Looking at the preliminary task what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to a full product?
To make my college magazine front cover and contents page I had to take pictures that were going to feature in my magazine. To do this I learned to use a Canon EOS 1000D camera and this was my first time handling this camera so it took me some time and practise to take decent pictures for my magazine. After gathering all of my pictures I had to use the Adobe Photoshop CS3 software to edit my pictures and produce my product. This had also been the first time using this however; I learned how to use a number of tools in order to make my magazine with the help of my fellow peers who have used it before. This included how to use the text tool, line tool, adding layers and removing layers, rotating images, adding effects to images and text which were all highly useful when creating my product.
Since this was my first time using the camera and Photoshop, I found that my academic skills were not on point such as, meeting deadlines and organising work load in order to make my magazine to the best of my ability. I conducted my audience research on time and used my classmate as the model on my front cover which was quick and easy to do because I did not have to search anywhere else for a model.
I chose the best image for my front cover which was a medium close-up shot of a female student with her headsets in. This image represents the typical appearance of teenagers with the fact that her headsets are in, portrays the common image of young people who particularly enjoy listening to music most of time. Also, I decided to have a medium close-up image of one model, meaning less attention on the surroundings and more focus on the subject. I like that she’s wearing dark clothes so that texts can easily stand out in contrast with the darkness and I managed to take this picture in my College, saving me time as I was already in the right location. My teacher gave me additional help on how to frame camera shots and focus images on the camera which was very important and I then knew the difference between a focused image and an unfocused image.
However, there are several ways in which my college magazine could have been improved. For example, I didn’t label the different images with page numbers on my contents page so that readers can go to the specific page without trying to find it and the front cover should have had more coverlines to look more appealing to the audience. From this, I have learnt that when producing my final product of a music magazine, I should include more coverlines on the front cover and match images with their articles using numbers on the contents page. I’ve also learnt the different magazine conventions of real media products such as page numbers and the web address which I then applied to my own magazine.
College magazine - fewer coverlines Music magazine -more coverlines
College magazine contents - image with no page number
Music magazine contents - image with page number
I was pleased that I completely my work on time and to the best of my ability. If I had the chance to do it again I would have made sure that the model was standing more away from the wall so it does not create a shadow effect. However, my teacher seemed to like the image regardless of the shadow but recommended this as an improvement. Also, looking at the image on my double page spread I would have made sure the camera was properly focused to create a more defined image.
I feel that I have improved since doing my preliminary task, I have developed my skills further using Photoshop and the camera. I actually found it more enjoyable creating a music magazine than a college magazine because I am big fan of music myself and adding my own creativity into the design was a lot more fun.
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