Question 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, (college magazine) what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Just in appearance, you can see the progression between the preliminary task and my final front cover, my preliminary task is very amateur looking whilst my final cover looks professional due to use specific elements when creating my front page, such as using the studio with professional photography lighting.

Firstly, I have produced more professional looking photos as the surroundings I used were designed to have pictures take, as the photography has a blacked out studio with professional photography lighting which enables the image to have more impact even more editing. Also, when I photographed my secondary model I was outside however compared to my preliminary task I was able to use the natural lighting to my advantage and even if it didn’t come out as it should, I could’ve edited the brightness by adjusting the brightness and contrast in Photoshop. On my preliminary task, I didn’t edit the image too much, just airbrushed her skin whilst on my front cover I have used the Healing tool to airbrush the model’s skin, adjust the brightness and contrast and also adjust the hue and saturation which has impacted the final image as it stands out more and is more striking than the image on my preliminary task. My study of rule of thirds has implemented my final cover as the shot I used was a close shot and then cropped the dead space out of the image so only the relevant amount of the dead space was visible to allow the model to fill the page. On the other hand, my preliminary task and the image I used included a mid-shot without any cropping, which lead to dead space which made the task look unprofessional and incomplete.

This is my ancillary project at the start of the year, whilst I was still trying to figure out Photoshop.

This is my final front cover, after getting used to Photoshop and learning how to use drop shadows to impact the final product.

My colour scheme on my final product compliments the model and her casual clothing and stands out from the background due to the bright colours against the black background whereas in my preliminary task the background colour and the colour scheme is the same just a darker shade and didn’t make much of an impact on the audience and was difficult to read. My colour scheme is now consistent throughout all pages with minor changes such as having a darker grey on the double page spread which differs slightly from my original colour scheme but works well, after doing research I decided on my colour scheme and it turned out to be nearly the same as Vibe’s colour scheme but mine had a completely different impact as the colours create a binary opposition between the genre and the colours used. I also used drop shadows on the text, which made it stand out even more and made the magazine look more professional, a lot more professional in contrast to my preliminary task. The drop shadows on my preliminary task tend to blend in with the text instead of making it stand out, it blends in because of the colour of the text being a dark blue/grey colour however in my final task I have used drop shadows effectively as I have used it on the white masthead which will stand out because of the differentiation in colour, I have also used it to make my colour lines stand out against the print of the models shirt which gives the front page a professional and artistic look.

The layout is also more structured as I had only just learnt about the Gutenberg design principle and hadn’t practiced it and seen how it was incorporated in actual magazines until after doing my research of other magazines. I have followed the plan of the design principle and common rules of a magazine layout, such as having the magazine masthead placed or started in the primary optical are which is the top left hand corner, I have done this with my final cover whereas with my preliminary task I placed in the strong fallow area which is incorrect placement of the masthead and makes the overall layout look unfinished as the masthead is over onto one side. It is clear to see that my in depth understanding and concept of the Gutenberg design principle has informed my progress as I was able to place certain aspects of my media product in similar or the same places as actual magazines, such as Q.

I have developed further skills in uploading my work from a camera or my phone, I had previously used a card reader to upload my group’s pictures which was a joint effort as we all took pictures and uploaded our own pictures that we’d taken to our computer and then last person was to use the card reader had to delete them off the card so no one else could use them. When creating my media product, I took the pictures by myself and was only with the model, meaning I had to upload my pictures solely to my computer and then delete them off the card reader without interrupting anybody else’s images. Additionally, I had to upload the pictures of the secondary model from my iPhone 4S to the computer, which was simple as I knew which pictures I would use which was simple. I have developed these skills as I had to figure out how to use a card reader as it was a few months since I used one and I had help from people in the group.