Magazine Evaluation
Our music magazine has challenged many forms and used many conventions within creating it. We used features such as a banner, a main image that related to the main cover line, a barcode, price and issue date, a strapline, a masthead, cover lines, mode of address and a secondary image. Our banner was at the bottom of the page although it varies of different magazines. Our main image didn’t seem to look right even though it was centre of attention, Pebbles (the girl in image) was looking away from the camera which slightly goes against the concept but again, this varies from magazine to magazine. The masthead is placed behind the main image and is centred to fill the top of the page. The cover lines and mode of address were two different fonts so each could be identified. The only thing we didn’t manage to add were boxed text and a graphic which we felt was not essential.
We chose our magazine genre to be a Classical R&B magazine, it’s based on music and artist from the 90’s until the 21st century. I would say that my magazines social group is targeted towards a young audience between the ages of 13-17 that love R&B. The front cover makes this clear when looking at the main image. In the main image the teenager represents youth, (relating to the audiences age group) and the violin she is holding represents classical music. She isn’t wearing anything different from what most teenagers wear on an average day, so the magazine is for anyone really. It doesn’t really have a specific social group, such as certain cultures or ‘groups of people,’ just anyone young that likes R&B music.
An institution similar to EMAP would be idle to sale my magazine as its record of selling magazines is quite high. My magazine could be purchased in a music store or by ordering online, it is not popular amongst the local corner shops. One reason for this is because it is a magazine that is not only released in England but America as well. It is not a magazine to be released weekly plus money rolls in when people pay extra for delivery. And it also promotes music stores with benefits both the magazine and music store.
The audience for my magazine would be would be for all kinds of teenagers (14-19) that like R&B music. This is because of the articles and advertisements ‘that is featured’. There were many colours featured on my front cover to reflect the many moods that teenagers go through. The title Diverse felt appropriate because of the genre of the magazine. Normally the R&B genre is very common within a teenage age group, but the title expresses a slight difference from what would be expected, a slight ‘Diverse’ from what the audience would expect in a R&B magazine.
As I was experienced with using iMacs and Photoshop, nothing was really different for me; therefore I had learnt nothing new. In fact using Photoshop in college seemed much easier to use then what I was used to. I had no problems what do ever.
I would have made sure the camera was working properly, before arriving to our set location for the photo shot. Our battery unfortunately ran out before we took any decent pictures. So walking a long distance didn’t benefit us in any way. I would have discussed beforehand who was comfortable with the camera and also what props and costumes to use. I would have worked with another genre such as rock or pop as they seem easier to compete with in Photoshop. Another thing I would of like to of done was use more of our own images rather than using the pictures of off the internet.
Friday, 17 October 2008
Thursday, 16 October 2008
Evaluation
AS Level Media studies: Magazine Evaluation
We had the task of completing a new music magazine in which, we had to use my knowledge of codes and conventions of real music magazines, audience profiling, and ideology we had created. The assignment was carried out in groups, but, the magazine making had to be completed in pairs. Once our group started, we had to brainstorm our ideas. The objective was to be able to demonstrate an understanding of the codes and the conventions of music magazines pages, by incorporating into a magazine, using Photoshop. The computer software program (Photoshop) was intended to manipulate digital images (that were taken on digital still cameras) and restore them with conventions of real music magazine. We overall were asked to produce a music magazine front page, as the main media text, and an inside page (contents).
In the company of our own ideology of what we wanted the magazine to look like, our music magazine challenged forms straight away as it was an Urban Classical media magazine. The music genre was a collaboration between two genres of today’s world. It is new style of classical music with modernised revolutionised version of being urban.
“Diverse” did not have insert images on the front cover, as we decided it was best. Insert images may attract readers, yet also take away the concentration from the main image. We in addition added a tagline, which normally may not be used in magazines rather promotional posters. “No strings attached” could also be considered as a pun, and would humour potential readers. Our magazine “Diverse” also incorporates many of the codes and conventions of real music magazines. Our group created strap lines, giving readers an idea of what is inside. We used a banner to promote ourselves, and introduce the magazine to people who would be unfamiliar with it. Promotions were added in form to graphics to excite readers. The magazine has a main cover line, exploring the bright idea of the biggest story for the magazine. Sell lines were produced on the left hand side, to excite readers about the artists inside.
Our music magazine cover represents younger social groups in many ways through our magazine. The typography restores the urban younger feel to the magazine. The magazine’s main cover image is of a young person, like themselves. She is playing the violin dressed casually, yet is playing a classical instrument. The main cover image represents the change in music, she may be dressed casually, but is enduring herself in classical music. The magazine represents music of today, and bridges the gap between old values, and new suggestions.
EMAP (East Midland Allied Press) could distribute our magazine “Diverse”, as it is a large institution. The institution has a series of magazines that target various niche markets. It has successfully distributed magazines with the likes of, FHM, Mojo, Q, Empire, Kerrang and Smash hits. It has a specialised division called EMAP Metro that works with the sub genre lifestyle and music magazines based in London. Our magazine is a modernised version of classical music, which would be great for the distributers. In the case of them willing to distribute music of all genres, to attract readers, they would be ideal for our magazine. The institution has a great reputation for the publishing of magazines, and “Diverse” would be a great new edition.
Our media magazine is aimed at a mainstream audience of pre- adults to adults (16- late 20 year olds). We have chosen this as we want our magazine to be able to reach a various types of people; it is not aimed at women or men specifically. Our preferred audience ranges from 16 (pre-adults) to late 20 year olds as the genre of music is a new form. This is because, the musical genre is a mix of classical, and urban style- that would attract the younger audience.
We addressed our target audience, by creating a niche market of music already-attracting our preferred audience. The magazine uses bold urban street looking typography, which straight away catches the eye of younger readers. The typography also gives away the genre of music, and style of the magazine. The black and white colours used for the style of typography are universal, straight away telling readers the magazine is not gender specific. The main cover image stands out from the brick wall background, straight away attracting the reader.
During the course of completing the music magazine, I have learnt a great amount of ways to use technology to produce an end product. I have learnt a whole lot more from using Photoshop, gaining new skills and experiences from the software. My capabilities have improved, and experiences have taught me much more. Photoshop is not that easy to use, as you need to be aware of all around you and piece them together properly. I have learnt technologies can have faults, and always relying on them can be a problem.
If I was able to make another front cover, I would make sure I did an easier genre. Choosing more common genre would have helped make the production process easier, and narrative overall. The genre picked was quite tricky, and a large amount of thought had to be put into it. But, that could also be used as a positive, as it helped me challenge myself. Also, maybe targeting a specific gender audience may have been better. Another thing that I would do differently was the planning stage. Not enough planning was done on behalf of everyone in our group, we could have devised more time for planning. That way, when we started creating the magazine, it would have definitely been less complicated. Lastly, the images taken could have been of much better quality. We had complications when taking images, as we did not have much time and the camera was faulty. With that we did not have many images to choose form, and there weren’t many taken. All of the improvements could have definitely produced a better magazine, but the one produced already is of great standard.
Words (1,007)
Magazine Evaluation
In what ways does your music magazine use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real music nagazines?
My music magazine "Diverse" I think uses many of the conventions that many music magazines use today. We have a big and bold masthead spanning the entire width of the magazine so as to grab potential reader's attention. We have a main cover image like many other music magazines out there although, our main cover image challenges what is done by other music magazines because our image is not looking straight into the camera which most music magazines do to connect with the audience. We chose not to have the main cover image looking at the camera because we wanted it to be realistic and be an image of a violinist in action. We have also included sell lines on the cover to show what can be expected to be in the magazine these are with right and left hand justifications. There is also a top banner so that we can say how our magazine is number one and unique like a lot of the music magazines do such as "music" magazine. As well as the conventions that make the magazine look interesting we have also included a barcode, price and issue number.
How does your music magazine cover represent certain social groups?
My music magazine cover reperesents the young, urban and working class group mainly through the background, images and font that is used. The background is a brick wall which I think shows that we are taking something onto the streets, making something that wouldn't be available to this social group normally and putting it where they feel comfortable. The font used I think also reinforces the idea of putting something on the streets because it looks a bit like graffiti. The main image is of a girl in clothes that any girl could wear walking down the street, playing the violin showing that there is not a ceratain social group which can enjoy classical music, it is available to everyone.
What kind of media institution might distribute your magazine cover and why?
The type of media intitution that might distribute my magazine cover would be a small institution because I doubt that there will be a mainstream market for it. I think that the distribution of my magazine would be quite limited as well due to there being a very small market for it, so you would probably only be able to get it from a music store such as HMV or a specialist in classical music store such as Chapples of Bond Street.
Who would be the audience for your music magazine cover?
The audience for my music magazine cover would be young musicians, or just young people who are interested in classical music but can't relate to the classical music magazines already out there and need something which can connect with them.
How did you attract/address your audience?
I attracted my audience by using what I would call a young people's font, I'd call it that because it is not very formal looking so therefore does not look like there will be loads of technical terms in there that young people could not understand. Also I have used an image of someone (me) that looks like an everday young person someone that you could walk past in the street, someone who is not wearing a posh dress or suit and bow tie so also makes the magazine look less scary to young people. There is also a promotional offer of a free CD and nothing attracts young poeple, if not any person, to something than the idea that you are going to get something for free.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the magazine front cover?
I have learnt that once you learn how to use the features on photoshop making a magazine cover using this technology is quite easy. I have pretty much learnt all the basics such as adding text, changing the colour of fonts, using the magic wand and lassoo tool, rearranging the different layers so that everything can be seen and how to resize, crop and rotate images, I have also learnt how to transpose things too.
If you were to make another front cover, what do you think you would do differently next time?
If I was to make another magazine cover I would definately take pictures on a plain background so that I could use the magic wand tool instead of having to lassoo all of the images which is very time consuming. I would also take a wider range of pictures so that there could be more than the main cover image present on the front. I would probably do another genre such as R'n'B because there are a lot more R'n'B artists than there were for my genre. Lastly, I would experiment more with photoshop because I feel that I could've done a lot more with the software had I been a bit daring andd tried a few things out.
My music magazine "Diverse" I think uses many of the conventions that many music magazines use today. We have a big and bold masthead spanning the entire width of the magazine so as to grab potential reader's attention. We have a main cover image like many other music magazines out there although, our main cover image challenges what is done by other music magazines because our image is not looking straight into the camera which most music magazines do to connect with the audience. We chose not to have the main cover image looking at the camera because we wanted it to be realistic and be an image of a violinist in action. We have also included sell lines on the cover to show what can be expected to be in the magazine these are with right and left hand justifications. There is also a top banner so that we can say how our magazine is number one and unique like a lot of the music magazines do such as "music" magazine. As well as the conventions that make the magazine look interesting we have also included a barcode, price and issue number.
How does your music magazine cover represent certain social groups?
My music magazine cover reperesents the young, urban and working class group mainly through the background, images and font that is used. The background is a brick wall which I think shows that we are taking something onto the streets, making something that wouldn't be available to this social group normally and putting it where they feel comfortable. The font used I think also reinforces the idea of putting something on the streets because it looks a bit like graffiti. The main image is of a girl in clothes that any girl could wear walking down the street, playing the violin showing that there is not a ceratain social group which can enjoy classical music, it is available to everyone.
What kind of media institution might distribute your magazine cover and why?
The type of media intitution that might distribute my magazine cover would be a small institution because I doubt that there will be a mainstream market for it. I think that the distribution of my magazine would be quite limited as well due to there being a very small market for it, so you would probably only be able to get it from a music store such as HMV or a specialist in classical music store such as Chapples of Bond Street.
Who would be the audience for your music magazine cover?
The audience for my music magazine cover would be young musicians, or just young people who are interested in classical music but can't relate to the classical music magazines already out there and need something which can connect with them.
How did you attract/address your audience?
I attracted my audience by using what I would call a young people's font, I'd call it that because it is not very formal looking so therefore does not look like there will be loads of technical terms in there that young people could not understand. Also I have used an image of someone (me) that looks like an everday young person someone that you could walk past in the street, someone who is not wearing a posh dress or suit and bow tie so also makes the magazine look less scary to young people. There is also a promotional offer of a free CD and nothing attracts young poeple, if not any person, to something than the idea that you are going to get something for free.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the magazine front cover?
I have learnt that once you learn how to use the features on photoshop making a magazine cover using this technology is quite easy. I have pretty much learnt all the basics such as adding text, changing the colour of fonts, using the magic wand and lassoo tool, rearranging the different layers so that everything can be seen and how to resize, crop and rotate images, I have also learnt how to transpose things too.
If you were to make another front cover, what do you think you would do differently next time?
If I was to make another magazine cover I would definately take pictures on a plain background so that I could use the magic wand tool instead of having to lassoo all of the images which is very time consuming. I would also take a wider range of pictures so that there could be more than the main cover image present on the front. I would probably do another genre such as R'n'B because there are a lot more R'n'B artists than there were for my genre. Lastly, I would experiment more with photoshop because I feel that I could've done a lot more with the software had I been a bit daring andd tried a few things out.
Magazine Evalution (Diverse)
'DIVERSE' uses some conventions of real music magazines as a basic guidance, the masthead is big, bold and is justified to the right spanning the width of front page as many magazines masthead do, this is important because they are often overlapped, on shelves, so the corner is the only part you would see. A lot of magazine put the barcode in the bottom right corner and had information such as issue date and price placed around it so we used this too. I think that the main cover image challenges the conventions of a music magazine because usually they look directly at the camera to attract attention, whereas 'DIVERSE' doesn't but uses colour and layout to connect with audience. The form of which we used cover lines is similar to how a real music magazine would use it too, this worked well as it looked a bit like a border and attract attention towards the main image. 'DIVERSE' uses an image of Alicia Keys this is because she is associated with both urban and classic music genres so the image indicates the diversity of the genre of the magazine, this technique is used in real music magazines so people know what the genre is at first looks. 'DIVERSE' also used other magazine forms such as a banner, a strap line and a mode of address.
Our music magazine cover represents a mix of different social groups, through a range of ways. The main colours used are universal colours so the cover doesn't symbolize a specific gender so both sexes are able to find 'DIVERSE' attractive. The font for the masthead and cover lines can be associated with an urban social group because it has a graffiti style type of look to it, as if it has been sprayed on a cracked textured wall. What the text says in the cover lines indicates that the magazine is aimed to older social groups because it talks about music artists from the past, however the main cover image is of a female youth in her casual wear, which younger social groups can be represented through as the girl looks like an average teenager. Our magazine can represent a wide range of social groups from the age of 14-18 years old.
I think 'DIVERSE' can be distributed in newsagents because they provide a variety of music genres magazines that each have a small of interest so if our magazine would be supplied there, there would be a larger range of interest because 'DIVERSE' has a blend of different styles. Our magazine is released fortnightly so, readers can apply for subscription, this way 'DIVERSE' can be distributed through post. I also think music stores would be an effective place to sell our magazine because that they have a variety music in their shop so 'DIVERSE' could be placed next to different sections of music, based on what edition it is, so there will always be costumers that are interested in our magazine and will be likely to buy it.
13-18 years would be the age range of the audience that would be interested in 'DIVERSE'. This is because at this age teenagers they often form social groups depending on what type of music they like, so there is a high interest of finding out about new music and because magazines are aimed for an specific age group so, a 15 year would not read a home interest magazine as it contains articles that would not apply to them, such as how to keep a tidy house.
To attract and address our audience we used techniques from real magazines such as using contrasting colours for the font and background so it words stand out, using yellow for cover lines because it is eye catching and looks like sentences are highlighted so the audience will read what it says. We used a image of a singer to create recognition so fans will to read what is said about her. By using a young person for the main cover image the audience can relate to her as being similar to themselves so they know 'DIVERSE' is addressed to their age group. Our magazine used a mode of address " find out who has returned for good!!!" this persuades the audience to look because it has no information or clues about who 'DIVERSE' is referring to, so they will open the magazine to see who it is.
I learnt a lot about technologies from the process of constructing the magazine front cover ,this is because I have never used Photoshop or Macs before so everything I did I had learnt quickly from the Photoshop tutorial and from my partner, she was very familiar with using Photoshop, so she showed me other features of the software . I think that Photoshop and the Macs are easy to use once you know how but can be frustrating at times.
If I was to make another front cover I would make sure that we spent more time getting pictures that were effective and less time on finding a location as we ending up cutting the person out of the background and the image we used of the person wasn't a very eye catching because their focus was not towards the camera. I would also make sure we had a better camera because the battery of ours ran out when we were taking pictures. I think I would of spent more time on planning what we were going to do for 'DIVERSE's front cover as we wasted a lot of time on changing the background and the name, then there would not of have been as much pressure to complete it and we could of had more time to do the contents page. I would consider picking a different genre for 'DIVERSE' as it was associated with many types of music, so there wasn't a clear style for us to focus on and we tried include more than one ( urban and classical), which was hard.
Our music magazine cover represents a mix of different social groups, through a range of ways. The main colours used are universal colours so the cover doesn't symbolize a specific gender so both sexes are able to find 'DIVERSE' attractive. The font for the masthead and cover lines can be associated with an urban social group because it has a graffiti style type of look to it, as if it has been sprayed on a cracked textured wall. What the text says in the cover lines indicates that the magazine is aimed to older social groups because it talks about music artists from the past, however the main cover image is of a female youth in her casual wear, which younger social groups can be represented through as the girl looks like an average teenager. Our magazine can represent a wide range of social groups from the age of 14-18 years old.
I think 'DIVERSE' can be distributed in newsagents because they provide a variety of music genres magazines that each have a small of interest so if our magazine would be supplied there, there would be a larger range of interest because 'DIVERSE' has a blend of different styles. Our magazine is released fortnightly so, readers can apply for subscription, this way 'DIVERSE' can be distributed through post. I also think music stores would be an effective place to sell our magazine because that they have a variety music in their shop so 'DIVERSE' could be placed next to different sections of music, based on what edition it is, so there will always be costumers that are interested in our magazine and will be likely to buy it.
13-18 years would be the age range of the audience that would be interested in 'DIVERSE'. This is because at this age teenagers they often form social groups depending on what type of music they like, so there is a high interest of finding out about new music and because magazines are aimed for an specific age group so, a 15 year would not read a home interest magazine as it contains articles that would not apply to them, such as how to keep a tidy house.
To attract and address our audience we used techniques from real magazines such as using contrasting colours for the font and background so it words stand out, using yellow for cover lines because it is eye catching and looks like sentences are highlighted so the audience will read what it says. We used a image of a singer to create recognition so fans will to read what is said about her. By using a young person for the main cover image the audience can relate to her as being similar to themselves so they know 'DIVERSE' is addressed to their age group. Our magazine used a mode of address " find out who has returned for good!!!" this persuades the audience to look because it has no information or clues about who 'DIVERSE' is referring to, so they will open the magazine to see who it is.
I learnt a lot about technologies from the process of constructing the magazine front cover ,this is because I have never used Photoshop or Macs before so everything I did I had learnt quickly from the Photoshop tutorial and from my partner, she was very familiar with using Photoshop, so she showed me other features of the software . I think that Photoshop and the Macs are easy to use once you know how but can be frustrating at times.
If I was to make another front cover I would make sure that we spent more time getting pictures that were effective and less time on finding a location as we ending up cutting the person out of the background and the image we used of the person wasn't a very eye catching because their focus was not towards the camera. I would also make sure we had a better camera because the battery of ours ran out when we were taking pictures. I think I would of spent more time on planning what we were going to do for 'DIVERSE's front cover as we wasted a lot of time on changing the background and the name, then there would not of have been as much pressure to complete it and we could of had more time to do the contents page. I would consider picking a different genre for 'DIVERSE' as it was associated with many types of music, so there wasn't a clear style for us to focus on and we tried include more than one ( urban and classical), which was hard.
The final lesson
Today was the final lesson making our magazine covers, we got started straight away because we knew that we had a mountain of work to get through. The first thing that we done was finish off the lengthy process of cutting out the image of Adaggio from the background and adding him to the front cover. But after we completed the lassoing of the image we decided that from looking at a classical magazine (music) they only had one image of a person, that being the main cover image so we decided to leave the Adaggio picture for the inside page.
We then felt like we had finished the front cover of our magazine so moved on to the inside page. We already had the image that we wanted ready and cut out so all we needed to do was sort out how we was going to display the contents of the magazine. Yarohey had this idea of putting piano keys on the left hand side of the page and use the colours black and white alternatively to write what was in our magazine and on what page number you would find it, so as I done this Yarohey searched on the internet to look for people who we could put in the contents page.
We then started to think about what font we wanted the masthead to be in and tried most of them out and decided to use "cracked" because it gave our magazine the edge that it needed. It was then that we realised that we would have to change the position of the masthead because from looking at other magazines we noticed that the masthead was nearly always in the left hand corner or stretched out across the top, the latter was what we decided to do.
It was then after fixing the masthead that we chose to add a banner, we took this as a chance to show what genre we was trying to represent with the magazine by putting "The UK's only urban classical magazine: The violin edition" the adding of "...The violin edition" happened because we thought that it would be a good idea if our magazine focused on certain things in certain issues and also it was a good way to cover up the fact that the only pictures we had were of people with violins. We also added a little tag line underneath the masthead saying "No strings attached" just to give people something catchy to remember it by.
We then felt like we had finished the front cover of our magazine so moved on to the inside page. We already had the image that we wanted ready and cut out so all we needed to do was sort out how we was going to display the contents of the magazine. Yarohey had this idea of putting piano keys on the left hand side of the page and use the colours black and white alternatively to write what was in our magazine and on what page number you would find it, so as I done this Yarohey searched on the internet to look for people who we could put in the contents page.
Then we added in the picture of Adaggio o the contents page but had to flip it because the way it was originally the image was looking out from the magazine and we wanted it to look into the magazine. What we then realised was that we had forgotten to include the price on the front cover and come up with £3.60, which is a bit expensive but because it has some of the classical elements in the magazine I think it's an ok price. After we had done this we decided that our magazine cover and inside page was completed.
The end product:
Sunday, 12 October 2008
Lesson 9th October (Final lesson)
In this lesson the deadline for the front cover and insert page was today so me and my partner had to work quickly. So firstly we set about adding the obvious details such as adding the price and issue number underneath the masthead as that is where the costumers are attracted to straight away so they can easily get the information that they need to buy the magazine. Underneath we put the mode of address written in yellow to make it look like it had been highlighted, so the reader will think that it is important and it more eye catching. On the other side of the page we put the main cover line in yellow bold letters with a drop shadow effect, which was related to the main cover image, to highlight its importance and also under that we put more cover lines.
Across the bottom of the page we put a banner which was half red and half white because the words were written against a two different colours that was part of the background so we did that to not make it clash . In the corner we put the barcode and the issue date as they are often grouped together and above that we added a picture of Alicia Keys which we had rounded and added a cover line for it and then we moved on to the insert page.
We wanted to make the background of the contents page similar to front page so we kept the same black background, mirrored the rainbow and contrast the colours so they were yellow, grey and green. We kept the font the same and wrote the contents and the heading in white. Finally to finish we added a image of Nicole Scherzinger, which we had already cut out of picture using the the magic wand tool, at the bottom in overlaying the gap between the words and the numbers as it was linked to the banner on the front cover. Afterwards we printed the pages but we noticed that the main cover line had come out see through so we decided that we needed to print again to correct the problem the next lesson
Across the bottom of the page we put a banner which was half red and half white because the words were written against a two different colours that was part of the background so we did that to not make it clash . In the corner we put the barcode and the issue date as they are often grouped together and above that we added a picture of Alicia Keys which we had rounded and added a cover line for it and then we moved on to the insert page.
We wanted to make the background of the contents page similar to front page so we kept the same black background, mirrored the rainbow and contrast the colours so they were yellow, grey and green. We kept the font the same and wrote the contents and the heading in white. Finally to finish we added a image of Nicole Scherzinger, which we had already cut out of picture using the the magic wand tool, at the bottom in overlaying the gap between the words and the numbers as it was linked to the banner on the front cover. Afterwards we printed the pages but we noticed that the main cover line had come out see through so we decided that we needed to print again to correct the problem the next lesson
Lesson 7th October (Diverse)
In this lesson we continued on making the front cover for the magazine. At first looks at the cover when we opened the file it I thought it looked to busy and when we tried add a strap line and cover lines we could not find a colour that did not clash with the background so we decided to change our background and began to look for other types of graffiti. Then after several tries we decided to leave that idea and try using a plainer background.
So we selected a plain black background, selected the circle option and selected rainbow colours and then narrowed it down to pink, grey and red. We drew a giant circle that was too big for the page to get a semi circle and then skewed the rainbow to make the top part thin and the bottom part wide to make it seem like it was swooping in from the top right corner. Then we change the opacity to 60% because it was too bright and needed to blend in more.
After that we added our main image back to the background, and moved on to create a masthead, again we changed our magazine name this time to DIVERSE and selected on font and colour ( white) and put it stretched from the the top right corner.
So we selected a plain black background, selected the circle option and selected rainbow colours and then narrowed it down to pink, grey and red. We drew a giant circle that was too big for the page to get a semi circle and then skewed the rainbow to make the top part thin and the bottom part wide to make it seem like it was swooping in from the top right corner. Then we change the opacity to 60% because it was too bright and needed to blend in more.
After that we added our main image back to the background, and moved on to create a masthead, again we changed our magazine name this time to DIVERSE and selected on font and colour ( white) and put it stretched from the the top right corner.
Saturday, 11 October 2008
last lesson of magazine making
Last lesson
This was the last lesson for us to complete, our magazine front cover and inside page. Pebbles and I got to work straight away as we knew we a lot of work to do. We finished off lassoing the image of Adaggio, and then edited the position of the text. We added a mast head, catchy tagline and strap lines that stood out.
For the inside cover (contents page), we considered putting Adaggio on the inside page instead of the front cover, as it would draw away attention from the main image. Once we positioned the image, I came up with the idea of using piano keys in which we’d write page names, and numbers for the contents page. We constructed black and white coloured blocks for the keys and positioned them.
Later we added page number, and names for the pages in the magazine. One finished we filled the rest of the page and position the Adaggio image. Lastly, we went back to the front cover, added a barcode, issue number, price and promotions offer for readers.
We looked over our work, and decided we were finished when we had all the supposed conventions for a magazine. Finished we printed out the magazine front cover, and inside contents page.
End products:
Friday, 10 October 2008
DIVERSE - Final Lesson
Today was our final lesson to finish our magazines and me and my partner got straight to work. Today we were adding in all the conventions of a magazine and then hopefully move on to create the first page of the magazine.
Firstly we added the barcode in the lower right had corner of the page along with the release date. We also labelled the price at £3.60 under the masthead on the top right with the issue number. On the opposite side in the same colour and font we added a mode of address.
We added another image of Alicia Keys from the internet and made the image appear rounded we also added a cover line for this.
The main cover line was related to the main image, the font was different from everything else and bigger than the rest of the text. We also used a dropped shadow effect.
We added a few cover lines around the front cover using the same font as the masthead, a white and yellow colour scheme and a glow effect around the text. The font was smaller than the main cover line but bigger than the issue number. The text on the left was aligned to the left and the text on the right was aligned to the right.
The last thing we did was add a banner at the bottom of the page, we thought adding in any more detail would crowd the front cover, we tried adding a graphic but there was no appropriate position for it so we decided to leave the front cover as it is. Also because we were short on time and everyone had finished both their covers and contents page so we decided to move on.
When making the contents page we became lazy, just like the front cover we used a black background and used the same rainbow gradient. To make it slightly different we flipped it and inversed the colours. We then used the same font in white as the font as the front cover to type out the paging.
The last thing we did was find an image of Nicole from PCD, we placed her on the layer under the text. She had a few white bits around her so I used the magic wand tool to erase it, and to finish of i used the blur tool to slightly blur the sharp images.We had finally completed our Photoshop and it was ready to print but when we did print we noticed that the main cover line was faded. We checked the Mac and there were no errors. The printer room was now locked so it was up to us to print it off again in our own time.
Firstly we added the barcode in the lower right had corner of the page along with the release date. We also labelled the price at £3.60 under the masthead on the top right with the issue number. On the opposite side in the same colour and font we added a mode of address.
We added another image of Alicia Keys from the internet and made the image appear rounded we also added a cover line for this.
The main cover line was related to the main image, the font was different from everything else and bigger than the rest of the text. We also used a dropped shadow effect.
We added a few cover lines around the front cover using the same font as the masthead, a white and yellow colour scheme and a glow effect around the text. The font was smaller than the main cover line but bigger than the issue number. The text on the left was aligned to the left and the text on the right was aligned to the right.
The last thing we did was add a banner at the bottom of the page, we thought adding in any more detail would crowd the front cover, we tried adding a graphic but there was no appropriate position for it so we decided to leave the front cover as it is. Also because we were short on time and everyone had finished both their covers and contents page so we decided to move on.
When making the contents page we became lazy, just like the front cover we used a black background and used the same rainbow gradient. To make it slightly different we flipped it and inversed the colours. We then used the same font in white as the font as the front cover to type out the paging.
The last thing we did was find an image of Nicole from PCD, we placed her on the layer under the text. She had a few white bits around her so I used the magic wand tool to erase it, and to finish of i used the blur tool to slightly blur the sharp images.We had finally completed our Photoshop and it was ready to print but when we did print we noticed that the main cover line was faded. We checked the Mac and there were no errors. The printer room was now locked so it was up to us to print it off again in our own time.
End products:
DIVERSE 07/10/09
In today’s lesson we continued to create our magazines. When we opened our work we thought that something looked wrong. We then thought that maybe it was because In today’s lesson we continued to create our magazines. When we opened our work we thought that something looked wrong. We then thought that maybe it was because we hadn’t added any text such as, straplines, cover lines, main cover lines and so on.
When we added in the text we found it difficult picking a colour that didn’t clash with the background. Our background image was a multi-coloured graffiti wall. Seeing as the wall already had writing on it, we felt it was too much of a headache to try and use a bold font over it. So we went onto Google to search for another graffitied wall, but then we ended up giving up on the idea of using an urban graffiti theme all together.
We were back to square to one. Now all we had was an image that we had previously edited the colour of the red top to grey scale. We felt the pressure when we saw how much the other group’s magazines had progressed. We were unaware of long we had left to complete this project so all we tried to speed things up. I and my partner failed to find an image that suited our magazine so we decided to create our own background.
The first thing we did after selecting a black background was pick the gradient tool; we picked rainbows colours and narrowed the colours down to pink, grey and red. We picked the circle option and drew a large circle in the background. We then enlarged the scale so the circle was too big for the page; this is because we wanted the semi circle look. Then we skewed the rainbow so the top left half was thin and the bottom right half was bigger. This was to make it look like the rainbow was approaching from afar. Finally we changed the opacity to 60%.
Now that we had a main image and background we could add a Masthead, we all agreed to name our magazine Diverse. We picked a font called Crush (I think) and thought it would be a good idea to make it white so that it stands off the black background. The Masthead was positioned behind the main image and stretched so it fills up the top of the page.
This was all we managed to get done the whole lesson. On the positive side, we now knew what we were doing for next lesson so hopefully we would be done for the deadline.hadn’t added any text such as, straplines, cover lines, main cover lines and so on.
When getting round to adding we the text we found it difficult picking a colour that didn’t clash with the background. Our background image was a multi-coloured graffiti wall. Seeing as the wall already had writing on it, we felt it was too much of a headache to try and use a bold font over it. So we went onto Google to search for another graffitied wall, but then we ended up giving up on the idea of using an urban graffiti theme all together.
We were back to square to one. Now all we had was an image that we had previously edited the colour of the red top to grey scale. We felt the pressure when we saw how much the other group’s magazines had progressed. We were unaware of long we had left to complete this project so all we tried to speed things up. I and my partner failed to find an image that suited our magazine so we decided to create our own background.
The first thing we did after selecting a black background was pick the gradient tool; we picked rainbows colours and narrowed the colours down to pink, grey and red. We picked the circle option and drew a large circle in the background. We then enlarged the scale so the circle was too big for the page; this is because we wanted the semi circle look. Then we skewed the rainbow so the top left half was thin and the bottom right half was bigger. This was to make it look like the rainbow was approaching from afar. Finally we changed the opacity to 60%.
Now that we had a main image and background we could add a Masthead, we all agreed to name our magazine Diverse. We picked a font called Crush (I think) and thought it would be a good idea
to make it white so that it stands off the black background. The Masthead was positioned behind the main image and stretched so it fills up the top of the page.
This was all we managed to get done the whole lesson. On the positive side, we now knew what we were doing for next lesson so hopefully we would be done for the deadline.
When we added in the text we found it difficult picking a colour that didn’t clash with the background. Our background image was a multi-coloured graffiti wall. Seeing as the wall already had writing on it, we felt it was too much of a headache to try and use a bold font over it. So we went onto Google to search for another graffitied wall, but then we ended up giving up on the idea of using an urban graffiti theme all together.
We were back to square to one. Now all we had was an image that we had previously edited the colour of the red top to grey scale. We felt the pressure when we saw how much the other group’s magazines had progressed. We were unaware of long we had left to complete this project so all we tried to speed things up. I and my partner failed to find an image that suited our magazine so we decided to create our own background.
The first thing we did after selecting a black background was pick the gradient tool; we picked rainbows colours and narrowed the colours down to pink, grey and red. We picked the circle option and drew a large circle in the background. We then enlarged the scale so the circle was too big for the page; this is because we wanted the semi circle look. Then we skewed the rainbow so the top left half was thin and the bottom right half was bigger. This was to make it look like the rainbow was approaching from afar. Finally we changed the opacity to 60%.
Now that we had a main image and background we could add a Masthead, we all agreed to name our magazine Diverse. We picked a font called Crush (I think) and thought it would be a good idea to make it white so that it stands off the black background. The Masthead was positioned behind the main image and stretched so it fills up the top of the page.
This was all we managed to get done the whole lesson. On the positive side, we now knew what we were doing for next lesson so hopefully we would be done for the deadline.hadn’t added any text such as, straplines, cover lines, main cover lines and so on.
When getting round to adding we the text we found it difficult picking a colour that didn’t clash with the background. Our background image was a multi-coloured graffiti wall. Seeing as the wall already had writing on it, we felt it was too much of a headache to try and use a bold font over it. So we went onto Google to search for another graffitied wall, but then we ended up giving up on the idea of using an urban graffiti theme all together.
We were back to square to one. Now all we had was an image that we had previously edited the colour of the red top to grey scale. We felt the pressure when we saw how much the other group’s magazines had progressed. We were unaware of long we had left to complete this project so all we tried to speed things up. I and my partner failed to find an image that suited our magazine so we decided to create our own background.
The first thing we did after selecting a black background was pick the gradient tool; we picked rainbows colours and narrowed the colours down to pink, grey and red. We picked the circle option and drew a large circle in the background. We then enlarged the scale so the circle was too big for the page; this is because we wanted the semi circle look. Then we skewed the rainbow so the top left half was thin and the bottom right half was bigger. This was to make it look like the rainbow was approaching from afar. Finally we changed the opacity to 60%.
Now that we had a main image and background we could add a Masthead, we all agreed to name our magazine Diverse. We picked a font called Crush (I think) and thought it would be a good idea
to make it white so that it stands off the black background. The Masthead was positioned behind the main image and stretched so it fills up the top of the page.
This was all we managed to get done the whole lesson. On the positive side, we now knew what we were doing for next lesson so hopefully we would be done for the deadline.
Wednesday, 8 October 2008
06/10/08
This lesson was a lot more productive me and Yarohey decided to work with what we had. Surprisingly we got a lot done, we figured out what our main cover image would be and the name of the magazine, which we decided would be called "Diverse" because we would be creating a new genre and it was quite different from everything that is out there at the moment. We also after a long time figured out what background would look best behind the main cover image we decided on a brick wall to show that our magazine had an urban feel to it. Once we had our brick wall we resized and then dragged it on to our cover, rearranged the layers and voila we had a background.
Most of our time this lesson was spent lassoing the main image we wanted out of its background, which was extremely time consuming. What we had try to do befor was to use the magic wand but because we had ignored well given advice and chose to take our pictures anywhere but on a blank canvas this proved to be impossible. So Mary told us that we would have to use the lassoo, which worked in the end thankfully.
Due to not having many images to work with we then decided to make the issue a violinists issue because most of the pictures took were with violins, this I think worked to our advantage because I was aware of many artists who were "street violinists" so fitted in with the genre that we had created and could be included in the magazine.
All in all, it was a better lesson than last week because we actually done something, hopefully next lesson will be just as productive.
Most of our time this lesson was spent lassoing the main image we wanted out of its background, which was extremely time consuming. What we had try to do befor was to use the magic wand but because we had ignored well given advice and chose to take our pictures anywhere but on a blank canvas this proved to be impossible. So Mary told us that we would have to use the lassoo, which worked in the end thankfully.
Due to not having many images to work with we then decided to make the issue a violinists issue because most of the pictures took were with violins, this I think worked to our advantage because I was aware of many artists who were "street violinists" so fitted in with the genre that we had created and could be included in the magazine.
All in all, it was a better lesson than last week because we actually done something, hopefully next lesson will be just as productive.
Tuesday, 7 October 2008
Last lesson-magazine making
Last lesson my group got to work pretty quick. Pebbles and I realised we had a lot to do and set off to finish off what we almost started.
We started off by trying to wand the main cover image out of the canvas, but it was not working very well. Once we tried many times, Mary (our other teacher) gave us an idea of lassoing the image. Once we tried that it started to work. We both took turns in lassoing the image and then dragged it to the blank A4 canvas.
Now we had our main cover image centre in the right position. We thought of ideas for the background. Once our ideas sprang to mind, we thought of a brick wall. We resized the image, dragged it to our magazine canvas, and then rearranged the layers so it showed.
Thinking about ideas, we became thinking of doing a violin edition to our urban classical music genre. We thought of ideas, and decided to use Adaggio- a street violinist for the insert. One we made up our minds, we lassoed him out of his background image and then position him.
After, we thought of the name for our magazine, choose a font, and colour. We finished our lesson much happier with our results, and buzzing with ideas for the next lesson. The next lesson on Thursday will hopefully be a continuation of your great ideas.
We started off by trying to wand the main cover image out of the canvas, but it was not working very well. Once we tried many times, Mary (our other teacher) gave us an idea of lassoing the image. Once we tried that it started to work. We both took turns in lassoing the image and then dragged it to the blank A4 canvas.
Now we had our main cover image centre in the right position. We thought of ideas for the background. Once our ideas sprang to mind, we thought of a brick wall. We resized the image, dragged it to our magazine canvas, and then rearranged the layers so it showed.
Thinking about ideas, we became thinking of doing a violin edition to our urban classical music genre. We thought of ideas, and decided to use Adaggio- a street violinist for the insert. One we made up our minds, we lassoed him out of his background image and then position him.
After, we thought of the name for our magazine, choose a font, and colour. We finished our lesson much happier with our results, and buzzing with ideas for the next lesson. The next lesson on Thursday will hopefully be a continuation of your great ideas.
Thursday, 2 October 2008
Recap - Thursday 25-09-08
1) We had an intro to magazines and looked at the sub-genres of consumer lifestyle magazines. The class was split into groups according to the seating.
My group came to the conclusion that the reader of MOJO would be a rock/soul rock music fan, this was because of the genre of the magazine. The main theme (from this issue) is dark which reflects the attitude of rock stars.
We decided to stereotype the reader a little. We came to the conclusion the targeted audience earns high income due the expensive price of the magazine. They own a Harley Davidson bike, live in an apartment, drink Budweiser, watch channels such as Kerrang and eat food like spaghetti hoops.
We then did audience profiling and each person had to write a typical day of the readers life based on the types of the articles and advertisements within the magazine.
Lastly, in groups read through practical brief & then planned our own magazines ready for next lesson.
After the class learnt about different types of sub genres from consumer lifestyle magazines each group was to allocated to a certain magazine sub genre. We learnt that there are many sub genres of consumer lifestyle such as, music, health, home interest and my groups topic, men and style. We were given FHM magazine.
We were given sheets with questions on it to test our knowledge of the magazines target audience. Question one asked us how old the typical reader would be and gender, we decided that it would be males from the ages of 19-40. We guessed that the magazine had a wide age ranged audience. And that any male older than 40 would be to occupied to read this magazine.
We were asked about other things such as there education, what they were aspired to be, what there income would be, what they do for a living and what they do in there spare time. We decided that it is targeted at men with a basic education as the majority of the magazine contained images. They were aspired to be single free willed men, we stereotyped have a career as a bulider or as such, low-medium income in there spare time go the pub, bookies, club etc...
My group came to the conclusion that the reader of MOJO would be a rock/soul rock music fan, this was because of the genre of the magazine. The main theme (from this issue) is dark which reflects the attitude of rock stars.
We decided to stereotype the reader a little. We came to the conclusion the targeted audience earns high income due the expensive price of the magazine. They own a Harley Davidson bike, live in an apartment, drink Budweiser, watch channels such as Kerrang and eat food like spaghetti hoops.
We then did audience profiling and each person had to write a typical day of the readers life based on the types of the articles and advertisements within the magazine.
Lastly, in groups read through practical brief & then planned our own magazines ready for next lesson.
Recap on Last weeks lesson
Thursday 25th September,
Last week’s lesson,
We then looked at the sub-genres of consumer lifestyle magazines, my group was given MOJO magazine and we analysed the front cover to indentify the masthead, main images, text boxes etc. We then done an audience profiling and wrote a typical day in the reader life based on what articles and advertisements that was in the magazine.
First off we were put into groups, according to where we were sitting. There after, we were introduced to the assignment, which involved magazines. The class learnt about different types of sub genres from consumer lifestyle magazines. There are many genres which are in the category of consumer lifestyle, are women’s glossy, music, men and style, health and home interest.
Each group was then allocated its own sub-genre to analyse. My group got men and style, we looked at FHM magazine and did some audience profiling. We were given tasks sheets to write into our opinions of the magazines audiences.
We decided the age of the reader would be from 20's- 40's. As audiences ranged from those ages would be interesting in that sort of magazine. Men older then 40 would be too pre-occupied with their lives, and families to be reading those types of magazines.
We then looked at the typed of education needed to read the magazine, and decided that only basic education was needed. We found this to be the answer as the magazine was mainly based around pictures.
The topics in the magazine gave away the audience to be masculine men who enjoy football, cars and generally girls.
Their income would not have to be too high though, just enough for them to be able to purchase the magazine. We were then asked to give the majority audience an occupation, we stereo-typically chose builders. We chose builders as they have a lot of spare time between break, to read magazines-plus it went with the builders’ stereotypical 'profile'.
Later we went on to the introduction of music magazines. The whole class then together based a profile on what was need in all magazines. Later, we learnt new terms incorporated in the magazine like mast head, strap lines and more that identified ideas we came up with. Then the class analysed the front cover of Music magazine, looking if all we named on the board appeared on the magazine.
With that if mind we went back to our groups and analysed different front covers of music magazines. Our group was given MOJO magazine to analyse and do some audience profiling on.
We found that the MOJO reader would be a rock/soul music lover, as that was the main genres put across in the magazine. The reader would have to have some education to read the magazine just above basic skills, and maybe some education in music terminology. The reader would have to have a well paid job as the magazine was quite expensive. Also, if they were a regular reader the price would soon take its toll. The reader would stereotypically drive a VW mini van, be free willed and love eating spaghetti hoops. Something about that just rang rock, and roll -I guess.
With the audience profiling done, we then individually came up with stories for a typical day in the life of a MOJO reader.
Lastly in groups we did some small planning for our own music magazines, for next lesson.
25/09/08
In todays lesson we first looked at different genres of magazines the one that we looked at in depth was lifestyle magazines and the sub-genres within that genre such as, men and style (FHM), women's glossy (Vogue), Home interest (Good Housekeeping), celebrity weekly (OK!), and a woman's weekly (Woman).
We were then put into groups,each group was given a different sub-genre to do an audience profile on, my group was given men and style. We decided that the typical reader would be between the ages of 18 and early 40s because at the age of 18 boys are becoming men so want to read specific magazines which appeal to them and we put the limit at early 40s because by that age they should be settling down and thinking about family.
We thought that the occupation of a typical reader would be something practical and hands on like a builder because you don't really need much interlect to read FHM because it is mainly pictures and not many written articles. We also thought that the main ambitions of a typical reader would to basically be like Hugh Heffner, to own a huge house and fancy cars and have trophy girlfriends.
After the audience profiling we then went on to the attributes that make up a front cover such as, mast heads, sell lines, banners, barcodes, issue number, etc. Bearing this in mind we was then asked to annotate and do an audience profile on a music magazine cover. My group was given MOJO. We decided that the music in which the average MOJO reader would be into would be mostly rock music we also thought that the stereotypical reader would have to have some kind of money coming in because the magazine was quite expensive so to be a regular reader you would have to have a good, stable job. We also thought that the typical reader would have a VW campervan and eat alphabetty spaghetti.
With this done we then went on to think about what we was going to do with our magazine covers.
Lesson 25th September (louisa)
In this lesson we were put into groups and looked at different sub-genres of consumer lifestyle magazines such as women's glossy, music, men and style, health and home interest. My group were given FHM magazine to analyse, we identified its genre as being a men and style and discussed that the eldest their reader would be a 40 year old male as they would of been in a relationship or had a family by then and therefore would not find the magazine appealing to them, we said that the men reading the magazine find it interesting because the women that are shown in the picture are the type of women that they aspire to be with, we also recognised that an FHM reader would not need to have a high level of education as most the pages contained pictures.
We then looked at different genres of music magazines, my group was given MOJO that had the picture of Queen as their main cover image and we analysed the front cover to identify and learn cover terminology such as the masthead, main cover images, cover lines etc. We were then given a target and audience analysis sheet which contained questions that we then used to do an audience profiling. We also used this information to write a short story about the typical day in the reader life based on what articles and advertisements that was in the magazine.
We then looked at different genres of music magazines, my group was given MOJO that had the picture of Queen as their main cover image and we analysed the front cover to identify and learn cover terminology such as the masthead, main cover images, cover lines etc. We were then given a target and audience analysis sheet which contained questions that we then used to do an audience profiling. We also used this information to write a short story about the typical day in the reader life based on what articles and advertisements that was in the magazine.
Photoshop Tutorial 02/10/08
Had photoshop tutorial today to work out the whole photoshop thing with Mickey. Played around with how to open documents, how to include text and changing the font, transposing, putting colours in and different gradients, cropping, putting objects in, how to change layers and just general photo manipulation. All seems pretty easy really after that, woohoo! So now I feel quite confident with how I am going to use photoshop for my magazine cover.
The second half of the lesson we used to get started on our own music magazine covers. Nothing really productive happened with me and my group this half of the lesson because we didn't feel like we had the right pictures for what genre of magazine we were doing, so spent most of the lesson dwelling on it instead of trying to fix it.
The second half of the lesson we used to get started on our own music magazine covers. Nothing really productive happened with me and my group this half of the lesson because we didn't feel like we had the right pictures for what genre of magazine we were doing, so spent most of the lesson dwelling on it instead of trying to fix it.
Photoshop Tutorial
h 2nd lesson, on music magazine.
1st Half of the lesson- Photoshop tutorial today, on cropping, blending, ....etc
The AS Media lesson started with a Photoshop tutorial for everyone. Some people had better abilities than others, but we all learnt something new. The first task was to work our ways around the Mac's as not everyone had used one before. For me it was not too bad, as i have used a Mac before. The only thing that was weird, was probably not being able to right click.
Once we all got to Adobe Photoshop we started by filling the blank file. It was straight forward double clicking to get the right colour, and clicking to fill the page. After, we practiced inserting text boxes, choosing fonts, overlaying fonts and moving it around.
Later, we imported images and dragged a image into a another. We also used gradients, practiced dragging images into others (layering), cropping images.
Second half of the lesson
We went onto the Macs' to start our magazines.
It was difficult in the beginning as navigating around minimising the screen began to stress me out. After much trying Louisa (our teacher) came in and saved me much frustration. My partner was Pebbles. Once we minimised the screen, we dragged the pictures into Photoshop and tried to get to work.
Now that the pictures were in Photoshop, Pebbles and I decided on which picture to use as our main cover image. After much deliberating we came to one picture.
Feeling happy with ourselves we tried dragging the image to our canvas but it was not working. it would either come up white, not appear at all or appear smaller than expected.
Again, we found difficulties with the Photoshop software resizing tools. We tried everything from resizing the image to trying a new canvas. But it just was not working.
Louisa then came over to try and help us out, but she too was having difficulties.
We then felt we should work on the background for a while, whilst leaving the picture for later. Pebbles and I decided on a gradient (red and Black) for the background. It looked good for a moment, but it just was not working. It didn't look right, so we went back to the main cover image.
We tried again with the resizing but had just about no luck. Then we got some help from Lousia, but she too couldn't get the image perfect.
I spoke to one of the girls in the other group on our problem, and she explained a little something to me about Photoshop. I then with her words, did as she said. And Voila! It worked, then we began cropping out pieces of the image. Then using the cut out tool, we cut out the main image from the background to our A4 canvas.
The lesson ended with my group barely starting any work. It began to stress me how much work we had not completed, in the space of time. It just went to show, you think you know it all when you actually don't.
My aim for next lesson is to try and get a whole lot more done, our group needs to catch up. Fast!
1st Half of the lesson- Photoshop tutorial today, on cropping, blending, ....etc
The AS Media lesson started with a Photoshop tutorial for everyone. Some people had better abilities than others, but we all learnt something new. The first task was to work our ways around the Mac's as not everyone had used one before. For me it was not too bad, as i have used a Mac before. The only thing that was weird, was probably not being able to right click.
Once we all got to Adobe Photoshop we started by filling the blank file. It was straight forward double clicking to get the right colour, and clicking to fill the page. After, we practiced inserting text boxes, choosing fonts, overlaying fonts and moving it around.
Later, we imported images and dragged a image into a another. We also used gradients, practiced dragging images into others (layering), cropping images.
Second half of the lesson
We went onto the Macs' to start our magazines.
It was difficult in the beginning as navigating around minimising the screen began to stress me out. After much trying Louisa (our teacher) came in and saved me much frustration. My partner was Pebbles. Once we minimised the screen, we dragged the pictures into Photoshop and tried to get to work.
Now that the pictures were in Photoshop, Pebbles and I decided on which picture to use as our main cover image. After much deliberating we came to one picture.
Feeling happy with ourselves we tried dragging the image to our canvas but it was not working. it would either come up white, not appear at all or appear smaller than expected.
Again, we found difficulties with the Photoshop software resizing tools. We tried everything from resizing the image to trying a new canvas. But it just was not working.
Louisa then came over to try and help us out, but she too was having difficulties.
We then felt we should work on the background for a while, whilst leaving the picture for later. Pebbles and I decided on a gradient (red and Black) for the background. It looked good for a moment, but it just was not working. It didn't look right, so we went back to the main cover image.
We tried again with the resizing but had just about no luck. Then we got some help from Lousia, but she too couldn't get the image perfect.
I spoke to one of the girls in the other group on our problem, and she explained a little something to me about Photoshop. I then with her words, did as she said. And Voila! It worked, then we began cropping out pieces of the image. Then using the cut out tool, we cut out the main image from the background to our A4 canvas.
The lesson ended with my group barely starting any work. It began to stress me how much work we had not completed, in the space of time. It just went to show, you think you know it all when you actually don't.
My aim for next lesson is to try and get a whole lot more done, our group needs to catch up. Fast!
Lesson 2nd October (Photoshop)
In the first half of the lesson we spent time on the Mac's doing a Photoshop tutorial session, where Mickey firstly showed us how to add colour and change their effects, add shapes and text to a blank page. He then got us to transpose an image of a butterfly into a image of a light bulb and then after that he got us to cut out an image of a person an add to a picture of tower bridge to make it look like they were there. I also learnt how to use layering effectively and change the order of text. We were then showed where to blog our work, so I then wrote one for a previous lesson.
For the second part of the lesson we got into pairs and worked on our magazine front covers. Me and my partner looked through and selected one of our photos, this was hard as our photos that we taken weren't as good as we thought they were, so we attempted to send photos from my partners phone to the Macs but that idea still didn't work so we stuck to our original image and put it against a graffiti style background. By the end of the lesson we hadn't got very far and decided to name our magazine HUSH.
For the second part of the lesson we got into pairs and worked on our magazine front covers. Me and my partner looked through and selected one of our photos, this was hard as our photos that we taken weren't as good as we thought they were, so we attempted to send photos from my partners phone to the Macs but that idea still didn't work so we stuck to our original image and put it against a graffiti style background. By the end of the lesson we hadn't got very far and decided to name our magazine HUSH.
Using Photoshop Elements
Today at college in my first half of my AS Media Studies lesson we had a Photoshop tutorial, we learnt the basic things such as opening a new document, photo manipulation, transposing, cropping, cutting etc...
I have experience with using iMacs so I was able to play around with the software while the others listened to instructions.
The first thing we did was open the software using a blank A4 size page. Then we were told how to add colour, text and shapes to the page.
Secondly we were told to open up two pictures and transpose them together.
Our third task was to use cut out the background of a member staffs picture and add it to an image of Tower Bridge, this was useful as most people would want the background different for their magazines. I myself and a few other people in my class knew how to do this, so I helped my group partner add text as she was having trouble with the layers.
Because we had finished the tutorial early than expected we were told how to log on to this website, we were told that we had to write a blog for everything we did during lessons.
For the second half of the lesson we got into our pairs and logged onto the Macs to begin to start creating our magazine front covers. Me and my group found it difficult to work with, it was almost impossible to work with considering we had so little images to work with. Me and my partner managed to work around the problem but we were still unhappy with our work. We know we are capable off creating a high standard of work but we feel like failures. When we were told we only had one more lesson to complete our work we thought it was all over. I remembered that I had some more pictures on my phone and tried to bluetooth them onto the Mac but failed to find them on the system due to restricted password access.
We were even undeceive on picking a title/genre for our magazine, we thought that maybe if we picked a title we could create everything according to the title/genre, but it looked like we would just have to compromise.
The lesson ended and my group had completed the least amount of work. Me and Nicole got as far as applying the main image to a graffiti background. I'm not quite sure how far the other half of the group got.
I have experience with using iMacs so I was able to play around with the software while the others listened to instructions.
The first thing we did was open the software using a blank A4 size page. Then we were told how to add colour, text and shapes to the page.
Secondly we were told to open up two pictures and transpose them together.
Our third task was to use cut out the background of a member staffs picture and add it to an image of Tower Bridge, this was useful as most people would want the background different for their magazines. I myself and a few other people in my class knew how to do this, so I helped my group partner add text as she was having trouble with the layers.
Because we had finished the tutorial early than expected we were told how to log on to this website, we were told that we had to write a blog for everything we did during lessons.
For the second half of the lesson we got into our pairs and logged onto the Macs to begin to start creating our magazine front covers. Me and my group found it difficult to work with, it was almost impossible to work with considering we had so little images to work with. Me and my partner managed to work around the problem but we were still unhappy with our work. We know we are capable off creating a high standard of work but we feel like failures. When we were told we only had one more lesson to complete our work we thought it was all over. I remembered that I had some more pictures on my phone and tried to bluetooth them onto the Mac but failed to find them on the system due to restricted password access.
We were even undeceive on picking a title/genre for our magazine, we thought that maybe if we picked a title we could create everything according to the title/genre, but it looked like we would just have to compromise.
The lesson ended and my group had completed the least amount of work. Me and Nicole got as far as applying the main image to a graffiti background. I'm not quite sure how far the other half of the group got.
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