final product front cover, what I did

Here is my final front cover to achieve this final product.

To achieve this final product i had to do various things, obvious tools that i used include the use of the shape making tool to create the boxes which surround various parts of my text. as well as this i had to use other tools such as the clone tool this was used on the models ears/boxes due to me having to make it with tape and paper some of the lines of the paper showed up as well as light reflecting off the tape itself on the boxes.

As well as this i had to use the clone tool due to the framing of my pictures being slightly off with the top 1/6th having to be made as you might be able to see with the colour of the background changing rapidly under the C of connection, as well as the top this was done on on the right hand side which can be slightly seen. Firstly I copied the top are and the left hand side area to create new blocks which would fill in the cover the way i needed and allow the framing to be correct i then used the blending tool so it would have the different lighting and look like it was just copy and pasted sections.

For the fonts I used I acquired them off the website Dafont.com, looking specifically at the electronic and tech styled fonts due to my magazine being a technology based one, to install these fonts I had to first download them and then upload them to the computer, Sadly fonts are saved to the actual drive of the computer this I could only use these fonts on the pc i originally installed them on or i would have to reinstall them onto a different pc.

As well as using the shape tool I also used some of the fx to create effects for example with the black bar at the bottom I created an overlaying shadow in FX I also created a drop shadow for the sticker which i have in the top right corner.

final product

Above is my final product with the picture above being my final front cover and the two images below being my dps. 

Aperture and how it effects focusing

Aperture is the term given to the blades within a lens which can be made smaller or larger, this not only changes the depth of field (a shallow or deep depth) but also the amount of light which goes through the lens.
Aperture besides being used to adjust the amount of light that goes through the camera it is also used to change the depth of field, but what is depth of field?

firstly depth of field has to do with the focus of the background, for example if you look at the top image in comparison to the bottom image, the background of the top image is blurred much more in comparison to that of the bottom picture. Shallow depth of field is where the background is in focus (or fairly in focus this was due to my bad focusing skills) whilst deep depth of field is where the background is mostly blurred and often not distinguishable. 

Normall a shallow depth of field would be used for something such as landscape photography whilst a deep depth of field might be used for something such as street photography where a smooth blurred background is often looked for to be in contrast with that, that is in focus.

PhotoShoot

Here are the results from my photoshoot

With this particular shot I was rather pleased with the outcome as it is bright enough to be useable but can also be dimmed down if needed, my model during the shoot was also very good with him keeping himself in the same type of what i can only describe as limp posture. 

With this photo I wanted to reinforce the idea of being alone as not only did the models look emotionless they also looked alone and this was reinforced even more by having their backs to each 

with the two shots above i wanted to create a lonely looking posture with the him looking down towards his phone this also represent how we are actually alone even if we have our phone to 'connect' with everyone 

Final skills audit

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	x		I use manual focus for all personal photos that I take, as well as for use with my film camera which uses manual focus only, as well as this I am able to zone focus as well.
Shutter Speed	x		I use shutter speed adjustment when needed however can set it too automatic as well as this the digital and film camera I use both have a dedicated dial to shutter speed which I choose.
Aperture control	x		I have lenses where the aperture has to be adjusted manually, this is mainly used with my film camera and cohesion with the light meter it has to correctly expose the film.
ISO Control	x		I have used this with DLSR adjusting the ISO changing the amount of light that the camera lets in but as well as this it changes the amount of noise within the image with higher ISO's creating more 'noise'.
A tripod	x		I have used this with various projects within college and secondary school.
External flash	x		I have used an external flash with personal photography and within the media course for example when i did the photo shoot.
Self timer facility	x
Light meter	x		My personal film camera has an inbuilt light meter which tells me the correct shutter speed to correctly expose the film without under/over exposing it.
Composition grids	x		I have applied this to my work when considering/abiding the rule of thirds within my photograpy.

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
Text control	x		I have placed and edited text within my front cover.
Filters		x
Brushes	x		I have used brushes to create various bits of work one piece being the Christmas CD cover which except for the titles was made using brushes
Layers	x		I used layers within my front cover to create a more 3d sort of look, I also used layers to appropriately adjust any specific detailing allowing me to edit more easily.
Opacity control	x		I used this with the clone tool to ensure I filled and corrected any various mistakes within the photos.
Shape creation	x		I used the shape creation tool to create my sticker for my front cover.
Brightness and contrast control	x		I have tested this with the photos I took for my photo shoot but overall I feel i did not need to change the brightness of the photos
Gradients	x
Load selection features		x
Feathering		x
Colour curves adjustment	x
Resolution setting control	x		When setting the resolution to 300 pixel per inch for my front cover.
Magnetic lasso, polygon lasso tool	x
Cropping tool	x		I cropped out both the characters on my DPS in photoshop
Clone tool	x		When adjusting and editing out tape marks on the boxes of my front cover
Retouch tool	x
Other skills

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?	x		I used indesign to create my final dps product as well as a mock dps
Margin and column guide creation	x		I used this feature to create gridlines for my dps which I did not extend over to make my magazine look more professional
Inserting an image ID	x		I inserted an image on indesign onto my DPS with a total of 3 images being inserted.
Resizing images in ID	x		I resized one of my images to make it larger
Text manipulation – resizing, rotation	x		I resized some of my text and adjusted my whole article to an appropriate size
Text manipulation – controlling kerning and leading		x
Text flow creation	x		I used this to link two text boxes of which my article was going to go into this allowed the text to transition from one box to the other
Using transparent imagery in ID		x
Shape/line creation In design	x
Exporting to PDF from In-design	x
Text Wrap	x
Other Skills

Number of new skills achieved: New skills audit total 22

                                                             Old skills audit total 15

Cross processing

Here is a photo i edited using the cross processing process (so basically individually changing the red, green and blue)

Heal brush

Heal brush
Here is the original

zoe before and then after, on this photo i used the heal brush tool, the heal brush tool uses a specific area you have chosen and amends any differences on a different area for example with the spot on her forehead, I chose a different area on her forehead without imperfects and then used the tool over the spot to amend it.

Composition photos

With these photos I wanted to attain various shots from long shots to up close with varying eye levels here are some of them

Close up 

Long shot 

Medium shot

close/medium shot 

 close up 

close/medium shot

My front cover

Here is my magazine front cover using a medium close up I kept Aiden (the subject within the center of the page to attract attention) I then added various sell lines and then added a main sell line although in hindsight I probably should have changed the colour of the text too allow it to be seen more easily. As well as that I added a barcode.

As a first front cover attempt I believe it was alright however various things could have been adapted to make it better, for example the colour of the font for the 'how i survived the haters' should have probably been changed but due to the various colours of the background i could not find a more suitable colour.

vampire edit

Vampire Tutorial

Before

 After

First of all you need a photo of someone smiling showing their teeth, I had a previous picture taken which was suitable. To change the face colour I used the Sponge tool which allows you to change the colour of the skin to grey (the sponge has to be set to desaturate and the flow has to be changed to around 75%). then the sponge tool can be applied to the face, although to create the vampire look it would be best avoid the lips and the eyes.  to adjust the teeth of the model firstly the magnetic lasso tool has to be selected and then placed around one of the outside of the models teeth, then you have to right click and select layer via copy, then edit,transform and then warp has to be selected to enlarge and change the tooth to a point where it looks like what a vampires would and then you have your vampire.

In Design

Here is my double page spread which I added a photo, article and and title too. I put the article into 3 separate columns. When inserting the image a box has to be created to fit the image within the image size can then be roughly adjusted but if wanted to make larger it would have to be done within photoshop.