Evaluation - question 2

Conclusion

Overall I am content with how my final product has come together, personally I believe that the production of 'Vibes' has been successful due to how it has been constructed in order to fit the target audience's demographic and psychographics. Also because of the way in which it follows conventions of the alternative genre through visual elements and content. I feel like I have learnt a lot through this process, acquiring skills that have enabled me to create a fairly realistic final product consisting of a front cover, contents page and double page spread. I really appreciate the end result and feel as though it would appeal greatly to me if it were genuine.

Evaluation - question 3

Final product

Evaluation - question 6

Question 6: What have you learnt about the technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I was at a slight advantage when it came to photography skills, being an AS photography student and owning a high quality DSLR camera. However during the process of constructing my music magazine I learnt a lot about portrait photography and how to create an effective, striking image. This would obviously be a significant skill to have as pictures are such a key aspect within any kind of magazine. I learnt about the importance of framing, camera shots and angles, which can alter how the subject comes across - you can easily manipulate how the model is portrayed through these techniques. I also learnt about the importance of how the model is styled for the shoot, the connotations of their hair/makeup/costume and how it reflects the chosen genre.

 Initially I struggled with using photoshop to construct my magazine, finding it complicated and confusing. Throughout this process I gained experience which has helped me use photoshop with ease and gain a wider knowledge of its many helpful features. I was used to making minimal alterations with contrast, levels etc in photography, although had never placed text or other images on top of the original picture. I found myself frequently applying the shape tool to create boxes around text, a convention of music magazines that is used to highlight particular cover lines. I also obtained an understanding of the function of layers, this allowed me to briefly experiment with borders on my front cover. I recognised that it was typical to modify the masthead in order to bring the subject's face to the foreground, so decided to do this to give a more professional feel. It took me a while to realise it simply required erasing parts of the text rather than the complex method of copying layers, rasterizing them and so on.

 I faced many challenges in photoshop whilst creating my final product, I realised I could not adjust the size of any images that were placed on top of my original picture - for example the bar code label, and ended up having to work with the sizes on offer. I still haven't overcome this particular issue. To begin with I was not aware that on each occasion that you wanted to develop the content of a text box you would have to select that layer, this interfered with the production of my project as it was time consuming at first - some times it was difficult to find the corresponding layer. I couldn't figure out which tool was used for airbrushing to correct blemishes and give a more sophisticated appearance. I overcame this problem with trial and error. Overall, photoshop is a very useful and fairly simplistic programme as long as you are patient and willing to spend time working out the functions it has to offer.

 As well as digital photography, photoshop and inDesign attempts I used the blogging website, Blogger that enabled me to present all of my work in an orderly, structured manner. I have learnt about how to embed content from various other websites such as Slide share and Prezi. It helped me to understand how to create pages that were detailed yet easy to follow.

Evaluation - question 7

Question 7 - Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

This project began with the production of a preliminary task, this involved simply constructing a front cover and contents page for a fabricated college magazine. This acted as an introduction to photoshop and the processes of creating a magazine. It also helped me begin to understand what is conventional in terms of content/visual aspects of the format, despite the genre being irrelevant to my project.

Now that I have the opportunity to reflect of my previous work and compare it with my more recent final product, it is evident how I have improved throughout the process. The most noticeable difference between my two magazines at first glance would be the lack of cover lines on both front cover and contents page, along with overly simplistic language and subject matter that clearly didn't have much thought put in to it. Whereas the cover lines in my music magazine have been devised in a way that aims to compel and excite the reader, plus I had taken time to brainstorm a variety of ideas that would capture the target audiences attention. This is a good example of how I have acquired organisational and creative skills. A similarity I observed was the way in which I have used a range of corresponding fonts consistently (same applies to the colour scheme), so it seems that I have always understood the significance of establishing an easily identifiable brand identity. In the second section of the project I used technologies such as high quality DSLR cameras and photoshop to a much more efficient degree: I feel as though this comes across visibly due to the fact that the images used in my final product have a more slick, professional look. Plus the lack of text boxes etc within my previous work - back when I was unaware of the many useful features that photoshop had to offer. I feel that I now have a much more extensive knowledge of what is typical in any genre of magazine, for example in my first front cover a medium/long shot has been used, this automatically creates a distance between the audience and cover star, rather than addressing the audience with a close up shot and direct eye contact. I am content with the considerable amount of progress I have exhibited in this process, especially in terms of creativity and becoming well acquainted with necessary technical processes, but the preliminary task was key to developing these skills.

DPS improvements

A few friends looked at my work so far and suggested that I position my text more equally and to add more colour. I added text below the smaller images to advertise the magazine's website, this encourages the audience to interact and get involved which is suitable due to the age demographic who frequently use technology on a daily basis stereotypically. This persuades readers to look at a particular media format on a more modern, advanced platform. The use of convergent media further promotes the artist whilst giving fans the opportunity to find out more about her.

After further feedback I tried to improve my DPS, I feel that the second attempt is far more successful as the images are now more varied (and larger). I decreased the size of the left hand picture so it appeared to be more in proportion with the other page. Also small details such as the 'R' and the masthead in the top right hand corner now look more inconspicuous thus more natural.