Emily Thomas

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

the full product?

My preliminary product Final Cover Page

Over the course of making my music magazine, I feel that I have gained many more skills then what I started with within all areas of making the magazine. Appearance wise, the two cover pages look completely different. I think I have gained skills in a variety of different tools and applications in order for me to be able to complete my magazine to the best of my ability. One area which I have gained most skills in is using the different tools in Photoshop. For example, being able to effectively manipulate images in order for them too look more professional. One of the main tools I used in all images is the healing tool brush. This smoothes out the complexion of the models skin to get rid of any noticeable blemishes. By continuingly having to use this on all images, I was able to use it in a way that made the images look professional and not too over edited which I found particularly hard to do at the start of the course as the image I used in the preliminary task looked too over edited which made the picture look unprofessional. I also managed to use the brightness/contrast so that the images looked evenly lit. By doing this, the images were neither bright nor too dark. In my preliminary task, I didn’t use this tool as the images were took in natural light where as my magazine images were took in a professional photography studio with professional lighting. I also was able the drop shadow tool more efficiently on most of the texts. As you can see above, when using the drop shadow on my preliminary product, the drop shadows made the text stand out but also makes your eyes a bit

Emily Thomas

disorientated when looking at it. Therefore I managed to use the drop shadow at the right distance in my final product so that the words stand out and don’t make you feel disorientated. Another area which I gained more skills in was my photography skills. When taking my images for the magazine, I used a Nikon D3 100 in a professional photography studio. I have learnt that the lighting on images is really important as it cannot be too bright or else the image would look unprofessional and over edited. I also gained skills in using the rule of thirds. I did this by positioning my camera so that the model was in the centre of the image as this puts all focus onto the model. My photograph in the preliminary task wasn’t done in a studio so therefore it doesn’t look as professional as my final front cover. In terms of the colour scheme, I have learnt what colours complement each other and also how to keep a consistent colour scheme in order to create a professional feeling house style. In my prelimary task I used a variety of colours which made the page look very basic and not professional. Therefore, I learnt from this and used the same three colours throughout my magazine in order to make it look professional. I also made the colour scheme look more professional so it looked like a real life magazine.