Photography Studio Set-Up

We were introduced to the photography studio before our planned photoshoots took place. We were shown the basic set-up you needed when taking photos.
As a class we were shown what we needed when setting up the studio for our personal shoots for our music magazines.

You have the choice of a black or white back drop
There are two flashlights - soft boxes (grids) which diffuses light, the grids channel correct lighting onto model and distributes light equally
There are two polyboards, these are foam boards which reflect light
The model should stand 5-6 feet away from the back of the backdrop
Lighting settings on soft boxes should start at 3 then you can decide if you need to go higher or lower (controlling the brightness of soft boxes)
The camera used is a Nikon d7000, it has 16 mmp, a 3.5 LCD screen, aperture priority  and shutter priority
There was a godox remote control transmitter, which syncs the camera and soft boxes, so when you take a picture the soft boxes flash
Lastly there were reflector boards, these are in gold, silver and white - as obvious from the name they reflect light

Task 8 Contents Page

This is the process of my contents page for my music magazine, from the beginning I had my mind set on the colour scheme of gold, dark shade of purple and white as I feel that they represent jazz music genre well. So I had used purple and white/black on my DPS and Contents page and gold and white on my Cover page

As you can see from the process below that I started of with placing the main stuff on the page and then gradually building it up, the word "contents" started off much smaller than the masthead but I made it bigger. I wanted contrast on the contents page so I made the writing dark purple and black. I added a website at the bottom of the left hand page, once all of the text was on the page I then started placing the images around it. After receiving feedback I then went on to make a second page for my contents page as that was favoured. On this page I put a picture of the featured music artist on my front cover and an editors note with a brief explanation on what was in the magazine.

Task 8 DPS

This is the process of my DPS for my music magazine, from the beginning I had my mind set on the colour scheme of gold, dark shade of purple and white as I feel that they represent jazz music genre well. So I had used purple and white/black on my DPS and Contents page and gold and white on my Cover page.

I started off by finding an image of the music artist to place on the double page spread and decided on this one

I then started placing the already written text on the other side of the DPS

I had made the questions in purple and the answers in black to show where there was a change of person

I had left a gap between the text where I would place a picture, as in my case studies they had more than one picture on the DPS so I wanted to do something similar, I made sure the picture related to the topic of the article.

I then added a pull quote that the music artist had said onto the page where there is an image of her as this would attract the reader as they're looking through the magazine as the white stands out on the black background

I then came up with an article title which I did in a large font in dark purple

I then added an image of the music artist with her two sisters and a caption explaining the picture

This is the finished copy of the magazine DPS

Task 7 Audience Research Task

This is the audience feedback i received after presenting my magazine proposal to the class. i received both positive and negative feeback as well as constructive criticism.

From this feedback i was able to decide on the masthead and what sort of font it would be that I would use, this was done by getting them to vote for them, with the masthead from the 'dafont' website it didn't work as well as i thought so i found a font on photoshop which was similar. I also showed them numerous of different page layouts for the cover page, contents page and double page spread which i again got them to vote for which one they thought was best, once they chose it i began to adapt it to make it more interesting. 

Task 6 – Magazine Proposal

Task 6 – Magazine Proposal

I will be publishing a music magazine. The genre for this magazine will be jazz and blues.

The title of my publication has not yet been decided. I’ve thought of a few different names but I’m not 100% certain with these. They are freshjazz, Feelingblue and jazzblues. These are all very basic and incorporate the word or blues however I would like to make the title more cryptic or use some jazz terminology for example the words fusion, quartet, and scat. From these words I’ve come up with Smoothjazz, Freshfusion, Bluessmooth, CFDJ/B (cool free deep jazz/blues), Scatquartet, Scatfusion but I’m still not sure with any of these.

The type of content I’ll include in my contents page is going to be made up of images of articles, the regulars which will feature interviews with artists and reviews of concerts, the features will include an article about the person on the cover, interviews with other artists, behind the scenes of an artist in tour in America/UK. These regulars will constantly appear in magazine. It will also feature an article on making jazz music youthful so that it reaches out to all age brackets. The cover page will feature either a solo act or a group (not yet decided). My magazine is different because in each issue it gives out music sheets for jazz/blues songs so the people who love to play music as well as listen to it can learn songs also it will be the first 3D jazz magazine.

I’ve chosen jazzwise publication not only because it is a jazz magazine but because they are likely to be interested in my magazine as it shows a further insight into jazz music that hasn’t been seen before, it also branches out to the younger generation as well so it can get more people into the genre of jazz music. They publish the biggest selling jazz music magazine in Britain; which means they have a lot of recognition and this will probably get more people to want to read the magazine as they’ve most likely heard of the publisher.

My target audience would be teens and adults because that is a large generation, which is generally associated with rap and hip-hop, but showing that young people can also enjoy jazz music will expand the fan base. I want my magazine to be aimed at both genders; this will encourage more females to become jazz musicians/singers, as it seems to be a mainly male dominated genre of music. It will be aimed at the social classes starting with E (students, unemployed) up to C1 (mainly supervisory and junior managerial jobs). This way the magazine isn’t just aimed at wealthy people but for the people who aren't producing big sums of money but still an interest in music. The hobbies and lifestyles of the readers would probably be focused around creative aspects for example music lovers (concerts/festivals), people who enjoy drawing/painting and other artistic forms like dancing or drama.

 These are the designs/ layouts that i had come up with for my music magazine cover page, contents page and dps. Ihave now slightly changed the layouts to accomodate more information and pictures.

Cover Page

 

Contents Page

 

DPS (Double page spread)

Task 5 – Magazine newsstand task

Task 5 – Magazine newsstand task

This newsstand is found in a newsagent. There aren’t many music magazines but the magazines that are found in this shop are placed quite far back on the newsstand this means that the information on the top left fifth is important and needs to be able to stand out, be recognisable and has to show off as much important information possible that will get the reader interested in that magazine.  When magazine are setup on a newsstand they overlap most of the magazine this is where the placement of coverlines, mastheads and images is decided so that it is easy for the reader to pick out the magazine. The magazines tend to be on the left hand side and they are mainly short so that it they are visible on the stand even when overlapped. 

This kerrang magazine was placed on the second row so it was important that certain parts of cover page were on show when designing the layout. The masthead is made visible as it is in the left third, the face of the main image is also visible which means that will catch the readers attention when scanning the newsstand as they are likely to recognise the artist if they are fans of that certain magazine or they might just have the knowledge of who that artist is. A splash/mention of a freebie is mentioned at the top of the cover page, which will also encourage people to buy this magazine as they see that will be getting something free out of it. This specific magazine includes 5 posters inside which is likely to entice the reader as they might like to collect posters of there favourite artist. Another image is shown on the cover page right underneath the masthead this will also appeal to the reader because they would want to know why there's a picture of that person and what they’ve got to say.

 

In class we had discussed 3 different types of distribution. These are online distribution, direct distribution, and printed distribution.

• Online distribution has recently become the biggest method of distribution. Using a subscription that can either be free or paid for e.g. RWD magazine requires a subscription. E-zine is an electronic version of a magazine similar to an eBook. With subscriptions it’s very simple, you enter some details in and then you receive the magazine online, these subscriptions can be done on your computer, an ipad, kindle fire. Also these apps are available on smart phones. 
• Postal subscription is a part of distribution as it posted through your front door. This is a good way of distribution as it doesn’t require you to leave your house at it is basically brought to you. The publishers are guaranteed to have a sale from this form of distribution. As for the audience this is a cheaper way of subscribing and there’s a chance to receive free gifts.

• Direct distribution is when a magazine may be handed out to you or there’s selected locations where you can pick up free magazines. Advertising funds this form of distribution and this is why they are able to give out magazines for free because they’ve been paid to have adverts in the magazine.

• The final form of distribution is when you purchase it from newsstands, bookstores, newsagents, and supermarkets. Within this process of distribution there is the choice of sale or return, this is has both positive and negative aspects to it. The positive aspect is that  if the distributors were to give a set number of magazines to a retail outlet to sell and they hadn’t managed to sell them all, they are able to return the magazines back to the distributors with no cost. However the negative aspect is that this results in a lot of wasted magazines and it is rather expensive for the distributed.

The form of distribution I would use is online distribution as the Internet is constantly being used by people of all ages; this means it will be a quicker way of creating a fan base. This means there wont be any problems with wasted products like if I were to do sale or return, also people are able to just subscribe online so there isn’t a need to print numerous copies which may or may not sell.

Task 4 Evaluation for preliminary task

My evaluation for the preliminary task/ college magazine

 

What went well?

Photography - the images were taken with a white background this made it easier when placing the photos onto Photoshop this also meant that it was easy to build up layers as the background was plain and there wasn’t anything going on in the background which meant that the main image was the centre of attention. I had used an image of a boy on my magazine to show that both girls and boys are interested fashion also this means it will reach out to a bigger variety of people.

Image manipulation- I learnt the basic steps on Photoshop which I then applied to my work. By pressing ‘Ctrl + T’ and then the shift key, this made the images bigger but it also kept them in proportion.

Page layout- I had designed the cover page and contents page on a piece of A4 paper before I used Photoshop and InDesign to actually create it, this meant that I had a brief idea of what I wanted my final model of my cover page and contents page to look like. I didn’t completely follow the plan but it was similar and it kept me focused.

Use of text on cover page – I had used basic font and also more of a fancy font, the basic font was for the coverlines, the issue number and date, the pricing and also the masthead. The masthead used both basic and fancy because I wanted to put emphasis on the word ‘chic’ and show the fashion basis by the type of the font. I only put 3 coverlines on the cover page so not to clutter up the page so the image is still visible. I had used rulers on Photoshop to make sure all of the coverlines were aligned with each other to make it look more professional. I had decided to put the masthead over the image because it was the first issue of the magazine which means it’s not well known and gives people an idea of what the magazine is about just from the name of the magazine.

 I chose to make the magazine free as it is the first issue, this was done so that it can build up a fan base and gives people a little taster about what the magazine will be like in future issues, I can also get an idea on what sort of people are willing to read so that I can think of a reasonable price to sell it at.

The colours I had chosen for my colour scheme were black and blue. Each I thought of changing the colours. I chose two colours because they are neutral colours so that the magazine can appeal to both genders.

The layout I used on InDesign to make my contents page was very simple. I had made 3 main textboxes; these had the names of the articles, the masthead and the word contents. On the contents page I added 3 images, as an insight into what those articles will be about. It also made the contents page nicer to look at. With the cover lines and the article names on the contents page, I had written the name of the article and then what’s going on in the article or what it’s about.

What do I need to improve on/ 3 targets?

My first improvement would be to add more colours as I seem to keep the background minimal and stick to white. I’ve also decided that when I do my music magazine that I will have a colour background to make the magazine more appealing.

Another improvement would be writing my information more in depth so as to provide the readers with more information, also not to just keep going on about one little detail but to broaden the topic.

My final improvement is to add more general pictures (that can be aimed at everyone) onto my contents page to show more of a variety in the magazine. As well as that it would have made the magazine have more of a mixture of features e.g. sport so that both boys and girls would want to read it.

The improvements seem to tie in with the 3 key points for development as I can take the improvements into consideration so that I am able to strengthen my work.