Editing an imageSkills and developments used

During the time of the creation of the magazine front, contents and double spread pages I have learnt different skills and techniques on the software Adobe Photoshop CS6.

One of the skills I have learnt is that when you want to edit an image, before you can crop it or use the tool magic wand to erase points on the image you have to rasterize the layer by right clicking on the image and clicking on rasterize layer. Rasterizing a layer basically means changing the format of the image to pixels so it can be displayed or outputted onto the screen.

Another skill I have learnt is how to change the font style of the lettering by right clicking what text you want to edit and clicking blending options.Changing font style of lettering

Then once you click blending options, an array of different styles you can add to your lettering is available, such as colour overlay which is changing the colour of the lettering or outer glow which creates a glow effect around the lettering.

Mast Head

When creating the mast head I used the software font which is called Impact. I placed the mast head in the middle to catch the audiences attention. The mast head is red and black to match the colour scheme, I did this by creating two separate text boxes and typing R in the first text box then APITAL in the second text box to get two different colours, because I found if I highlighted the one part of the letter and changed the colour the whole word changes colour. Also on the mast head there are two shapes which are triangles to represent the play button which implies it is a music magazine. I created the shapes by inserting a custom shape on Photoshop and rotated it 90 degrees clockwise to make it look like a play button.

Overlapping an image over the Mast head

To overlap an image or lettering over an object on the page, it is a very simple technique. I did this by dragging the layer above the other layer I want to overlap, for example for my magazine I dragged the main image layer above the main image layer so that it overlaps.

Contents Page

The skills I learnt was copying the mast head from the front page to the contents page to create branding. I also learnt that the rectangle box layer over the Editorial title needed to be under the editorial layer on the right hand side so that it creates a rectangle around the title.

For the double page spread I coloured the questions in the article a different colour to differentiate from the interviewer to the artist. I still followed the colour scheme of red and black throughout the whole magazine to create a brand image.

How do I feel about my progress?So far in the creation of my magazine I feel that the progress is going well as I have been up to date with the planning tasks and creation. I have also included most codes and conventions of magazine which will make the finished product look professional. However the software InDesign was very difficult to use, so I the progression of creating the double page spread was slow. StrengthsMy strengths of the creation of the magazine is I knew how to use Photoshop efficiently as from the preliminary task I gained knowledge of how to use Photoshop. Also in the preliminary I didnt do the planning well so my creation of my magazine was hard but the music magazine was easier as my planning was good. WeaknessA weakness of the creation of my magazine was trying to use magic wand to erase the background I had to hold a certain key otherwise the main image would be erased. Also another weakness is my knowledge on InDesign was very small because I have never used it before.

Areas to improve The areas I need to improve on are my pace of working as it is very slow and I have fallen behind a few times but now I am back on track of the coursework.