SKILLS LEARNT DURING PRODUCTION

By Amy Turner

MY PHOTOGRAPHY SKILLS HAVE IMPROVEDThroughout the production of my pop genre magazine my photography skills have thoroughly improved, as I have had the time to experiment with the different varieties of angles used within media to help signify different meanings to the audience. I have also learnt how to control the lighting when in photography, to also show different meanings towards the audience and also to allow the images to stand out – the skills I have learnt have made my magazine successful.

EXPERIMENTS WITH PHOTOGRAPHY

When in the process of my production I varied my photography shots which would help meet the specific conventions which are expected and usually applied in the pop genre. The use of the close ups are conventional to my magazine genre. It is clear that this shot is a close up as by the focus on the individual’s faces – which is one of the first skills improved. I experimented with the angle of the individual which would show more variety within my images and make it appealing to the audience, but also helps towards showing them in different ways and help relate to the coverlines or main headline effectively. By the use of these experiments it gave me a good option/choice of which images would be suitable and conventional to the genre. In the end, selecting the most conventional and most popular images to use within my production of my magazine.

EXPERIMENTS WITH PHOTOGRAPHY

I have used long shots within my magazine – this is another skill I have developed since the start of my production as I am able to help represent the conventional ‘dominance’ of the figures within the magazine. I have represented dominance I have positioned the shot as where you are able to see a large section of the individuals body, but still has a focus on their face. This would show the individual to be quite tall/high up. It also shows how the individuals want to stand out and be the centre of attention. So I feel this skill has been achieved as these images are the main images.

MY PHOTO EDITING SKILLS HAVE IMPROVED

In my production I have improved my editing skills as by I now know how to remove backgrounds from certain images which allowed me to insert them anywhere on the page as it had a transparent colour.I have also learnt how to adjust the lighting within my images to make them stand out above the background which would make my magazine conventional as the white background is typical for my genre.I also have learnt how to crop ad resize the images of my magazine to make them fit to where I want them to be.I have also learnt how to save my images as a JPEG to then allow me to easily insert the image on my production work.

PROGRAMS USED TO CONSTRUCT MY MAGAZINEI used Microsoft Word as the basis for my front cover, contents page and double page spread to use a variety of software. It was an easy and simple tool and helped me to create effective magazine pages. It contained useful tools such as shape drawing tools, text boxes, photo editing and a variety of fonts with suited my magazine genre . In particular, I learnt from this topic how to edit images. I edited the Claire – as editor picture and summer stunner image by cropping it into a circle. I also cropped the majority of my photos into a square shaped image which helped fit into the left third, plus this and more box which allowed my magazine to look orderly and professional. This helped my magazine look conventional and appealing to the target audience. On Microsoft word I also was able to remove backgrounds from my images so I could therefore insert it onto my white coloured background – when I have removed the background it would be set to be transparent.I also learnt how to adjust the lighting of my images to high key lighting to match the conventions of my magazine.

SPECIFIC EXAMPLES OF TECHNOLOGY USED IN PRODUCTION IN WORD

With certain images that I took for my production, I found it easier to use Microsoft Word in means of removing the background – as I already had a fairly white background colour but had some shadowing. Microsoft Word provided the tool ‘remove background’ from which I was able to select certain areas I would like to keep and remove. I opted for the whole background which provided me a complete neutral background, which made it easier for me to insert the image onto my magazine pages. As the image was cropped the edges were fairly uneven, making my images look unnatural and not professional. To resolve this I used the ‘corrections’ tool which allowed me to soften the image, which fixed the image’s edges to make it look more realistic and fit nicely onto my magazine pages. I used this several times on smaller images as it was quicker and easier and once for my main images, as the rest needed to be done on Photoshop as it didn’t feel necessary.

CONVENTIONSIn my production work I have learnt what type of fonts that are suited to certain types of genres – including pop genre, as being serif font. I have also learnt about the incorporation of a house style to make my magazine pages link together, therefore, making it appealing for the audience. I have also learnt the conventional layout of a magazine, this allowed me to set out my magazine in a particular way to make my magazine appealing towards the audience – as it provides them with clear navigation around the pages which is helpful and conventional to them.

Use of serif font to appeal to the target audience of girls

Use of colours to represent target audience and to create a house style