Examples of Using Photoshop

This is an image of a man. First I cropped it so that it was smaller. I then outlined (using the quick selection tool) the easter eggs and made them brighter. I then used the Magic Lasoo tool and made his head black and white.

I took this photo myself and used the brightness tool to make is "Pop" off the page. I may use this as my front cover as it is natural looking and similiar to magazines I want to emulate.

Photoshops-Before and After

I came across this picture of Photoshopping at its best. Its just proof that all images on magazine covers are shopped and there is a certain pressure to loook perfect!

Here are just a few images which may inspire me to make a convincing front cover.

Faith Hill, known for her beauty has been photoshopped here so much. It's sad to see pretty girls just completely ruined by the pressure to be perfect.

Here is a picture of the outrageously gorgeous Jessica Alba. No surprise that she's gone through photoshopping too! The poor model/actress probably spent hours in hair and make up and hours on set just to be perfected in post production.

This has given me inspiration to use photoshop to create a proffesional looking magazine.

Denotations/Connotations and Font styles

So, today in our Media lesson with Mr Hildrew we discussed how editors use certain types of fonts for certain types of things.

My partner and I discussed how editors have to make precise decisions even down to the tiniest details such as font type. We learnt two new words about font. San Serif and Serif.

Serif: This is an example of Serif.
Sans Serif: This is an example of Sans Serif.

Serif is when the font has decorative flicks on each letter. This is used to make magazines or newspaper seem more traditional and old fashioned in a way. Serif is more formal too. Sans Serif is when the font is just plain and simple. This is a more modern font and tends to be informal, it also tends to suggest that it is straight to the point.

The style of font can have Connotations and Denotations. Denotations are what you can actually see and Connotations are what they make the audience feel like or what they suggest.

This is a very important example of how the smallest details can have the biggest influence.

Codes and Conventions- Magazine Analysis

I had my first proper Media lesson this week and in it we talked about magazines.  For our preliminary task, we have to create a magazine on schools and school life.

In the lesson we talked about codes and conventions.

Codes-Features of a magazine that make it unique.
Conventions- Features of every magazine.

In groups of four, we analysed different magazines and talked about the codes and conventions. My groups magazines were "Instyle" and "Best".  "The conventions of each magazine were the target audience, both being woman but a code of "Instyle" is that this paticular magazine is high fashion whereas "Best" was high street. Below is a list of the codes and conventions of each magazine I studied. Enjoy!

"Instyle"  http://www.instyle.co.uk/

Codes-
The front cover is plain and simple- Probably a reflection of its target audience as its straight to the point.

The prices is at the expensive end of the magazine scale.

The girl on the cover is relatively unknown- Only the target audience would know or want to know who she is.

Conventions-

The price is writen quite small on the front- This shows that the magazine think it doesnt matter how much it costs to get people to buy it. The price isn't a problem for the target audience as the magazine is what they want to read.

The girl on the covers head is blocking the title of the magazine, (example link here-> http://www.digitalenews.com/enews/images/celeb/rihanna-vogue-magazine-cover-april-2011-main.jpg)


"Best"

Codes-

The stories on  "Best" are more relatable, headlines such as "My baby was eaten by a dog". These headlines catch the readers attention and make them want to buy the magazine.

"Best" aimed at housewives wanting a qucik five minute flick through whilst having a cuppa. I know this because there are more pictures than words.

Conventions-

The prices is small once again.

The price of "Best"  is at the lower end of the scale.


All magazines have a target audience and all magazines contain codes and conventions.

Kateeeee