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| Image: 090 - Bad Photograph |
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| Image: 026 - Bad Photograph |
The raw images that are poor quality show my photography
skills development as the better photographs are more advanced. Both bad images
are out of focus and image 026 includes slight camera movement as motion blur
is present. They don’t show good lighting because image 090 is too dark and
shadowed where as image 026 has no indication as to where the source of light
is coming from. I needed to work on my T-stance so that camera movement wasn’t
present – this skill was mastered in my good photographs. I need to improve on
positioning the subject’s eye-line to the top third of the image as it seems to
fall below this point in many images.
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| Image: 019 - Good Photograph |
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| Image: 057 - Good Photograph |
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| Image: 059 - Good Photograph |
The good images show my improvement in photography and the
skills I have mastered. The lighting in these images is much better compared to
the low-quality images as they are all to some extent side lit shots because
the source of light is coming from the top, left of the images. I mastered the
skill of getting the shot in focus by altering the focus ring/lense whilst in
Manual Focus. Also, the zoom ring was altered to zoom in or out on the subject
so that the size of the model was changed. I tried to place the model in the
right side third more to leave room for text on the magazine front cover
however, this needs improving. In addition to this, the head shot image should
have been portrait as this would fit better on the magazine front cover
however, this was not thought about at the time – this is an improvement I need
to work on as well (think about whether the image should be portrait or
landscape).
Magazine Front Cover Evaluation:
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| My Induction Magazine Front Cover |
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| Image: 110 - Side-lit Shot |
Strengths
of product:
Within
photography, the main image I incorporated onto the magazine front cover is in
focus and doesn’t present camera movement or motion blur. The image 110 that is
given is a very good example of when lighting worked in the shot. This is a
side-lit shot and creates more form and depth to the image, conveying a darker
outlook to the audience. The rule of thirds was used in some images and in some
images it didn’t occur. Although, sometimes the eye-line was meant to be below
the top third’s line as I was manipulating it to give a sense of insecurity and
vulnerability of the subject. The background was thought about in the main
image as I either wanted a plain background or one that linked with the style
of my magazine. I tested different background in the images and chose a brick
wall and a set of stairs that had fairly dark colours surrounding it to be the
main backgrounds as these backgrounds were interesting yet not too detailed.
The subject was handled well as she listened to my instructions and I achieved
the looks, facial expressions and poses that I wanted within the image.
Within
Photoshop, I chose the ‘Captain Swabby’ font and downloaded it from ‘www.dafont.com’
for the title of the magazine. I chose this font because it matched the genre
of this music magazine (retro) and was interesting, yet easy-to-read. This a strength because this was then edited in Photoshop
and created a striking, edgy masthead that would appeal to the target audience.
The front cover of that magazine had other strengths as well as the font for
the masthead, which included: featuring eye-line manipulation to portray a
stern, rebellious outlook; layered text over the main image to emphasise the
text; a cell button that draws attention and promotes the band member in the
image; a focused image and a colour scheme that links with each other
throughout the front cover. For example, the shade of light blue in the cell
button is coherent with the colour in the subjects collar and the background
colour links with the subjects sampled eye colour. The limited palette of the
three colours, black, white and blue, makes the magazine front cover stand out
and grab the audience’s attention by creating audience interest. I also like
where the masthead has been positioned as it is the text that the audience will
read first as well as having an image of the alluring female that contrasts
with the blue, black and white colours scheme due to her hair colour. Both of
these features will appeal to the target audience as the image has slight sex
appeal as the image shows to the audience that they can dominate her venerable
character. Finally the induction magazine front cover includes sell lines that
contain exclusivity, assonance, alliteration, a quote headline, exclamatives
and rhyme. These sell lines will attract the audience’s attention and make them
read on, ensuring that they buy the magazine. The main sell line is ‘SEX LIES
& FLINT SKIES’ which is an enlarged font as this relates with the subject
in the main image. This could be shown more by having the full band in the
image so that it presents ‘Flint Skies’ properly although, the sell line still
links with the image as I have over lapped the sell line with the image via
layers to create recognition. This sell line is a strength because it features
rhyme which allows the phrase to be catchy, therefore the audience will
remember the sell line more.
Weaknesses
of product:
I did take
images landscape when they should have been portrait when photographing my
model. This caused problems because the images didn’t fit on the magazine front
cover well and didn’t match my flat plan. As a result of this, I had to re-take
the photographs and produce portrait images instead of landscape. At first, my
photographs were also out-of-focus as auto-focus wasn’t used and manual focus
was. I improved my skills of focusing images when I re-took images due to the
mode settings and I acquired the skill. The lighting of the shots was difficult
to control due to the weather conditions outside; however, if the images were
taken in a studio then I could control this matter. This meant that some images
that were taken contained poor lighting and reduced the affect the image had in
creating a sense of mystery, happiness etc. I tried to incorporate the rule of
thirds in my photography and achieved it in some images; however I found it
difficult to attain this in many images and need to improve on this skill. I
found that the eye-line on many of the photographs were too low as it was below
the top third’s line. Furthermore, the background of the main image on the
induction magazine front cover wasn’t the same as my flat plan image’s
background as the camera shots that were taken were head and shoulder shots
(this wasn’t the same as my flat plan). Due to this matter, I didn’t achieve
the background I would have liked to link with other features of the magazine.
When instructing the model, it was difficult to get her to carry out a ‘super-smiley’
pose as her teeth was showing and she is conscious of this.
Weaknesses
also occurred in Photoshop. Firstly, the text wasn’t too controlled as I tried
to limit the fonts to 3 fonts although, to improve I think I should have used 2
because it is hard to read and understand when using 3 fonts. The fonts also
need to be limited to two or three sizes because this will make the front cover
easier to read and the audience won’t give up on reading it because it is hard
to understand. Another weakness of the front cover when edited in Photoshop is
that I placed the institutional brand element of price in the wrong place (the
bottom, left hand side) which is not a place the audience will read last as the
UK audience read from left to right, top to bottom. I have also left some
institutional information out and not included the issues number or the date. Finally,
another weakness is that the background colour looked too much like a block colour,
to improve on this it needs to be faded into the image more so that the front
cove flows and looks more professional.
Skills I
have gained:
Within my
photography skills, I have gained the skill of altering the focus ring to
produce an image that isn’t out-of-focus and I have learned by altering the
zoom ring on the camera it can change the distance of how close/far away the
subject is. I used manual focus as I needed to develop my skills in focusing
images via the focus lens. I have learnt that in order to produce a good still
image, the T-stance position has to be performed. This is the way a
photographer has to stand to be able to bend, yet still maintain a solid body.
I mastered this skill when I took photos that didn’t contain camera movement or
motion blur. I learnt that a magazine image should mainly be portrait on the
front cover as this allows room for text on the right hand side. I also learnt
that wide shots are most suitable when the camera is in landscape mode as this
ensures sharpness in the image; whereas the portrait mode ensures that the
subject is manly the only subject in focus. Primarily, I used automatic mode as
the camera judges which setting to use. I gained skills about lighting as I
learnt that there are three types of lighting shots; back-lit, side-lit and
front-lit. I also learnt that if it is a front-lit shot then the subject doesn’t
cast a shadow on themselves and side-lit shots make the subject more mysterious
and dark.
I have gained many skills in Photoshop as well as
photography. Firstly, I learnt how to master the skill of downloading fonts by:
choosing a font on a website that I thought would suit my target audience
(14-20 year olds, 90% male and 10% female, social groups C1, C2 and D); creating
a folder in My Documents called ‘Fonts’; click the download button on the website;
save the font into my Fonts folder; right clicking on the folder and then
clicking ‘extract all’; copying it into the local drive folder ‘Fonts’ and then
deleting the zip folder in My Documents. This meant that the font would appear
when I wanted to change the font face in the drop-down menu. Another skill I
learnt was to add effects. I added effects onto the mast head to create the
blue glow where the normal white outline should have been as this made the
masthead more interesting and linked with the colour scheme more effectively.
Did this by accessing layer styles and adding an outer glow within the space of
the white outline and chosen a sampled colour from the sympathetic colour palette
– different options like ‘Bevel and Emboss’ was also altered for the mast head
and the cell button. I added affects on the cell button to make it look
slightly more realistic and 3D. These skills I learnt helped me to accomplish a
more professional look to the magazine front cover; however, more skills need
to be gained to improve the front cover. In addition to these newly gained skills,
I made a sympathetic colour palette by sampling colours (primarily sampling
different shades of blue from the main image to be used in the cell button,
background and texts). Colours were sampled by clicking the colour that I
wanted on the main image instead of the custom colours within Photoshop. The colour
scheme was black, white and blue. I used these three colours because I felt
that they were quite edgy, simple and that they were masculine colours that
could be used to suit the target audience. Sampling colours is another skill I
gained when creating the magazine front cover within Photoshop as well as controlling colour choices by changing RGB codes. I used a lot of
tools and learnt a high number of shortcuts that can be used on Photoshop. I
learnt now to create a cell button by using the elliptical marquee tool in a
new layer, selecting the size I wanted, choosing the colour I wanted it to be
by sampling it and editing it with ‘bevel and emboss’ in the layer styles option.
I also used the cropping tool on the tool bar when cropping the main image. The
shortcuts are listed below:
·
Control + G – to duplicated a layer
·
Control + R – to get the rulers up at the top
and side of the screen
·
Resize image – Control + T, hold shift key down
whilst dragging (to maintain aspect ratio) and then press enter
·
Control D – to deselect
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Shift, Control + D - to reselect
I also learnt two ways of how to open an image in Photoshop.
Firstly, Control + A to select the image, copy (Control + C), go back to Photoshop
and paste it in (Control + V) so that the image is on the cover. The other way
to open an image is to cascade the image in. This means that I had to open he
image in Photoshop and drag to the other Photoshop page so that the image is
placed onto the cover. I thought the shortcuts were easy to use, although it
was difficult to remember all of them. I also found the layers hard to use as I
kept clicking on the wrong layers for the different pieces of text. Moreover, I found that sampling colours was
one of the easiest skills to gain and use as it was simple as well as finding
that inserting images into Photoshop was easy when you know the methods behind
it. To improve on the magazine front cover I need to gain the skill of cutting
out the subject from the image and discarding the background as this may be
seen as a weakness to the front cover.
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