Looking back at the

preliminary task,

what do you feel

you have learnt?

Photoshop – College

Magazine

Crop

Move

Re-size

Textbox

Colour

Shapes

Copy & Paste

Layers

Free Transform

As you can see, I haven’t used many skills in

Photoshop whilst making my College magazine,

this is because at this stage; I only knew the

basics needed to create it. I was confused by

the different Photoshop's that are available as I

have a different version at home. I found that I

only needed certain tools to create the cover,

although this meant I was unable to try out new

things and make it look more professional.

I used normal things such as text boxes to place

words, layers to make sure each section of the

magazine was separate so I could freely move

them around and change the layout if necessary

and the shape tool to create boxes to make the

design a little bit different.

At this stage, I didn’t get chance to experiment with

Photoshop and see all of the things you can

do, which effected the look of the College magazine.

Photoshop – Music

Magazine

Crop

Move

Re-size

Textbox

Fill colour

Drop shadows

Levels

Hue/Saturation

Magnetic Lasso

Opacity

Free Transform

Copy & Paste

...

Black & White

Inner/outer glow

Sharpen image

Eye dropper

Exposure

Auto Levels

Eraser

Justify

Layers

I used many more Photoshop techniques whilst producing my

music magazine, this is because I took time to use the internet

and research tutorials on how to do certain things, such as the

magnetic lasso. I found that I needed to use these other tools to

create the magazine as they made it look neater and gave an

overall better finish. I used settings such as the opacity to make

shapes more opaque so that the colour wasn’t as bright, this also

made them stand out somehow and separated them from other

things. I also used hue/saturation to edit my photos to make them

clearer, although I found that levels was more effective as it

allowed me to change the lightness of pictures and make colours

more subtle. I used this for the full page photo on the front cover

to make it more white and less yellow.

My skills increased a

lot whilst making the

music magazine

compared to the

College magazine as I

had done research on

other products which

gave me ideas on how

a magazine should

look, such as the

masthead behind the

photo. Whereas I did

no research for the

College magazine.

All of these tools were very

useful and needed to create

my music magazine.

What have I learnt?

College Magazine Music Magazine

Photograph

y's

improved

Cover lines

over the

persons face

No barcode

Used the

same fonts

Only used

two

different

fonts

Colours

don’t

represent

anything

No real

layout,

looks

jumbled

up

Studio lighting

makes it look

glamorous

Pull Quote

obvious

Price, da

te and

barcode

Text is

off the

image

Masthead

behind the

image

Costume

has been

thought

about

Different fonts

used instead of

the same one.

This makes each

cover line stand

out more and get

noticed for

different reasons

and also makes

the cover look

fun, which

represents the

genre of music.

Through using

Photoshop, I was

able to find new

ways of making my

work like other

magazines already

on the market. This

meant I could place

the masthead behind

the models head

which makes it look

more professional.

The pull quote uses text

effects such as drop

shadow, which wasn’t used

anywhere on my College

magazine front cover.

Masthead has

a drop

shadow effect

on it to make

it stand out.

My College

magazine didn’t

have a barcode,

website or price.

I have used layers

to create my front

cover, this meant

that I was able to

move things such

as text. It also

enabled me to be

able to put the

masthead behind

the image and cut

it out.

Obviously, I only did a draft of the College magazines

contents page but you can tell how the layout of each

magazine is different and the music magazine is

much more sophisticated and looks like others on the

market.

College Magazine Music Magazine

I have used text effects

such as drop shadow

I have

used

columns

Used a

pattern to

represent the

music genre

Page

numbers

Better

layout

of

images,

spread

across

the page

Colours

match

the

photos

I have

changed the

opacity on

images and

the shapes

Use of

many

different

fonts

I have used

justify to chance

the position of

the text

Too

many

images

Only uses

two fonts

Looks very

basic and

boring

Block

colours,

no

effects

No

effects

on text

However,

I do like

the

headings

Drop shadow – used to

make the text stand out

else it could blend into

the white background.

Columns

Pop design

used to

represent the

music genre.

Edited photos to

make certain

things colour but

everything else

black and white.

I changed the

opacity of this

photo because I

thought it was

too bright.

Used text effects

such as drop

shadow again.

I have learnt a lot

about Photoshop

whilst making my

final magazine, I

felt I only had the

basic skills when

making the College

magazine whereas

I now know more.