Original vs Edit

Original vs Edit

This is the original photo vs the edited version. As you can see not much has been changed as I felt the original had lighting that worked well, however I did alter her slightly to make this image more bold and professional looking.

This is the group original against the the edited. I felt this image was quite orange due to the lightning and i felt that for this image to work it need to be bold and stand out. I added an effect to bring out the background colour.





This is my last photo that I had edited as I had already decided that this image would be my front cover photo. This image i felt like the first did not need much editing. I decided that may 'models' lips needed to be bolder and stand out in the picture.






All edited on PicMonkey.

Image choices

Image Choices



Front Page Image

After taking my pictures I decided to narrow it down to my final choice of pictures that I would be using in my magazine. I chose these photos because I felt they fitted the magazine conventions that I want my magazine to relate to.


Contents Page Image



Double Page Spread Image










Inspiration

Location of Photos

Double Page Spread - Plan

Double Page Spread Plan

Double Page Spread

This is a quick digital plan i made of my double page spread. I decided a big and bold title would be appropriate for this and the artists name would be in a larger font to draw attention. I decided that i would make my double page spread an interview from a rock artist as from my research i found that interview were a common and informative way that magazines present their double page spread.

 I plan to have my image very similar to this and I plan to achieve this by using the rule of thirds. This means that the picture will become more interesting and will become the main focus of this page. This however I feel is a traditional magazine convention including the layout, having the interview in columns makes the interview in a more creative layout but still understandable. I plan to sculpt the writing closest to the image around the artist so the writing is clear and in a appropriate font. 

I decided that i would use a bold line to separate the title from the interview. I feel this adds colour to the page but does not become a distraction.

Contents Page - Plan

Contents Page Plan

Contents Page

This is a quick digital plan that i made of my contents plan. I decided that i would have the words 'What's Inside?' in a different colour and font to help it do stand out the the readers. I felt that the words 'What's Inside' give it a more usual but simple title rather than the traditional 'Contents' that it commonly placed across the top of the page. This like the cover lines on the front cover plan i made defy some magazine conventions helping to ensure it stands out. 

I deicded that i would have a large picture covering a big portion of the page to help show the taste and genre of music and also what type of rock artist that this magazine includes helping the readers to decided if they will enjoy this magazine or not and if it is to their taste in music.

I have chosen to include smaller pictures of similar rock artist to catch the attention of reader and hopefully this will help persuade them to invest in this magazine. I chose cover lines inside of what i thought readers would be looking for after researching and browsing through a number of different styles of magazine but primarily rock music magazines.

Front Cover - Plan

Cover Page

This is a quick digital plan i made out my cover page. I decided that the cover page photo would stretch over the entire page with the masthead overlapping, this will help to attract the readers attention and hopefully mean that they are influenced to buy and read the magazine.

I decided that it would look good to make the cover lines fame the outsides of the photo meaning that the audience would get a good view of the artist on the cover and would also draw attention to them. However, now that i have made the digital plan I have realized that more experimentation is needed in the position of the cover lines as i feel that having them in a 'border' around the photo is a magazine convention and i would like some of the aspects of my magazine to defy some of these conventions to help separate it from other magazines.

Photo-shoot - Group Shots

Group Shots

This is the first group photo I took. I asked my 'models' to dress how they would expect a rock band to be dressed. For example, in all black and/or band merchandise. Before the photo-shoot I researched rock band poses that I could get my models to recreate. I noticed that many band members liked to use the peace sign when posing in a photo-shoot. I decided that I would get one of my 'models' to do this, I also noticed that a normal rock photo convention is that a band member will swear at the camera almost like a protest.

On the second photo I decided that I will have two of my 'models' pose with the peace sign just to give me different ways of rock style posing. I decided that I would mix up the order of my models to see if it would impact the way that the photo makes me feel. I decided that my final model will be kept casual which would give off the impression that they do not care, that they are a care free person.

On this photo I decided that my 'models' would all act casual in this photo. I thought that this would be a good idea as it would make my 'models' seem less formal meaning that my magazine would be less formal. This is good as it means that I can write in a more casual way and it will help to attract the younger. I decided to keep the same order with my 'models' as I felt it was better with the taller two at the sides and the smaller 'model' in the middle. This helps to draw attention to them.

 This is the forth photo I took. I decided to change the positions of my models completely in this photo it see how it would work out. I quickly researched beforehand some classic band poses and this was one. The classic pose of one band member bending over and the others leaning on them worked well I think. I thought that this photo fits well into the magazine conventions of a band photo shoot. I decided I would rearrange the band again so i could get a range of different photo's with different orders.

This is the last group photo i took. I remembered the mantra "Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil. I decided this would be a good thing to play with during this photo. I decided as there are three things and i have three 'models' that it would be appropriate for them to each have a part of the mantra. I also made the decision that i would have my 'models' pose in height order.

Photography

Photography

After searching the internet and scouring the web for ideas and tips about how to take a good photo for a magazine. I have learnt that different angles specifically a low angle gives a good, professional for a magazine cover. I also need to consider the lighting when taking my photo as a dark or unusually bright photo can mean its difficult to see and difficult to edit. I have learnt that taking various shots is important as then you have a lot of shots within the same style to choose from. I will lock the focus when taking these shots as a blurred photo will be useless to me unless it is the style I want in my magazine. However, in this case it is not. 

Another tip I found on the internet a the Rule of Thirds.  Google defines the rule of third's as aligning a subject with the guide lines and their intersection points, placing the horizon on the top or bottom line, or allowing linear features in the image to flow from section to section. This image is an example of the rule of third. The lens is split into nine sections, the point of these sections is that instead on targeting the main focal point in the middle of the image you instead focus it in one of the thirds. This creates a more interesting photo to the reader that draws there interest to a different part of the image.

Editing

Editing

Before I took my photo's I decided to practice my skills at editing photo. I chose to do this on PicMonkey. I start off with this image of Avril Lavigne which I found on Google images.

I decided that I would adjust the brightness on this image slightly. This gave the image a more glossy magazine look.

I used an effect called HDR which enhanced some of the colour in the image. I gave Avril a Lip Tint which enhanced to colour of her lips and made them stand out more clearer. I used eyebrow shade and eye shadow to make her eyes pop out with some additional makeup effects.

The result of all of this editing was this:

B.A.S.S. - planing my magazine

Target Audience

Target Audience

When I think about the average target audience music magazine's get  I would immediately think of teens or young adults. However, depending on the magazine and the genre it has become known that adults and people of an older generation are also likely to buy a music magazine.

After looking over the statistics I have extracted for the National Readership Survey I can clearly see that there is a wide differentiation between some magazines. For example, Kerrang has a readership of 15-34 year old at about 192,000 where as its readership for over 35's is only 60,000. However, Q has a higher total of readers over 35.

I have decided I will try to aim my target audience towards teens and adults, young and old. I feel this will give me a wider range of music to express throughout my magazine. I also feel that if my target audience is wide that the type of music I can out into my magazine is more interesting.

Masthead

Masthead

When brainstorming ideas for my Masthead I decided to create a mind map to help me think of different areas of music I could involve in my masthead. In my mind map I included I range of things such as cliche's and contradictions of my genre of music.                                                       

In this brainstorm I thought about a colour scheme that would work for my masthead.  I thought about what colour would give the best impression of rock. I decided that to give an impression of rock the best colours to use would be Black, White or Red. I would decide further what colours to use when I had decided on a title and see what the results would look like.

Then I decided to think about what images come to mind when thinking about rock to help me decide what image to use as a backing image for my masthead. I thought about maybe using fire as a background but decided against it as it may give off a more violent vibe than I am looking for. Death plays quite an important part in the overall look of Rock. When I thought about including skulls or cross bones in my masthead I immediately disagreed with the thought as I felt it would draw to much attention away from the title and also make the magazine have more of an adult focus.

I also thought about what words I associate with Rock which may help me create a name for my magazine. I prefer the name B.A.S.S. that gives off the impression of Rock and music but does not apply to a specific audience which works for the magazine I am aiming to create. I thought about which other names could apply to my magazine. I also liked the name Disturbance as it gave off the impression of an abnormal type of music however I felt that the name itself was too long.

When I considered what cliches you normally associate with rock music I came with the idea of leather jackets, biker boots and long, black hair. All of these represent a cliche rock impression.

Next I decided to try out the name B.A.S.S. in different fonts, colours and with different backgrounds.  After choosing a font that I liked I decided to experiment with colours and backgrounds. As show I experimented with 4 colours - Black, White, Blue and Red. All of these colours I felt gave I rock impression. After experimenting with them I decided that I liked to feel the last example gave me about rock. So I have decided to use a black background with white text.

I decided to think of a backing image to insert to my masthead. After re looking at my brainstorm I choose an object that I thought reflected Rock. I choose a simple guitar that I felt would look good behind my writing to make my masthead more interesting. After a lot of editing and changes I have now decided on a masthead for my magazine.

This is my masthead. I decided to use black and white to give a hard core impression and flipped the S.S to have a more interesting choice of words. I also added my picture of a guitar and changed to colour so it became more faint. I am happy with the results.