Photoshop Practise

I experimented on photoshop by writing my name multiple times and testing out different tools on them. I have used outlines, shadows and different colours. This will be helpful for when I come to creating my magazine as I will be able to know how to use the different tools when creating my masthead.

In order to do this I have to use the select option and load the selection. I then had to modify my text and expand it so that I could use the outline to make it bolder. I used the photobucket tool to add colour to the text.

By doing these experiments I will now be able to use photoshop to write the text on my magazine, and use colours and tools in order to make it stand out and ensure that my magazines look proffesional.

Shutter Speed

Shutter Speeds

Shutter speeds allow you to take images of an object or person that is moving quickly. This means that you can take the picture without any blurring. There are two types of shutter speed available for me to use, these are fast and slow shutter speed. You would use these for two different images. You would use a fast shutter speed to take images of something that is moving very fast so that you can capture the image efficiently. You would use a slow shutter speed to take an image of something that is not moving as fast because this means that you can efficiently take this image.

For the image below, i set my camera to the setting 1/500. I think that the quality of this image is the best of all the images I took. I think the shutter speed worked very well and the photo was took at the perfect moment. I believe that the image is very well lit aswell and so this adds to the high quality of the image. However, I do believe that there are some minor improvements that I could make. For example, I could have got closer to the target so that the main focus was on her and there was not as much scenery around the target. When taking the pictures in the future I will take this into consideration and make sure I am close enough to the target.

For the next image, seen below, I set my camera to the setting 1/125. I think that this image is better than some of the others I have taken however, I do not think that it is of a very high quality. This is because the target is positioned very well and so she is not doing anything in particular, I think this could have been improved by telling the target exactly what to do after she had thrown the leaves into the air. This then leads me on to my next improvement, I think that there could have been more leaves used in this image to make it more exciting and obvious what the point of this image was. However, I do think there are some good points about the image. I think that it is well lit and also, I think the scenery behind the target works with the image. I think the park behind it adds to the nature feel of the image. In the future, I would try to improve my images by thinking about exactly what I am trying to do when taking the picture and discuss this with my target so that they know that they are supposed to be doing in the image.

For the image below, I used the camera setting 1/4000. I think that this image is of a relatively high quality, but there could be some improvements made to it. First I will look at the good aspects of the image. I think that it is well lit and you can clearly see what the target is in the image. In addition, the target is placed in the centre of the image which I did find difficult when taking the faster moving images. However, the target is slightly blurred and so this could be improved upon by using the automatic focus code, I would have to do this as opposed to the manual focus because of the movement and I would not have the time to focus and take the image before the car drives past. In addition, I believe this image would have been better if the road was clear and the target was the only car on the road. This is because the audience's attention could go to the cars behind, instead of the target. In the future, I will take more time when focusing my image and look at the surroundings of my image before taking the image to ensure there are no distractions from my target.

Form the image I took below, I used the camera setting 1/250. I do not think that the image below is of a very good quality. This is due to multiple reasons. Firstly, the lighting is not very good and so this affects the quality a great deal. I can improve this by either finding places with better lighting to take the images or I could try to adjust the shutter speed setting to try and get more light into the camera. Also. the image is slightly blurred due to myself not taking enough time to manually focus the image and ensure that it was of a good quality. In order to improve this, I need to ensure that I am taking the time to manually adjust the focus so that the images I take are all of a good quality and not blurry. However, I do beleive that if I have done the above when taking the image, it would have been very successfull because I do think that the 'running' effect I was trying to do in this image worked very well and the actual target was not blurry it was the entire image, showing that it would have worked well if I had changed the focus of the image.

For the image below, I used the camera setting 4 seconds. I do think that this image worked very well because you can clearly see the face that has been created using a torch. I think that creating this worked really well. However, I do think that the image could have been improved if the face had been more central as this would have make it look more proffessional. To improve this I could ensure that the image I am taking is in the centre so that the target is central. In the future, this is also something that I can always check when taking images because it is best to make sure that the target is going to be the main focus of the image.

Overall, the main targets that I have noticed are making sure the image is in focus, take not of the the scenery around the target and make sure the target is in the centre of the image. In the future, these are some things that I will have to consider and take note of when taking images to ensure that they are of the highest standard and the best possible quality.

Photoshop: CD Covers

In order to further my understanding of how to use Photoshop I made these CD covers. This helped me to understand how to download and use fonts and brushes. In order to do this I had to go onto the relevant website, (dafont.com and brusheezy.com) where I could then download the file and upload it to the C: Drive. From here I placed it into the relevant file so that I could use it in Photoshop.

When these had been placed into the files I could then open up a document in Photoshop where I could use the fonts and brushes. However, to be able to to use the hrushes I needed to add them into the brushes section. I could them begin to create my cd covers. I created 3 different covers each one using different brushes and fonts to create different effects.

Vampire Photoshop Tutorial

Before Photoshop

After Photoshop

To further improve my photoshop skills I was given an image of a regual lady and was told to use the tools within Photoshop in order to make her look like a vampire. These were tools I had not used before so I had to be shown how to use them. Firstly, to change her skin colour to a more deathly blue/white colour I had to use the sponge tool and make sure that this was set to de-saturate. I placed the flow on 80%. To change the colours of the lips I used the burnt tool and ensured it was set to shadows so that it would make the lips more of a blood red colour. I placed the exposure on 50%. To make the teeth look more like fangs I had to use the magnetic tool to go round the shape of the tooth and the use the layer via copy tool to create a layer of this shape. I then had to transform the shape of the tooth by using the warp tool. To create the scars and blood splatters I had to download a new brush and load it into Photoshop. I then could use these brushes to create the effect of the blood and scarring.

Different Narrative Voices

1^st Person Narrative

I was out last night and got proper wrecked with me mates. We nicked some cider from me Dad and went to the park round the corner to get smashed. When we got there, there were some freaks in the park thinking they were all hard and started us. But we sorted them out and then carried on with the night. Got in at 2 in the morning and me Mam started having a go at me so I walked out and went back to me mates house for the night. The next day I had the worst hangover, and woke up with a banging headache.

3^rd Person Narrative

They were stood in the park, in quite a large group. If anyone walked past they would intimidate them by forming a circle around making rude remarks. The things they were saying was disgraceful the people who walked through the park were visibly upset and scared about the whole situation. That group of youths looked pretty pleased with themselves when they saw what an impact they had made on the woman who had walked by. Our beautiful little community had been tainted by their rude and obnoxious behaviour.

Types of Introductions

The Question Intro

Excited for your night out tonight? Ready to party? Ready to dance? Ready to drink? Ready to drink too much? Ready to say something you'll regret? Ready to fall over? Ready to end up in hospital?

The Description Intro

You are sat on a beach and are surrounded by your friends. The sun is shining and all around you there is laughter. You feel like you are living the perfect life and having the best time. You don't believe life can get any better than this. But is it really perfection? Do you ever stop to think about the dangers of drinking? Or do you wait until someone ends up hurt? Or worse...dead.

Improving my Photoshop Skills: Wrinkles

Wrinkles

No wrinkles

To improve my photoshop skills further, I used the 'Healing Brush Tool' to get rid of this lady's wrinkles. I had to find the skin tone around the wrinkles using this brush in order to make it look natural. 

Improving my Photoshop Skills: Spots

Zoe Before

Zoe After

To improve my skills of using photshop I got a picture of a girl with lots of spots and used photoshop to get rid of these spots. I used the 'Healing Brush Tool' in order to do this and then got the colour of her skin tone around the spot to make it look natural. 

Composition Evaluation

This shot is a long distance shot which has connotations of being far away and it makes the audience wonder who the girl is in the distance and what she is doing. I think it is well composed because the girl is in the centre of the image and there is a path leading up to her so this is naturally where your eye line will take you. However, the lighting is not very good where the girl is which makes it difficult to see her properly, it would have been better if the girl had come forward a little into the the light as this would have made it easier to see her properly. I used a manual focus which to work the actual ring I did not find difficult, however I did keep forgetting to use the focus as I had never used it before and so I was not used to working with it. I did learn to remember to make sure the images were in focus and so this helped to improve the quality of my images greatly. I do think that perhaps this image could have been more in focus as you can see a slight blurring in some areas, however as this was a long shot image I do not think it affected the image too badly. I did not use the zoom in this particular image as it was not needed for the type of shot I wanted to create.

The type of shot used here is a medium long shot as it is take from above the knees and also allows the audience to see the the environment around the girl. I do believe that it is well composed as it shows some of the environment around her, the lighting is good and it is in focus. Used the manual focus for this picture and I think it worked really well to ensure that my image was in focus and did not blurr. This image is in focus due to the use of the manual focus ring. I did use the zoom on this particular image because when I previously took an image of the same place I thought that you could see too much of the environment and I wanted the image to focus mainly on the girl, therefore I used the zoom so that I could have the right amount of environment in the background but not too much to over power the girl. The eye line in this image is in the top third of the image, therefore it shows her importance and superiority in the image, as she is the main part of the image this is the connotation I wanted to aim towards.

The type of shot I have used here is a medium shot and I have taken the photo as if I am looking down at her. This gives the connotation that she is inferior. I think that it is well composed as it is in focus, she is in the centre of the image and I have used a type of shot that gives out certain connotations to the audience. However, I do think that this image may have been better in portrait instead of landscape. This is because I believe that there is too much environment around her which makes you focus on other things around her and not entirely on her. I used the manual focus ring on this image which ensured that it was not blurry. On this image the focus ring was not difficult to use as I was close up. I did not use the zoom on this image because I did not need to use it for the shot that I was wanting to take.

For this image, I wanted to use the rule of thirds to create connotations of inferiority and so I had the girl sit under a tree at the bottom of it. This meant that she was at the bottom of the tree and so her eye-line would be in the bottom third showing how inferior she is. I do believe that this image would have been better if it had been in portrait and just included the tree and not the environment around it. Therefore in the future I would take this into consideration. I used the manual focus on this image which meant that it was in focus. It was not difficul to use the focus ring on the camera as over time I have gotten used to using it. I did not use the zoom on this image as I did not believe that it was relevant or required to the image I was taking.

This image is a long shot and I also tried to use the trees to frame the girl in the image. In order to do this I asked the girl to stand behind the trees so that the trees would stand infront of her and frame her. I don't beleive that this image is very well composed due to multiple reasons. I do not believe it is very well in focus, the lighting is not very good and the girl looks misplaced as she is slightly off centre. I did use the manual focus on this image, however it was difficult to see whether the image was in focus due to the bad lighting that can be seen behind her. Therefore this image was not in focus and this is something that in the future I need to be aware of so that I can find another way to take the image but using better lighting. I did use the zoom in this image because I wanted to ensure that the tree's framed the girl and so to do this I had to ensure that they was no environment seen next to the tree's.

Overall, I do believe that there are alot of strengths with my images, however I can also identify some weaknesses. The first strength is that the majority are well composed, the girl is in the centre and the images are well lit and not blurry. This ensures that the pictures are of a good quality. In addition, I believe that I have used the rule of thirds well so that the it shows certain connotations. However, the weakness that I have identified is that I need to think more about whether my images would look best in landscape or portrait. Also I need to think about the environment around the image and how it affects the image. I also need to think more about lighting and how the natural sunlight will affect my images. Overall, I do believe that the images I took were very good, however I have identified some problems that I need to think about in the future in order to ensure my images are of a good quality.





Induction Magazine Cover- Evaluation

Photography

When taking the images for my front cover i had the camera on auto focus therefore I did not use any extra features such as zoom or focus rings. In future I can improve on this by using manual focus which means I can be more in control of the focus to ensure that the picture is of good quality and is not blurry. It will also help me to develop my skills of using a camera. By having it on either portrait or landscape it meant that I could easily fit the pictures into my magazine cover exactly how I wanted them. Due to my magazine cover being in portrait, this meant that I had to take my photos in portrait mode. When i first began taking my photos, I did take a couple in landscape mode. However, I soon realised that this would not work for how I want my magazine to look and changed to portrait mode. Some of the images I took were not completely in focus, and there were not any that I could say were completely clear. To improve this, I need to further learn about exactly how to use the camera and how, in the future, I can stop my images from blurring. As I did not use any proffessional lighting to take these pictures, there was little lighting to use to make the pictures look well lit. However, in the future I can use different lighting such as back, side and front to make my images look more proffesional. This will also develop my skills of taking images and using lighting to make them look better. For example; the image below shows how some of the photos I took were not well lit and so in the future I could work to improve on this.

I think that images I took could have been better composed for certain reasons. The eye line is not in the top third of the magazine and so there is quite a significant gap in between my title and the beginning of the head. This may look a little bare and so in future I need to work to keep the eye line in the top third of the magazine. Also, the model does not take up alot of the magazine and so there are alot of gaps to be seen in between stories and other text. Again, in the future I can work to improve this skill to ensure my magazine looks well composed and does not look bare. For the background of the image, I wanted a plain white background so that it did not look to fussy, I wanted a simple and clear background that would be easy to write texts of all colours on.

When handling my model I was able to tell her what I wanted her to do and then she would do what I told her, for example if I told her to smile or put her head to a side I could. However, I was unsure of exactly what I wanted my model to do as I was unsure of the best poses to put on my magazine. This made it difficult to figure out exactly what i wanted her to do. To solve this problem at the time, I tried lots of different poses, and lots of different angles so that when it came to using the images I would have a wide range of choices. In the future, however, I can improve this skill by learning about the different poses and then working out exactly what I want in my images before taking the pictures.

Photoshop

As this was my first time using photoshop this meant that the skills I had were limited. However I did have some basic knowledge and so I used this to the best of my ability and used the skills I had to create my front cover. In order to lighten my image up I used the brightness/contrast tool. As I did not use any lighting when taking my images, they were a little dark and so I used this tool to brighten it up slightly. I used the text tools alot to create the cover stories and the title. I used different colours and fonts to make the text to bright and eye-catching in order to attract the reader. I also placed an image of a barcode onto my magazine and re-sized it to the size that I wanted it to be. The part I found difficult to use, was actually getting used to the different layers and working out how to select and de-select them. However, once I got used to this and how to do it, I was fine using the layers.

I believe that the text on my cover was well controlled because it was well spaced out ensuring that the cover does not look too crowded. However, I do believe that i perhaps could have used more text or larger text because there are some gaps that look bare and could be filled with more stories. Therefore in the future, I can still ensure that the text is well spaced out but I will need to ensure that all spaces are filled.

For this magazine cover, I did not need to cut out any of the images and so I did not use this skill. In the future I could use this skill if I wanted text to running behind my image. I also did not use drop shadows as I did not feel they were neccesary at this point. I used effects on the image to brighten it up and I also used bold on some of the words to make them stand out. I did not need to download any fonts as I felt the ones that were alread installed in Photoshop were ones that I could use for my cover. In the future, I could download fonts if I needed to do so. The colours that I used on my front cover were pinks and purples. The reason I used these colours is because my main target audience is teenage girls ages around 13-17. Stereotypically, pink and purple are popular colours around this target audience.

The improvements that i would make on my front cover is firstly having better quality images to make my cover look more proffessional and also so that the images is easier to see.In order to create better quality images, I would also use lighting to make the images brighter. I would also use more text to close the gaps and make it look less bare. I think the strengths on my front cover is the colour scheme. I think the colours work well together and the target audience will be attracted to the cover and therefore will be more persuaded to buy it. Also, I believe that I have used good key words to persuade the reader to buy them for example 'WIN!' and 'Exclusive!', make the reader feel like they are getting some unique that no-one else will get, by buying the magazine.



Front Cover Research

This magazine cover is a typical music magazine front cover. The main part of the cover is the celebrity featured in the the magazine. This attracts fans of hers, and people who may be interested in her interview to buy the magazine. Her name is also the largest text on the cover, apart from the title of the magazine. The text underneath states 'Inside The Court Of The New Queen Of Pop', this makes the reader want to know more about her personal life and why she is now 'The New Queen of Pop'. The colours are quite feminine and the flowers attract a female audience, due to her large female audience this ensures that they are attracted to the magazine. The fonts that are used ensure that it is clear and the colours are bold which catches the readers eyes persuading them to by it. I will be using a similair layout to this and so I can take some inspiration from this cover.

AS Media Production: Initial Technical Skills

AS Media Production: Technical Skills Audit Print Production

Name:       Michaela Mullett                  Tutor group: 1.16                Date: 18^th September 2012

Photographic Skills

Which of the following photographic features/equipment have you used on a camera before:

Feature	Yes	No	Comments if yes – where have you completed this skills and to what level
Manual Focus features
Shutter Speed			I have used this feature to take a picture of a fast-moving animal.
Aperture control
A tripod
External flash
Self timer facility			I have used this feature when taking a group photo on my own personal camera.
Light meter
Composition grids

Photoshop Skills

Which of the following features of Photoshop have you used before:

Feature	Yes	No	Comments if yes – where have you completed this skills and to what level
Have you ever used Photoshop ever before?
Text control
Filters
Brushes
Layers
Opacity control
Shape creation
Brightness and contrast control
Dodge/Burn
Clone stamp tool
Colour curves adjustment
Resolution setting control
Magnetic lasso, polygon lasso tool
Cropping tool
Retouch tool

In Design Skills

Which of the following features of In Design have you used before:

Feature	Yes	No	Comments if yes – where have you completed this skills and to what level
Have you ever used In design ever before?
Margin and column guide creation
Inserting text in ID
Inserting images in ID
Resizing images in ID
Text manipulation – resizing, rotation
Text manipulation – controlling kerning and leading
Text flow creation
Text effects – drop shadow
Drop cap insert
Using transparent imagery in ID
Shape creation In design
Text wrapping
Exporting to PDF from In-design