image so it doesn't actually go over the image and take the importance away from it, the plugs also now don't have white blocks as now I've focused on avoiding the messy look i was giving to the cover before. The second biggest influence was how using font size and colour can be very effective in attracting the attention of the audience, in my draft you can see how the main story and focus of the magazine issue is unclear as it is placed in small font on the top right hand corner, in the final draft you can now immediately see that 'SHYNAA' is the top headline story in this magazine as it is larger than the rest of the text and in a bold red font colour to show immediate attention. I believe that my final cover piece follows the conventions of real music magazines due to effective inspiration from analysis of other magazines.

When I completed my drafts I got 2 students; one girl from year 12 and one boy from year 13, this choice of evaluators make my evaluation representative of a board age range and both genders to avoid bias feedback. I gave them a copy of my draft and ask for critical criticism, I applied this to my new and final drafts.  

The use of technology was very key in the process of creating my magazine cover, Photoshop was very successfully in the editing process. The editing is one of the key processes in creating a magazine, due to modern technology it was easier for me to edit my own. In the image above you can see visually that I’ve have been using the filter section for my editing. To achieve this effect shown on the third image I went onto the FILTER tool box, then selected RENDER. Render gives you various options you could possibly use, I chose LENS FLARE to achieve this effect. The render option gives you different choices of lens type, in mine I have chosen to use 50-300mm zoom, Describes a lens that zooms anywhere between the focal lengths 50mm and 300mm. A versatile option, great for landscapes and street photography where the main subject isn’t too close to the camera. In my case I have used a mid-shot, the main focus in the image is the face of the artist therefore the main subject isn’t too close to the camera, this means we can use the flare wisely to avoid messing with the focus of the main subject. The Brightness of the Lens Flare depends on how bright your image is, my image was edited to blend in with the black background without losing the artist with the background, and the lens flare in this case brings colour to the main subject. I have used the lens flare to the right top corner of the subject’s head, without having it too bright. If the lens was too bright I could potentially ruin the subjects face by losing key features such as eyes, eyes are a key feature when drawing the audience’s attention.

 

I have also used the easier tool on the Photoshop programme, the eraser is basically a brush which erases pixels as you drag it across the image. Pixels are erased to transparency, or the background colour if the layer is locked. In my magazine front cover I wanted the subject which is the artist for my music magazine to blur in with the background, however before I softened the edges of the subject the edges were very harsh and visual. Harsh edges do not look good and professional therefore by using the rubber tool I erased the harsh edges without rubbing off the focus subject completely. Options include the size of the eraser, hardness of edges and various styles. Brush options are not available in block mode, with Photoshop you can adjust the brush best suitable for your needs. I adjusted my brush so that is was small and soft. 100% opacity erases pixels completely, 0% does not erase at all. 50% is semi-transparent, I avoided using 100% because it would take off more than I want. With the brush I adjusted I softly moved it around the outline of the harsh edges to finish off with a clean edge look.