Photoshop image manipulation (skin)

 

These print screnes are a walkthrough of the steps I took to manipulate my pictures to make to skin of my model 'front cover worthy'. I like the effect this gives and I have done this in all the versions of my front cover so far.

Planning development

 Front cover drafts:

 

Feedback 

Positive: interesting line at bottom, lots of detail at the bottom

Negative: bolder master head, better quality picture

Photoshoot

My photos: These are a few of my photos which I'm going to use in my front cover, contents and double page spread. The first pictures are of me which means I can't use them on my cover or double page however I may use them in my contents. The rest of the pictures were taken and styled by me.

Sketch ideas of front page/contents page/double page spread

Initial magazine ideas

Magazine names: I wanted something fresh to appeal to the target audience i thoght about play on words concerning music genre Muzak, Beats, Rhythm, Crunk and Grhyme are the names I like and may use.
Colour schemes: I think ive decided on black, white and red however here are some drafts of my masthead.





















Photoshoot ideas: I've decided to take pictures of my friend Lauren in jeans and a leather jacket. I feel this creates a relaxed edgy look. Ive also taken inspiration from David Bowie and I might do something interesting with her makeup for example a love heart the same colour as her lipstick on her cheek.

 

Demographics

The target audience for my music magazine is mainly aimed at teenagers/people in their early tweneties. The type of magazine I am creating would be published every month or so at £3 to £4 so the target audience will find it affordable. The collage below shows what kind of thing would be advertised in the magazine as it it relates to the age and interests of the consumers. The video below is my group focus work were we talk about what kinds of magazines we read and how much people in my target audience age range would pay for a monthly magazine. My magazine will be indie rock genre which will appeal to various people as the music is quite popular.

USES AND GRATIFICATIONS THEORY:

The idea that media audiences make active use of what the media offer. The audience has a set of needs which the media in one form or another meet. 

Below are the national readership survey's social grades, my target audience are in the E/D grades as late teens will probably still be in education and most of them won't work and if they do it will be at minimum wage. This is another reason why I need to take the price of the magazine into consideration

















Below is masolow's 'hierachy of needs', magazine readers will be in social and esteem groups as people who have money to spend on magazines will most probably have food, shelter and security.

 

Market Research

 Contents page examples
These three examples of contents have a similar layout, they do there job in informing the reader on what's in the magazine in a general linear format. The pictures along side these are also relevant to the stories within the magazine. The pictures impact the page without over powering and taking the focus away from the stories. One convention of  a contents page is a letter from the editor which can be seen on the second image. They also happen to have the colour scheme of black and red perhaps to outline the main stories as red is quite eye-catching.

Front cover examples
These front cover examples have the simple stylistic traits i want mine to have. They have their own colour schemes within which usually link to the main image in some way. For example the Rolling Stones magazine has used the blue colour of Amy Whinehouses bra strap and the faded red on her tatoos as the sub-headings. The main images on all three are used as the focus of the cover with everything else sort of happening around it. A convention of this is having the images over lap the title of the magazine.

Double page spread examples
These three examples of double page spreads are all from nme magazine. I think the bold designs creates a great effect for the reader. By contrasting the black and white image of Lady Gaga against the bold red 'L' brings focus to the text without over powering the picture for example if some of the text was over lapping the picture, it could look messy whilst distracting the reader from the picture. A convention of double page spreads is using qoutes from the text which out of context could appear to be more interesting than it really is.






                                                                    LIIAR analysis

This magaizine cover's key feature is 'Marilyn Mansons' face. His makeup is very dramatic and reflects his personality for example his signiture clear contact lense. This is to show the reader the magazine has adapapted the particular issues style. The colour scheme in the text of the front cover is red and black this picks out colours from his makeup up making them more prominant. This front cover uses convenrions such as the masthead being at the top and stories inside the magazine down the side. as marilyn manson is the main focus his name is very large in the center this is to perhaps get the fans attention. the pull line below 'Cocaine orgies and Bush-balting with the god of F***' provokes interest for the reader and out of context perhaps sounds more intersting than it actually is. NME's readers would expect this sort of thing in their music magazines as the target audienc is between the ages of 18 and mid twenties the majority is also male hense the stereotypical vulgarity. The front cover represents Manson in quite a feminine yet rebelious way by the use of makeup, however it is not used in a conventional way.
 NME's double page spread 'THE TEENAGERS' is appealing to their target audience. Teenagers are stereotypically lazy yet social, the picture reflects that. The ideology of this is displaying the message/ moral that NME magazine is perhaps something that they can relate to. This is conventional in the way that that the text is along sied the picture with highlighted qoutes within the text to bring the readers attention to it. along the side ogf the page there are sub stories about bands with the heading 'everones talking about' this also appeals to teenagers as they want to fit in with the crowd. This isn't really a true representaion of teenagers however it has a rebelious feel that they can again relate to.

NME's contents page uses the colours red white and black (which is convetional to this particular magazine.) It is conventional in the way that the news atories are set out in a linear format however somtimes their is a letter from the editor. A large picture is used to advetise perhaps one of th ebest stories in the magazine worth reading.