Photo Editing

My main edited pictures are in my double page spread. I had to use Photoshop to edit my photos to cover my models faces with bricks like in the Crystal Castles single cover. I didn't want to copy what Crystal Castles did for their single cover but I took theirs and made it my own. That way when people see my magazine they can identify that the band is supposed to be Crystal Castles. I thought this editing went really well and thought the end product was really successful. The second photo for my double page spread didn't need as much editing, it just needed cropping and the colour of one of my models socks changing as I hadn't noticed he was wearing different coloured socks when I was taking the pictures. Once again I used a idea from a CC single cover but used the same actors as in my first picture. I kept the backgrounds consistent as this way the readers can identify they are from the same photo shoot and as the backgrounds are consistent there is no confusion when people see the double page spread and it will not look messy.

For my front cover image, I changed the colour of the background to black because I thought it brought out the fact I had painted my model yellow making my image more bold and eye catching to the reader. Another reason why I decided to change the background to black was because my original plan was to scan my front cover and put blue glitter on the first two letters of my title as I thought this would look effective. On trying to do so though it made the black less bold and the glitter didn't come out as I wanted it to so I decided to stick to the plainer version of my front cover. The only other editing I did to my main image on the front cover is touching up his gold body paint in places on his arms as in places it had been missed making it look badly made. For this I used the Colour Sampler tool and the Brush tool.

Here are just a few of the tools I used on Photoshop. The first image shows how I used a magic wand tool and the brightness and contrast option to change my models sock colour as I had failed to notice my model was wearing odd socks. And my second image shows how I changed their faces to become bricks. For this I had to take a picture of the wall on its own and a picture of my models in front of the wall. I then layered the photos on top of each other and used the Healing tool to make the bricks go over the models faces. It was a new technique for me and I was very happy with the end result. The last image shows the polygram tool which is similar to the magic wand tool. I used this to go round my model so I could change the entire background to black. Once I had cut my model out with the tool I filled the background using the filler tool. These techniques were new to me and I wasn't very experienced with Photoshop. But I'm happy that I've learnt new skills in photo editing which will help me further in my second year of media.

Photos

I wanted to take around thirty photos for my magazine so that I had a huge choice to choose from. My first idea for photos was my model with his hands in front of his face, blocking his eye contact with the reader. I thought of this idea because it is different to the normal magazine photo and I felt it worked with my magazine as it is a slightly different genre and the abstract picture worked. I painted the face of my model yellow and put a blue glitter eye mask on him to add to the abstractness of it. I took a few photos of him dressed like this in different framing. I took a few head shots with him doing different things with his hands and some with him making eye contact with the camera. I then had some medium close ups with my model holding a candle. I chose a candle to see if the light made an effect on the picture, taking photos with the main light on and off. Once I had done this, I then took some face on photos of my model from the waist up with him making eye contact with the camera. I asked him to wear his own clothes because my model enjoys the genre of music my magazine is about and therefore his clothing would match that of other readers, giving readers something to relate to. I liked these half body shots the most out of this mini shoot because I loved the attitude that came across in the photos, and it helped me change my mind about not making eye contact with the reader, because I then understood how much more powerful it could make my front cover if my model did make eye contact.

I then took some pictures of myself posing as a artist. I backcombed my hair and gave myself quite over exaggerated black make up. I was trying to portray a darker image for an artist. I tried pictures with me making eye contact and pictures were I wasn't. I preferred the pictures with eye contact because they drew you in whereas the other ones were more arty and i didn't think they were as appropriate for a music magazine.

Another idea I had for pictures was a band. I collected some instruments, typical of the

genre of my music magazine. I then used me and two friends as models. I took the pictures with the self timer on my camera. My first pictures i took in the street outside my house during the night time. I took the pictures at night time because the darkness meant that less attention was on the surroundings then on the "band" i was trying to show. I used a Greek photography method where you put the subject of the photo in the bottom right quarter of the photo as this is supposedly where people's eyes are drawn too first. I dressed my models in normal clothes typical of my genre. I then took photos of my "band" with their instruments in front of their faces. This made the photo more abstract and unusual for a magazine.

For another idea, I thought about remaking the look of some bands in my genre. The first band I tried to recreate was Fannypack, a American comedic band. They are known for their bright clothing and risque lyrics. I dressed my friends up in my brightest clothing and gave them some comedy props like a Elmo bag, over sized glasses and big hair bows. I made them pose with quite fun poses like making a peace sign, big arms and funny facial expressions. I liked these photos but I think I should have used a better backdrop as the shed didn't match the band in the image therefore ruining my picture.
The second band I tried to recreate was Crystal Castles, who I used for my double page spread. These pictures don't look that special when they are unedited but my plan is to edit them so that the bricks go over their faces and the second is that they are looking downwards. These poses are similar to CC's front covers of two of their singles. I was very happy with how these worked out. The only criticism I have is that I would

have liked a man and a women instead of two boys in the picture because CC has a female in the band.

I went to a festival during the Autumn and took some pictures of the bands I wanted to include

in my magazine. The pictures of Marina and the Diamonds was the best because I managed to get to the front of the crowd, meaning their wasn't waving hands in my photo and you could actually see the music artist. I am going to include these pictures for my live performances section on the contents page as they portray live performances. Also these photos are very appropriate because they are of the band my magazine advertises.