Christmas Brushes

To make this Christmas card, I first created a new Photoshop file and made it 15 x 21 centimetres. I then looked for a red bokeh style background and came across one with snow on the bottom and baubles. I then downloaded some snowflake brushes and played around with colours and scattering methods as well as rotating before deciding to scatter and randomly place the white snowflakes. I did this by going to the brush tool, and loading my brushes into the brushes area, and then opening them in window. I used a King Julien and Maurice PNG and a Madagascar logo PNG, and I downloaded a font. I added these in with a black stroke effect to make it stand out more against the red and white of the background.

In Design

When using In Design, I found it easy to get the hang of as the instructions were quite basic. First of all, I chose to have 3 columns so that I could fit more text in, however it still ran into a double page spread. I used a text box tool and had to line them up so that they all matched up, however the first box is just a little bit off. I found that using grids and guides made it more confusing so I stuck to the basic design view.

I decided to use these colours as they went with the theme of the TV show my article was going to be about. My text size was 9 and this made it seem like there was more text than there was. I added images by going to File>Place>Choose Image>Open and then added it. However, you cannot adjust image sizes within this so in the future I will have to edit my image to the correct size in Photoshop before adding it to my work. The small image still works and if there had been more text or different features this magazine spread would look much better.

Curves

Before

This was the image I chose. I thought it would be a good image to use as it was quite dark and could be brightened and also I thought the grass in the background would look good if I changed around the curves.

After

This is the finished image. I used the Green in the curves a lot to try and make the greens and whites in the image pop and the reds and blues to give it a more natural look. I have also brightened up the actresses face to make it look more prominent and brighter than it was in the before picture. 

Shutter Control

I used a 1/250 shutter speed for this picture. I decided to have them jumping off the wall as I thought it would be a good image to capture and it looks effective as it is not blurry and the image is clearer than it would be if I had not altered the shutter speed. 

I again used a 1/250 shutter speed for this picture. It looks like she was standing still even though she was walking, and it is good quality.

For these pictures, the shutter speed is 1/400 and I don't think that they came out very well, as I think it may have been too slow to capture the image effectively.

The shutter speed was on 1/400 again here. I think this was better than the above one as you can clearly see the shape of what the torch light was creating. However, I think that the quality of the background could be improved. 

I have used Photoshop to edit the image and lessen the amount of wrinkles on the actresses' face. I did this by using tools such as the Healing Brush Tool, zooming in and out and using 'Alt' to choose the patch of the skin whose colour I wanted to replicate. This took a lot more time than the spot one would have because you have to constantly change the colour to match the patch of skin you want to replicate.

Shazam Magazine Cover

Evaluation

Photography

I used manual focus when taking my photos. I only learnt how to use the zoom and focus rings in the lesson, so I don't know too much about them. I took my image portrait as I knew it would be better overall for my magazine as you don't see any landscape style magazines. My images all seemed to be in focus as I made sure I used the focus rings when I zoomed in or it would lose quality. I learnt that if the light source is behind the model you are taking the picture of, the face will look dark, so you should use side and front. We used side lighting as I wanted the side of the face to be illuminated and the background to look darker and quite blurred. I think that my pictures came out quite well composed and were simple enough to take. I made sure the model was in the middle and there was not much of the wall visible behind her. When I took the picture from the side I made sure that the model was still the main focus in the shot but I also made sure I had some of the blurred background in. I thought carefully about the background as I wanted to have a black, red and white colour scheme. The background is black and it makes the model stand out better. I did take some pictures in front of a brick wall, however, which didn't fit particularly well with my colour scheme. I think I handled my subject quite well as we are friends, so it wasn't hard to communicate with her. However, we did laugh a lot while taking the pictures and may not have been fully ready to pose so I think that in future we could be more focused on taking the photos. I got my model to do many different poses as I wasn't quite sure what I wanted for the cover of my magazine and I found that the pictures taken of her from the side were better for the style of my magazine.

This picture wasn't one of the strongest ones as I forgot to use the focus rings and took it in landscape. 

I found that I liked the background on this picture but I didn't like the lighting as half of her face was darker. 

Photoshop

On Photoshop, I used the text tool, as well as features that came with the text, like strokes and colours. I used a tool that made the text the same colour as the model's lips so I could easily stick to my colour scheme. I also used transform and dragging tools. I found the text quite easy to use and also the transform and dragging tools, but I found the layers quite hard to figure out. I think my text was well controlled as I used simple colours and it wasn't too hard to figure out when I messed around on it and figured it out for myself, although I did have to ask for help with strokes. I added a drop shadow to my title to make it seem more prominent and although you can't see it too well, it stands out against a slightly lighter background. I chose my fonts which were Gill Sans Ultra Bold, Engravers MT and Kannada Sangam MN because they stood out well and went with the rock theme I was going for. I used the colours white, red and black as the model was wearing black and red. The white stood out against the dark colours in the background. If I could improve my front cover I would add splashes and a few more cover lines and a lot more detail. I think the main strengths of my front cover were my colour scheme and the image came out quite well. The layout of my magazine cover was simple and I placed the cover lines around her so it wasn't blocking her face. I wrote my cover lines based on rock bands as that is the theme of the magazine and I wanted to be able to connect with the target audience. I partially used a T- Shape style but I went on to use the rule of thirds by using a picture taken from the side and fit my text around the model.