Evaluation Question 7

During my magazine development, I have learnt a lot about
photoshop and how to make the best use of it. Since making my college magazine
in “J.
Preliminary Task: finished products,” I have improved my skill at using
photoshop to create a much more professional product when designing and
creating my music magazine.


There were many tools during the creation of my magazines
on photoshop which I have learnt to use to a fuller extent during the time
between making my college magazine and making my music magazine. Several tools
I used during the creation of my college magazine were pattern overlay and
colour overlay, which allowed the user to change the colour of certain photoshop
layers, or place a pattern over them. However during the creation of my music
magazine I used a lot more professional tools to create a better finished
product. I used tools such as stroke, magic wand, drop shadow, sharpen, outer
glow, photoshop rulers and paint brush.

The “blending” tools stroke, drop shadow and outer glow
helped enormously to the completed product. The tool “stroke” gave all layers
with this option selected on them a black outline which can be manipulated to
increase the thickness of it. This helped important things stand out and made
the magazine feel less “sharp,” but at the same time, using it too much made it
look unprofessional. Drop shadow allowed me to give certain layers shadows
which would then drop over other layers, making 2D shapes look like they are
sticking out over everything else. This was particularly useful on text and
making it stand out over the rest of the page. Outer glow was very useful when
there were photos with jagged edges, and the glow around these photos allowed
the edges to seem smoother, as well as highlighting important pictures.


Photoshop rulers helped during the creation of my magazine
to help line up text or pictures into certain places, as well as using it to divide
the double page spread into two equal halves.


The tool paint brush was useful in helping me edit the
photos used in my magazine. This tool was mostly used to help whiten the teeth
of the people smiling in my pictures. Magic wand was very helpful in editing
photos as I could easily highlight the negative space of the white wall behind the
people I was taking pictures of and either edit it or delete it without harming
the rest of the image. The sharpen tool was useful for helping blurred images,
as it would “sharpen” the edges and remove (to some degree) blurring/ smudging.

As well as improving skills on photoshop, I have also
improved on designing my magazine and how to arrange it to professional
standards. I needed to make my magazine so it would appeal to my target
audience. This meant I had to take pictures of people who would represent my
target audience and that can relate to them and the music in my magazine. The
people I used in my images are people who I wish to relate to my target
audience. They wear band shirts and merchandise, dye their hair and have
piercings, while also being boisterous.


During the creation of my magazine, I always went to get inspiration
from similar magazines like NME and KERRANG! which helped me develop my final
product to suit my target audience.


I also read articles from magazines such as KERRANG!, NME
and Hammer, and used them as a style model to help write out an article that
would appeal to my target audience and sound like something a band would say in
an interview. Viewing magazines such as hammer I borrowed the idea of having a
Q&A with questions from fans to the band. I also had to proof read my
writing and make sure I did not spell anything incorrectly or use bad grammar,
and to make sure it sounded like my style models.