Magazine Mock - Air brushing the main image

I have created a prezi containing the before and after of my main image for the front cover of my magazine after I air brushed the image. Please watch the following prezi.

Magazine Mock - Templates

 This is the layout to my front cover first draft, as you can see the masthead will be displayed across the top of the front cover, the main image will be centred in the middle of the page because of the "wanting to be the centre of attention" representation of rap artists.. There will be sell lines, and several features displayed across the page and they have been placed in these set positions because of my research. There is also a barcode in the bottom right corner because this is where it is placed in every single magazine that I have researched.

 This is the layout for the double page spread, as you can see I have put the main image on the left page covering the majority of the page because this is how double page spreads are designed in magazines of my chosen genre. There is also a quote from the artist in the bottom left corner because this is also a recurring theme in rap magazine's. The main image will take up the page to make the artist the centre of attention which is a representation of the rap genre. The headline will be displayed across the top of the page, another image of the artist on the right of the article and the article will be started with a drop capital to make it more appealing.

This will be the contents page of my magazine, the design of the layout is basic because there is not much that is on a contents page; because it's only purpose is to reveal the content of the magazine. The main image will be of another artist and this will be to the left of the features, a drop capital of the first letter of the masthead will be behind the image. I got this idea through my research and think that it makes the design look more professional. Then to the right of the page will be the features that reveal the content of the magazine, lastly the contents headline will be in the top right of the page so it does not conflict with the main image.

Magazine Picture Mock Analysis (iPhone Camera)

 This is the first picture that I have taken and this was to go on the front cover of my magazine. One of the bad things about this picture is that the light from the right of the person is too bright, and if I am to make this picture my front cover page I need one with dark lighting. Apart from that I think that the picture is good quality.

 This is the same pose and same person except that the lighting is much darker compared to the first picture. I think this is the best out of the two pictures because this has good quality and there is no bright lighting so the lighting looks dark/naturalistic. This will be the one that I use for the front cover of my first draft because this fits the genre more than the other picture I taken.

This is the first picture for my double page spread, I think this looks professional because there is the dark/naturalistic lighting as well from the image for the front cover; and the pose and facial expressions is exactly what I was trying to do when taking this picture. The quality of this picture is better than the double page spread image I had taken on the professional camera so I will be using this for my first draft.












This is the second image I am going to use for my double page spread and this is going to go next to the article. This has a similar pose to the first image for the double page spread but from a different angle. I think the pose and the facial expressions also match the genre as well as the quality is high compared to the professional camera.


Overall I am happy to use all of these images on my first draft of the music magazine and think that the images match the genre successfully.

Magazine Picture Mock Analysis (Professional Camera)

 These are the mock pictures I have taken for the first draft of my music magazine, I have taken these pictures using a Nikon camera to see if the quality of the pictures could be good enough for my magazine. The first picture is the one that I am going to use for the front cover, as you can see it can fit the genre of the magazine through his facial expressions and his body language. I took a medium shot so that the school pants was not visible in the picture and all images on front covers of magazines are medium shots.









This is the image I am going to use on my double page spread, once again through the lack of props the left person is not dressed for the part but aside from that it is a good picture. This is also lacking in quality because the image is quite blurred, both of them have followed what I said and have the arrogant look on their faces that is associated with artists in the rap genre. Next time I will have more props and experiment with different poses to see if I can make the picture look more suitable for my double page spread.

This image is going to be used for my contents page, I think this picture was turned out looking professional because the picture quality is of a high standard and the pose is something out of the box. I have also used a low angle on this shot and close to his face so he is center of attention which is a theme regarding images used in rap magazines. I think I will not change this image but might experiment with different angles and poses to see if anything else would be more suitable.

Planning for Music Magazines - Pictures

Taking the pictures is the most important thing in my opinion when creating a music magazine, because on the design I have in mind and because all other music magazines do this, your main image is pretty much the background of the front cover. If it does not look professional then there is no way that it will look like a successful music magazine. I think I could take professionally looking pictures using my smartphone because of the quality of the camera, it has features such as:

• True tone flash - two flashes are taken so the picture is not too bright and make the image look more natural
• Burst mode - takes ten photo's per second
• Auto image stabilization - prevents motion blur
• Panoramic shot - allows you to capture a wider shot

These features can help me when I am taking my images because it will prevent motion blur which happens when you shake the phone whilst trying to take a picture. Also there is a variety of effects to choose from after taking the picture so I can add effects to the picture without the help of Photoshop. This will help me because if I see an effect to use on my image that suits my house style it will be less time consuming than manipulating my image on Photoshop.

This video shows the comparison of the iPhone camera to a Canon 5D camera.

Planning for Music Magazine - Preparation

Now that we are close to creating our own music magazines, I need to now consider all the factors regarding my preparation. I will take my pictures in a group of five people including myself and they are Michael Hickey, Kasey Porter, Nathan Kearns and Lewis Webster. I have not decided which one will be on the front of my magazine but I will decide once all the pictures have been taken.

We will also be using several props to make the magazine more professional because I am going to have to use clothes that suit my chosen genre. The lighting and the background will also have to be evaluated when taking my pictures but this will all be decided in the coming weeks.

This is an example of a professional music magazine front cover in my chosen genre.

Obvious and Oblivious Photoshop Manipulations

Photoshop manipulations are commonly used on the front of music magazines and I am going to show examples of obvious and oblivious manipulations and why music magazines choose to use them.

Analysing a Double Page Spread

Listen to the Voki before watching the Prezi.

Planning for Music Magazine - Organisation

Actors

Medium Shot

Close up

From the front covers of the music magazines that I have analysed I have noticed that all the actors are presented through medium shots. You can see in the example to the right that Eminem is presented through a medium shot on the front cover. This seems to be the most ideal shot because Eminem takes up the page enough to be dominant on the page with also room for sell lines. I have found another music magazine where the subject is presented through a close up and that is the one to the left. Even though there is still room for the headline and the sell lines I think that this is                                            not the most ideal shot to be used on the front cover, 

                                           so I will be using a medium shot when I take my 

                                           pictures for the front cover.

Locations

Black background

White background

There doesn't seem to be any need for a specific location for the photo shoot because the backgrounds for the magazines are not a brick wall or any other specifically needed backgrounds. As you can see in the two examples I have included the backgrounds are simple black and white backgrounds and they both add to the colour scheme of the magazines. So when it comes to organising the background I will choose a colour that adds to the dynamic of my colour scheme.

Costumes

Front cover

Double page spread

The costumes are one of the most important factors especially in the genre that I am going to be doing (rap) because it is one of the ways that make the magazine identifiable with the genre. The first picture to the left is what the person on my front cover will be wearing, it is a simple black t-shirt because in most rap magazine front covers they are either wearing a tank top, t-shirt or a hooded top so I decided to go with a black t-shirt. The picture to the right is the hooded top that the person in my double page spread will wear, this is another piece of clothing that relates                                              to the genre and the colour grey will also relate 

Contents page 2

Contents page 1

    to my colour scheme. 

  The second pictures on both the right and the left are  the pictures that will be on my contents page. Due to  the fact that the person on the double page spread will  have his hooded top zipped up, I thought on the  contents page the person would not so I needed a  plain grey t-shirt underneath it. Once again the grey  relates to my colour scheme and relates to the genre.

Props

On the rap music magazine front covers, contents pages and double page spreads that I have analysed there doesn't seem to be many props used. The only most noticeable prop is the use of chains that the subjects wear and wear it to be seen. But I will not be able to get my hands on a chain to use in my magazine so I decided to not use any props.