Progression-sending my magazine to print

This is my finale progression blog post i will be doing for this project, once i said my magazine to print i will gathering together all of my feedback and creating my evaluation posts, self and peer. In this project i am really happy with progress i have made in the targets i set myself, such as learning more about Adobe softwares to push my work to the next level. I am lucky in that all of my work is similar to that of the publishing industry especially in terms of Adobe. For my peer assessments and evaluations I be more depth than i have been with assessments in previous blog posts, being self critical is really important therefore i will talk about things like what i would do next time.

As my deadline date is fast approaching, after receiving my feedback from my focus groups and changing all of the aspects of my magazine until i was fully happy. I went ahead to print, in my previous blog post on what in which i talked about which possible print company i wanted to go with, i chose Solopress however the quote i was informed about the quote i received on the day were very different in price and i did not want to pay that much therefore i went to the website Mixam.co.uk who i actually prefered in the long term, i felt like i did not have to compromise of paper quality or the finish i wanted and the price was very reasonable! All i needed to do on the website was upload my readily made PDF document of my magazine exported straight out of InDesign and away it went.
I was really happy with how easy the whole process was as i knew that i wanted to use recycled paper as i had found that i really liked the use of this in other magazines i had gone to look at.

 Here you can see both the specs i selected in my magazine design and also how the layout would look from the websites point of view. I really wanted my magazine to be of a high quality as since i have spent so much time on it i would like to use it for my portfolio if that be for interviews in the media industry or for anything else like using the magazine as part of my uni applications.

Peer evaluation from focus group and self evaluation

Once receiving my printed magazines, i wanted to collect a focus group together to give me some extra feedback now that i have physical copies. The feedback i got was overall good, the biggest concern was that on my text only pages. The issue with my text only pages was that not only was there alot of it, and some readers may find that overwhelming, not only this but the size of the font was too big, there the type only pages looked misplaced. I didnt notice this to be a problem when i was working on my magazine, even after converting it into a PDF or even whilst looking at the magazine when working over it before hand on my print company website, therefore this must have happened because i was not observant enough in my double checking before hand. This is not a huge issue either, i do not believe that my grade will be affected because of it for example. Another issue picked up on through my focus groups feedback was that another article should have been added or another photoshoot, just something to bulk the magazine out about. I also agree on this, i speak about this in my evaluation but i finish i had pushed myself further to do, like i said, i agree with this. I think that if i was given the time to do this project again, i could encourage myself to do so. Overall, my peer feedback was really interesting was they all picked up on points similar to mine, however having someone else look at it can help to see if you're missing anything.

From the beginning of this project i set myself a certain amount of goals to accomplish throughout this project not just in how i wanted my product to look but also i how i was going to stretch myself and show improvements from then and now, looking at my statement of intent i feel like i have accomplished all i set out to do on reflection. Within the time scale available to me i feel like i was able to not only go through the processes and research and experimentation but also have my magazine created, printed and evaluated before the deadline date, although i was very challenged during this process especially when having to create my layouts and direct, shoot and edit my pictures within around two weeks whilst doing other work on top of this. However the most important aspect of this project and one of goals when beginning this project, i feel more confident when using Adobe softwares such as InDesign and Lightroom, both of which i had barely used before beginning the task, i feel as if i would now favour this programs thanks to my new found knowledge over others available to me. I feel like one of my main successes now that the project is finish is how coherent it looks altogether, i wanted to the magazine to look professional and well put together and although i think that my magazine does still look really amature, it is not bad for a first attempt.

In conclusion, i feel like this project has really pushed my skill set as someone interested in working in the publishing world. It has opened my eyes to just how much of a process publishing work is, you must pay attention to detail but also go through the motion of re designing and re trying every possible option, i am happy with how i have progressed throughout this project, giving myself the creative freedom to do what i want but also self disciplined by ensuring i stick to my deadline dates and also sticking to a schedule every day. There are definitely some things i would like to change about my project such as adding in more content but my overall finish is what i set out to do, create a multimedia magazine campaign that show cases the things that i love, such as photography and writing.  

My Evaluation

For this year's FMP L3 Creative Media were given the task of creating our own projects using the skills we have learnt throughout the year and combining them into our chosen second year choice, for me this was publishing. Using a combination of research, experimentation and my creative skill set as a student i created a magazine which, overall i am happy with. As a student who takes fascination of publication work i found myself really pushing myself this year and enjoying it, too.

Pre Production

The pre production process for my FMP started in late March, we were given a brief of the work expected of us as well as how to get the top grades thanks to marking boundaries but apart from that we were sent to work on our way paths. Initially, i really struggled with what to create for this project therefore my raw starting point was to create mind maps of four possible ideas i could pursue, creating these mind maps made everything so visual for me that i almost found it easier to weigh up the pros and cons from potential topic. Once finalising that a magazine is what i wanted to do with a mixture of both photography based content as well as channeling myself to do some articles, which isn't something i feel particularity comfortable in my research began. To begin with i gathered inspiration from magazines that really inspired me which varied from Vogue magazine to more 'indie' magazines like Paper and V, as these were my starting inspirations i created a mind map, much like my initial ideas as i found this so effective. Over all i believe that it was a good idea for me to do it that way because you can see my progression from a few basic ideas into actually finding what inspired me to do this magazine, which aspects of each i would like to incorporate into my own magazine which aspects from each i dont like and so on. Once my inspirations mind map had run its course i began to think about other potential aspects that i would need to think about in my my magazine, things such as potential colour schemes, editorial makeup which really spoke to me that i could incorporate into my own magazine and also the styles of writing that i liked, this was important to me because i knew that if i wanted to add in articles to my work, i wanted them to have a 'blog' style to them in the sense that they were slightly informal, had personal opinion in them but also another key feature i really liked about the blog style writing i found was that they spoke to the audience, allowing for them to really ponder about the chosen subject. All of this tied into one made one large mind map that had all of my starting bases on it for where i could take the ideas next, on top of this i had to keep in mind my time frame.

 Back in March i felt like i had all the time in the world, i realised very quickly this was not the case therefore i had to act sharp on my ideas if i was to create a magazine i was going to be proud of. Once creating my mind maps as well as blogging my responses, i set about doing alot more primary research and some more secondary research on areas i haven't yet touched upon like font types and layout, for my primary research it took shape in the form of two major projects. One was a survey using a focus group through social media and the other was through an interview i would be conducting with a local, dedicated magazine shop owner who had invited me in to talk to me about important aspects of magazine i had not thought about yet. On reflection i feel like i could have done more in terms of giving out my survey to the type of audience i was trying to attract, instead of just sharing it on a facebook wall and hoping for the best i feel like i should have been more active in my research by going around my local shopping areas things like that, i feel like would have benefitted me more that just hoping for the responses to come to me as although through sharing the survey would have given me the demographic i wanted to reach, i did not get as many responses as i would have liked. One top of this, i do not feel like the questions i had asked on my survey were direct enough, they were too vague and did not give the direct answers i needed in terms of what i needed to know for my magazine and its contents. Another issue i fell into was the fact that when sharing my survey online, i didnt get the control i wanted in terms of who answered it. I soon realised that younger boys were answered my survey and that was not who my target audience was! therefore i have learnt for next time do just hand the survey out myself to those i believe would be in my focus group.

However, my interview at Magairella was really interesting, i had pre prepared questions i had wanted to ask, after the disastrous survey and they were more than happy to help. In asking questions like 'Do you believe that print is a thriving business, still?' it give me more confidence in my choice to do a print based magazine, as yes they believed it was. Interviewing the shop was really eye opening to me, i feel like i got all the answers i needed to now carry out my secondary research in more depth. As i knew that i wanted my magazine to be very article based i found the three topics i wanted to cover as researched them alot more, from this i found five or six reliable news sources that contained factual information about my news related story which meant i knew that i would be documenting mistruths. Next up i knew that i wanted to do a review based article also, coincidentally the controversial Netflix program '13 Reasons Why' had just been realised therefore i knew that i wanted to have my say in the matter, so i knew what my review based article was going to be. As for my photography inspiration, i was recommended the photographer Brandon Woelfel and once i began to research him i fell in love with his photography style, he gave me the inspiration to do a photography series for my magazine using flares which he had done and it looked incredible, especially after editing! Once i had the contents of my magazine out of the way, i progressed through to study layout and font as these are both key elements in which can help create a magazine, i believe that if a font is unreadable for example, then this may discourage a reader from the magazine. The same can be said for layout, as said in my primary research, of course i had a look of lots of magazines currently on the market and what they had to offer. I found a specific style of layout that i really liked and so it heavily influenced me during the production process, the layouts i personally liked had alot of geometric squaring, minimalist images and text but also alot of plain spacing, which i thought was really effective. Once this form of experimentation had taken place i wanted to push myself further, creating potential page layouts, experimenting with front covers and also looking at magazine characteristics such as contents summaries on the front cover, taking into consideration if i wanted that for myself or did i want things differently, all of these aspects of consideration can be found through my other blog work, of course. On top of this, i had to think about my outside shoot as well, therefore i created a recce of potential locations that i could use, this was really interesting for me s there were a lot of factors i had to think about such as danger to the public and roads, the amount of natural lighting we would have all of the aspects had to be considered, i also created an inspiration, mood board which showed how i wanted my model to be where i wanted my flares to be positioned and how i wanted my lighting to look which all helped me out on reflection.

Another key part of my pre production process was, of course my test shoot for my front cover. I took inspiration from my previous research using influences such as Paper magazine and I-D mag to also my own influences and tastes as well as from photographers such as Brandon Woelfel, ensuring to push myself into doing a shoot i hadn't before. By doing my test shots i was able to really understand what i would need for my actual production, things like equipment set up needed to be considered before moving forward but since i was doing my test shoot, i knew what to do for the real thing. When conducting my test shoot created a mood board also really helped me as i could relate back to what inspired me, whether that be from a model's positioning to the lighting style used it really helped me to convey my ideas visually in my personal path way, which is key during this project. By doing my test shoot not only did it prepare me for what i would need to do for my actual shoot but also help me to convey my ideas in a way that shows progression for an idea, to trying the idea, to changing something, in addition to this by doing so many experiments whether that be from layout to front cover styling it enables me to develop my ideas further constantly, pushing myself to better myself. Throughout this entire process of pre production i have found myself increasingly confidence when it comes to softwares like Lightroom and Photoshop, of course all documented through my other blog posts. I feel that in experimenting with editing, different forms my magazine can take and also different styles of layout i have grown accustom to using these platforms and if i have had any issues, google has been my best friend, such as overlapping images or manipulating text. If i could change anything else about my pre production process it would probably to have to be not spending as much time physically researching however just making notes on what i have done and then filling my blogs up later, i feel like i spent too much time researching which may not necessarily be a bad thing however, i soon found myself falling behind others in the class and struggling to catch up, if i was to do this project again i would probably attempt to find a balance between enough research however it be thoroughly blogged about as well as being analysed to pinpoint the exact parts of any particular section of research that i like.

Production

In contrast to my final sentence, i feel like if hadn't done as much planning in my pre production phase, i do not think that either of my photoshoots would have gone as smoothly as they did. Thanks to my research and experimentation i feel that my studio shoot was executed with swift transitions from one stage to the next, prior to the shoot i was able to book out all of the equipment i needed such as studio lighting and back drops and set up quickly thanks to my test shoot. Whilst doing my photoshoot i allowed a friend and fellow student into the studio with be to help take pictures of any of the behind the scenes stuff i may feel like needed, such as me doing my models make up and then directing her into postion so that after, when blogging about the whole experience i could explain why i did what i did and how, in doing the behind the scenes pictures i can also reflect on what i could do differently and how i could improve it, which i am glad about. After my test shoot i was under the impression that i would keep some of the images taken and also use those in my magazine, but after doing my official photoshoot i decided to disregard those images as the ones taken this time around i had found to be better and more to what i was attempting to re create. Once i had my photographs taken altogether, i uploaded them onto my Mac and began to edit. It chose to go straight into Lightroom for the editing process as i wanted to encourage myself to be more familiar with the software, as i had little to no experience with using Lightroom, i found myself struggling to use the software accurately however i soon found myself adjusting to it, i know i didnt use Lightroom as best as i could have however i managed to edit the pictures to a standard that i wanted correcting issues such as white balance and enhance them in other ways that i also liked, which i am thankful for. One issue i found with some of my images were that they seemed be discoloured with a white wash tone which meant that no matter how hard i tried to enhance my images, they looked bleached out and there was no way of using them, due to this some images were unusable from my cover shoot but i had taken to manage through, luckily.

The same could be said for my outdoors photoshoot, thanks to my careful planning and recce i found shooting with the flares easy enough, i ensured that we left before the sun had set otherwise we would have been able to see the flares at all and thanks to the fact we shot in a forest i feel like the smoke going around the trees was really effective and therefore the shoot went better than i could have ever previously planned! thanks to my moodboard work the model knew what do to and i set up the flares as carefully as possible to ensure no health and safety hazards were present. Once let off, we let the flare do its thing and encourage the model to work with it, which he did. I believe that alot of the smoothness of this shoot came from my mood boards and clear visions on where i wanted the photo shoot to go, showing my model the moodboard meant that he understood what i meant when i said follow whatever the flare is doing, the pictures can out exceptionally well and i was so pleased with the shoot there is nothing that i would do differently next time, my research and experimentation worked hand in hand to find me the perfect location without any concerns or problems.

After editing all of my images together and writing my articles to go inside the magazine, i set about doing my first print trial, this was to see how to colours of my editing would hold up, it also gave a me a visual physical copy of magazine to see if there were any alterations i would need to make before researching where to print my magazine and then eventually, sending it to print. In order to send my magazine to print i wanted to ensure that the print company was right for me in the sense that i wanted to ensure that they could offer me the paper quality i wanted, the quantity i wanted and for the magazine to be printed well, all for a fair charge. I am really happy i shopped around before confirming my definate answer as i found the similar website to the leading uk brand who i much preferred and who also seemed much better, honestly. I wanted to blog all of this because it shows a progression for wanting to print but not knowing where to go to gathering quotes together and comparing potential businesses. However, before finalising my magazine and sending it to print i wanted to do one last survey using a focus group to ensure changes that needed to be made were, learning from my previous experience i only shared the questionnaire with those who i trusted, printing off more mock ups of my magazine and also a digital copy so that those in my focus group could find and go back to look at the magazine if needed. The feedback i received was overall really informative and the most of the changes recommended to me i followed through with as i agreed with them, on reflection i am glad i made the changes i did as my magazine looks so much better for it.

Overall i am really happy with the photoshoots themselves, i feel that if i had not done my extra steps like create a recce or test photo shoot then things wouldn't have gone so smoothly in the production process, one thing i am slightly critical of however is the fact that when doing my cover shoot i did not shoot enough varied shots of my model which were of a portrait size, for some reason i kept turning the camera landscape (probably because that is what is most natural for me when holding my camera), this was slightly annoying as it meant a lot of the images that i really liked i couldn't use as my magazine size is A4 portrait without warping the images or cropping out important aspects of some of my images which i really liked, other than this i had no issues. Once i had edited my images in Lightroom i then went on to export the images out and create my layout in InDesign, that way my images did not lose quality, which i am glad i did.

Post Production

Post production probably the most simple part of my entire project, once i had sent my magazine to print it was about me evaluating my work the best i could but also gathering feedback from my focus group again, now that my magazine has been printed. Overall i am happy with how my magazine turned out but next time i would like to push myself further, i like to push myself further than just an Instagram page and i magazine, i would like to create a video launch if i did this project again. Creating an advertisement for a magazine is a way for me to really reach new audiences but also reflect the style i am trying to portray from my magazine. By collecting another set of data from my focus group i feel like my work can be properly evaluated, as well as this evaluation created by myself. As a whole i feel that this project has been successful in the sense that i set out do what i aimed to however on reflection, as i said previously i would like to stretch myself further next time and really push my comfort zone in ways i havent during this project. Looking at my printed magazine now in comparison to the mind maps i created only a few months ago, is a strange feeling. I feel that i have remained consistent in my work throughout this project committing to blogging all i can to show you the improvements and progress i have made, which i believe i have done. If i was to do this task again i would want to push myself not only with the video advertisement to go with it but also with what i do with my contents, i would like to push myself to do another shoot as well as write more articles as i believe i could do it in the time frame we have been given for this project, providing i stay on top of my blog work. In doing this it will stretch me further in the sense that i will need to encourage my time management more.

Questionnaire results

After giving out my questionnaire to those who had viewed my magazine, i feel like i gained some really positive feedback from the experience on my finale designs. What i had wanted from my survey was for it to be viewed by a number of people in my focus group of 17 to 24 yrs olds for it then to be analysed to see if there were any points that needed changing or editing slightly before i sent my magazine to print, unsurprisingly, this did happen but i shall touch on those details later on in this blog post. Getting into my survey, the first question i asked was 'After looking at the magazine, would you read it?' thankfully, 68.8% of those who answered, said yes. Im really surprised by this figure as i would have assumed it would be less due to some of participating members of my focus group seeming disinterested and unbothered, but i am glad on reflection that was is something they would read.  I also gave my participants the option to select the answer 'Maybe, but only if something i would like was on there' and i left a comment bar so that they could submit their answers, i believe that this way i can receive more constructive criticism which i can then adjust before sending my magazine to print. One of my feedback comments stated that they found my title font too difficult to read, therefore i changed this on my magazine making the font similar, however large and more accessible for everyone to read. Another comment stated that they didn't think my text stood out enough from some of my backgrounds therefore i created textboxes around the images to separate the two which on reflection i think this is really effective, i really like how it turned out. I am glad i left this question so open for my group to interpret what i meant so that i can gather lots of variations of feedback before sending my magazine to print.

Next up i asked my focus group which their favourite page was and why, i wanted to ask this for my own personal interest more than anything to see what my target demographic prefer. There were a lot of 'I dont knows' which annoyed me slightly however other answers were really informative like, 'I really like the front page as it draws you in and i wanted to pick it up and read it' observations like this are really useful to be because i then know which parts of my magazine have been successful, others had really liked the articles i had written and thought they were really fitting with the magazine whilst others commented things like 'i really liked the front cover, however i feel like more info about the magazine needs to be added' to an extent i agree with this statement however i feel like for the magazine edge i am looking for, as found in my research a lot of magazines do not carry this feature anymore therefore i thought that neither should i, it was interesting that someone picked up on it however, as nobody else did. Moving onto my next question, i asked my focus group what their thoughts were on the articles i had written to include in the magazine, overall i got a really positive response to this, too which is slightly annoying as i need some constructive criticism to change my magazine! One of the focus group members did however point out i should include some contextual images of my work to go with the articles, so that is what i did. One answer said 'Not really, they didn't seem consistent' when asked if my articles were fitting to the magazine, of course it was unfortunate to say this as i do not know how to fix this. Unfortunately i can't write another article to go with it as i do not have enough time however i do not understand what is inconsistent about the articles, i wish i could ask.

After gathering some of my constructive criticisms i then went ahead and started to edit my magazine before sending it for its professional print, the main things i wanted to change were the title font, add in some text boxes and lastly add in some contextual images that would fit in well with the articles i had written. Here you can see some before and afters; I am really happy with adding the requests of those who had spoken up, i could have done with alot more critical feedback, so i had something to write about! But i have learnt that be really get the best analytical responses then i must go out of my way to do so with experiments like creating a focus group.

 

Questionnaire pt 2

Before i sent my magazine to print i wanted to be as consistent as i could, because of this i wanted to create a focus group of those in the age range i wanted my magazine to target and ask them to complete my survey on the digital copy of my magazine before i sent it to print to ensure this is something they would pick up. After each getting a turn to study the magazine as well as the access to a link to re look at the video of my magazine, i asked them to complete a survey via google forms which i could then analyse before sending to print ensuring that any changes that could be made, would be. I shared the questionnaire through facebook and Twitter to ensure that not only will my focus group see it but also my demographic of 17-24 years do, too. I wanted to do this to gather enough constructive feedback as possible as it gives me the confirmation about what my target audience want but also allows to fix any issues they may have. By showing them the online version, i think they preferred it to having a physical copy because it didn't need to be shared around, the magazine was on their screens to come back too.

Progression On Layout

To create my layout for my magazine, as i have spoke about previously, i did this through InDesign as this is what i am most familiar with in terms of layout and design work. As I knew i wanted to create an A4 sized, 20 page document i added this into the settings as well as adding in a 3mm bleed, as requested by the print company i chose to work with. Once editing my images, i exported them through Lightbox and also started to add in my written articles via Google drive, thanks to my flat lay plan i knew where i wanted each of my pieces of content to go and in which order, however i did not feel i had added in enough images from my second photoshoot added into my magazine so i made the document 24 pages long to accommodate this, 24 pages was more than enough but also meant it was divisible by four therefore i would have no issues when my magazine went to print. After adding in my text and images i went about adding in my particular details to distinguish my magazine such as geometric text boxes and adding in my social media promotions also, once these smaller details had been done i left it for the day to reflect, before coming back and perfecting the magazine more like changing my title font from the one i previously liked as i felt it to be too unreadable to other things like trialling page numbers but then removing them because as predicted, i found them too distracting and also over lapping images and text onto two pages as i thought this was a really good way of tying two pages together. All of these small changes added up and the process of creating my magazine layout took around two days (give or take) however i am really happy with my finale product, i am hoping it comes out with no issues but this is what happens when you give someone else the reigns on your project. On reflection, my magazine did change in contrast to my previous flat lay plan, but i had no issue with this. Now i need too collect feedback from my focus group and make any more last minute changes before sending my magazine to print.

Flare photoshoot-Production

One I had completed my recce of potential locations for me to do my photo shoot in, it was time to begin my shoot for the magazine. Including me, there was three of us whom worked together to create a good shoot for me to be proud of, as i wanted this shoot to happen whilst the sun was beginning to set we left at about 6;30 PM for the sun to begin setting, to ensure we would not miss this i googled the day before shooting what time the sun would be setting and planned my shoot around that. Getting to our location was no trouble nor was the issue of weather thanks to it being to beginning of British summer time therefore the weather was reliable, thanks to my previous planning i knew the exact location i wanted to shoot in as well as my previously made moodboard which allowed the model to understand how to stand and positioning to stand with our flares. The sun setting was a huge concern of mine as it can often be unpredictable, sometimes the lighting can be really effective through the trees if the weather is bright enough and others it is too dull and you are unable to see much, luckily for me the sun was bright enough for it to be seen therefore helping the whole photography process along alot more as natural lighting was my only form of lighting for this shoot.

As the shoot went on be began to find a hack of how to shoot with these unpredictable flares, as soon as they were positioned and let off the model must get into postion immediately for us to begin photographing otherwise the flare would get less powerful before running out and so after a while we soon found how to get into the habit of doing so, i found whilst shooting that there was more natural lighting coming from the North of us than above or to either side therefore i made sure to direct my model to face that way so that when I shot that the camera could pick up the light, which it did and i am overall really happy with how my images turned out. When we let off the first flare to begin shooting i thought that lowering the shutter speed of the camera maybe really effective but what i found was that the opposite occurred, turning up my shutter speed so that it was quicker turned out to work best for these images as i found that in speeding it up you could see the puffs of cloud more vividly and with more texture almost, due to this i continued to use this method as i wanted to maintain this look throughout all of my images. I also found that thanks to my mood board i knew the style of images i wanted to take and so there was no experimentation with style of angle was needing when snapping shots, you will see that there is a certain style i was going for and i believe i achieved this. I believe that if i was to conduct this shoot again i would potentially add in more varieties of colour when it comes to the flares themselves but apart from that there is nothing else i change due to how happy i was after the shoot, everything ran smoothly and we did not have any troubles. Here you will find some of my unedited images taken from the shoot;

Online Presence

During my FMP presentation i committed to creating an Instagram page for my magazine as i believe that this form of social media best reflects what my magazine is trying to portray through moments such as 'PhotoOfTheDay' i can show to my potential audience the style i am trying to show such as fashion pieces I am enjoying or the behinds of scenes of photoshoots we did that day, i believe that creating an Instagram account is key in my success as a potential brand due to the fact that the majority of brands have forms of social media, especially magazines which are more likely to have every form possible! In creating my Instagram i can stay connected with my audience and also may attract new readers to the page, which can never be a bad thing. I chose Instagram over any other form of social media due to its image based appearance as i have incorporated photography into my magazine i wanted to remain consistent with other platforms too, with Instagram also, you can incorporate pages to have certain themes therefore i was to remain consistent with posting onto the page after this project was done i could create themes of images based on each month of the magazines issue, which i think is a really cool aspect to Instagram.

 

Overall, i am happy with the process I have made so far. Creating this Instagram page means i am in the 'Home stretch' of creating my magazine and finishing my FMP altogether, it must be said i still need to complete my magazine fully and send it to print and also do my post production work however i feel like i am on top of things and am happy to continue to until the deadline. 

Online based version of my magazine

Before deciding to go with a print based version of my magazine for my finale version, i played around with the idea of creating a digital version of it as i believed this is what would be most popular, after doing my initial survey i discovered this wasn't the case! Therefore i went with a print based version. This hasn't stopped me creating a mock up version of what my magazine could have looked like however, to do this i created it through Issuu.com an online magazine publishing website which i found through my secondary research on layout, this website also came recommended to me based off the rating of some similar to me, also creating a magazine. I wanted to create this just to see how things in my magazine could look differently is i had chosen to do so online, i also wanted to do this so that it is easily readable to those i ask for feedback from on my questionnaire, especially my focus groups.
                                     

Progression reflection after trial print

After creating some mock ups and print trials of how my magazine could possibly look, i needed to get in order my re editing so that i would not mess up when my magazine was sent to print. After dulling down some of my images slightly for them to look better quality when it comes to printing, i wanted to put them into Indesign to see the space i was working with before i cropped my images down or any other drastic changes. As i said, i wanted to do this in InDesign as this where i would be creating the rest of my layout for my magazine therefore i ensured to add my 3mm bleed as requested by my chosen printing company as well as ensuring my images were of an A4 size to see the size of space before cropping some of images down or enlarging them to fit space as well as add in text or text boxes. I found this whole process quite easy to do as i kept with my colour theme throughout the magazine and so i found it easy to find a variation of shots that all tied in together giving my magazine a nice consistency of different images. One issue i did run into however, was that due to the fact i didn't use a tripod for most of my shots i found a lot of my images to be off centred and therefore they did not have equal proportion to them, this was difficult as it meant having to spend a long time editing these images to allow for their orientations to equal.

First Print Trial

Once I had used a mix of Photoshop and Indesign to alter my images for the magazine in ways i thought were really effective, I decided to make four example pages of what my magazine could look like and then print them to see if there was anything i wanted to alter. Once printing the images, a lot of changes i wanted to make on reflection were to the colour as i found the image lost quality once printed due to my printer to begin able to deal with the high saturation, of course i know that my printer is not of a high quality that will be like the ones of that used when i send off for my magazine to be professionally printed however since i did not want to take any risks i knew that it was best to edit them down slightly just to ensure i would not need to re print or waste money.

Before evaluating this page, i feel it should be acknowledged that yes, the print quality is poor; i'm a student, i cant afford new ink! Anyway, this is one of my photography pages in which the title is one side and image the other, overall this is my favourite of the pages printed out, i cant fault the image itself as i believe that the colouring will withstand printing, however i believe i will need to change the colour of this text box as it is grey toned here and i do not think it will look that great with the theme of the photos. Another dislike for this page is the thick lined boarder around the outside of the image, i believe i will removed this as i do not think it allows the image to flow nicely altogether. I didn't add page numbers to this mock up and i do not believe i will either, i am too concerned i will mess the counting around and end up numbering the pages incorrectly! On top of this do not think that i have enough pages (24) for my magazine to require it needing page numbers therefore i do not think i will be including them as i do not want them to distract from the image for example.

This mock up section of my magazine is the content pages, overall i also really like this. My image on the right hand side will be the on the of images i will need to re edit to dull down as my printer could not handle the high qualities of editing tone, which is fine. Other than that my only other draw back is the contents page itself, i really like the layout as it ties the two pages in together nicely but my only issue is that i feel like the purple section is too distracting for a reader to look at and read when the contents is therefore i will need to play around with this page more and see if there is any other way of laying the images out correctly. Other than this i am happy with this layout page, i like how the text box over laps into the text page also giving the page a tie in, i like it!

Overall, i am really happy that i decided to print pages out before sending my magazine to print professionally as it means i can nit pick the areas i do not like of my magazine and really give them the finale touches or re do their layout to ensure no issues. Printing these pages out has given me a better vision of how i would like my magazine to be styled, i have been able to see which of my colour selections do not work when printed so now i can change their opacity amongst other editing features as well as allowing me to do alternations to areas such as text positioning which i am glad i have given myself the opportunity to do. In doing this process i can leak up my previous research and experimentation process into my current production allowing myself to be self critical and analyse what i have done and how i can improve.

Progression So Far-Production and mock up of magazine.

After I had completed my shoot I wanted to experiment further using the with my front cover using the images i took to see if i could create a mock up of what my magazine could look like. I began by exporting some of my preferred images into Lightroom and editing them slightly to allow them to look bolder and more professional photography based, I picked three images which varied from each other to show how my front cover could take different forms.

This is my first mock up of my potential over;

As you can see, the left image is the unedited and the right could be my potential cover, overall i liked it however the busyness of my background takes away from my title which is not what i want as i want a minimalist cover (no contents summaries etc) therefore as such as i like this cover, it is not one i will be using. 

I wanted to create this potential cover to see a cover that did not have a filter over the image, honestly i do not like this cover very much. My first issue lies in the static space behind my model which i can do much with, as you can see in my edited picture i tried to crop the image heavily but i was still not happy with the image overall, the second problem lies in in my editing, as much as i tried to adjust the lighting balance the image still looked dark and did not do the glitter justice. For both of these reasons i have dismissed this as a potential cover.   

This is the last cover i experimented with, i created this one slightly different in the sense that in stead of exporting the image after editing it into directly into indesign i took the time to crop the image down and also add a board around it to make the image stand out more from the white page, i really like this effect especially as the image is landscape and my magazine is portrait but i think i have made it work therefore i may use this cover for my magazine. 

After completing this task, i did the same thing for the images i took using outside photography however since my blog post on experimenting with editing which goes into more depth when talking about layout etc i will not talk about it in this blog post. From creating these mock ups i could see how my images would need to be manipulated for when my official magazine mock ups begin, such as how the images would need to be cropped and also learning the techniques used in photoshop for touch ups such as getting rid of blemishes and other imperfections, overall, my favourite mock up is my finale creation which is the contender i may end up using for my front cover. As spoken about, i need to ensure i pay attention to detail in creating my front cover, as it is the first impression but i am happy. 

Shooting for my magazine

After completing the research and the experimentation necessary to begin shooting for my magazine, the process could begin. As this i have spoken about in previous blog posts, for my cover shoot i wanted to do this in our studio space due to the lighting i wanted to use and also the plain backgrounds which i can then alter to my liking. Thanks to my previous test shoots and endless research i knew pretty much from the get go in the studio space just how i wanted my shoot to go, i needed to do the basics like set up my back drop, ensure lighting was working and in the position i wanted before moving onto the applying the glitter to my model to begin shooting. Thanks to my previous work on creating an inspirations mood board on the make up i liked the glitter was easy enough to do with the use of adhesive, the whole process took less than 20 minutes before we could begin shooting. To begin with I had my model sit down, this was because the lighting hit the glitter and reflected out really effectively as i had found from my test shots however after looking at the shots i had taken i wanted her to stand, i wanted this because then i would have a variety of shots to play around with afterwards. After I had taken some shots without using any coloured filtering, i wanted to add this in. I added a blue filter into my model, which was just as effective. It worked really well with the blue glitter i had used on my model and the shots came out just how i would have liked, on reflection i believe that the images i liked the most were of the model sat down and luckily i had taken enough of the ones i had liked to add into my magazine later on.

Shadowing was a really important aspect i wanted to incorporate into my photo shoot, something i didn't talk about during my test shoot as a had to use a black background but it is something i kept in mind during this photoshoot. To ensure my shadowing was really effective I played around with the shutter speed of my camera whilst changing the lighting to each side of my model but also so that the lighting was directly above her to see which shadowing i liked best, this really helped in ensuring i got a variety of shots to play around with. After doing most of my shoot using a tripod to ensure a balanced photograph i wanted to experiment with just holding the camera, on reflection i am happy that i chose to do because most of the shots i liked best were of my angling the camera from below my model as this allowed me to include the shadowing i spoke about previously, as she was sat down i could get a good amount of shots this way without causing discomfort to her. Overall, my shoot didn't take long thanks to my test shooting and previous planning as well as the fact i could be critical of the photos i had taken quickly and learn how to rectify the situation soon, thankfully as my shoot focus was on the models face, i didn't need to include outfit changes like others did therefore i could save time that way. My issue fell after the i had finished the shooting and exported the images onto my Mac, it had taken well over 300 photos of varied photographs and most of them were very similar, if not the same! therefore i had to spend a long amount of time going through and deleting the ones i did not need, however in stating this i am really happy with the photos i did keep which i can use for my magazine.

Experimenting with the editing process

As part of my experimentation process before test shooting for my magazine using studio lighting and flash photography i wanted to ensure that i knew the style of alternations i wanted to make to my images after taking them using Photoshop and Lightroom (Adobe). In doing this not only does it allow me to practise the skills i have previously learnt in these programs but i can see what effects i like but i can also play around with the saturation, brightness etc to see what i think is really effective. From my research, i do not believe my images will need a lot of editing however to ensure my images are looking crisp and clean cut when my magazine goes to print they will need to be adjusted slightly. As the images i plan to include in my magazine involve a lot of colour i want to edit them to adjust the tones used making the images as vibrant as possible without distorting the images or making the look pixilated, as i do not know the style of images i will be using for my magazine yet, expect that i will have at least two double page spreads of images and three single spread images inside my magazine as part of my content i began with these; I selected this image, ensuring it had no obvious editing or filters to show a before and after. I wanted to work with coloured flares for the inside content of my work therefore i found an image that had this incorporated into it.

As this image had some unnecessary background to it, i first opened photoshop and removed it using the magic wand tool. In doing this the software can recognise which part of the image you are trying to remove and does it for you, once completing this task i was left with is image;
However i was not happy with the empty space surround the image therefore i selected around the image before filling it, i changed my settings to 'Content-Aware' leaving my image to look like this;

Now, if you look closely there are small lines were the image has been duplicated to fill the white and i did not like this either so i used the spot healing brush tool to remove the lines/blemishes. I found this really effective and gave me the outcome i was looking for meaning that i could then export my image into Lightroom to edit the image itself.                                                                                                                           Once exporting the image into Lightroom ensuring it as a JPG. I then began manipulating image with effects to see what fit best, i have little to no experience with Lightroom therefore i found this part of the task to be particularly difficult, however after adjusting i found myself enjoying it more and more as well as learning which was benefit it when it comes to editing my own photos.

 As you can see some of the effects used were really successful making the original image unrecognisable in contrast, i sampled with adding black and white however i do not think this is necessary as the whole point of the image is its contrasting colours and i did not want to make away from that. The second image is my favourite as it gives more depth to the original photo without losing any quality of the original photo, using this effect is something i will consider when it comes to the editing process of my own shoot as i think it is really effective. Once i had edited the photo more, i wanted to transfer it back into photoshop to manipulate the image further, adding in text boxes and watermarks to image showing how i could incorporate this image into a potential magazine spread. After playing around with 'Lighting effects' i was happy with the image and wanted to then begin a potential magazine spread, exporting the image into Indesign as i feel this software is best for layout as well as finishing touches. Before beginning my editing process i ensured my page size was of A4 as this is the size i will be working with for my magazine and after exporting my image in the editing commenced, as i have such a busy background image i wanted to add an extra detail so that my writing would stand out therefore i wanted to add a filled in text box to make my text stand out. Overall i think this was really effective, however on reflection i would use such a busy background to add text on top of as it is difficult to know where your eyes should look, its too distracting. I will remember this when i create the layout of my magazine.
After creating my basic mock up of what my magazine could look like, i wanted to take this another step and   experiment with other layouts i could use. I began by playing around with the postioning of where my focus image sat, as I said I found my image too distracting for the text to go onto of the image therefore I wanted to change around my layout. For start i moved the image out of the entire page so that it sat in one corner, from my research I had found it really effective for images to over lap two pages, it really brought the pages together so that is what I tried. Overall, I really liked the edge it gave my potential layout, it is something I would genuinely for my magazine. I think that the writing over lap ties the two pages together however the text can still be read which I really liked. For experimentation purposes i also wanted to see what it would look like if my image took up the whole page, however i knew that i would not like it due to the fact that the text cant be read. I do not think that the page came together as well therefore i will not be considering this for my magazine.

As you can see from my developments, once finding a layout i liked i then pushed it further to find the best outcome for myself. My personal favourite is the image is centred in the middle of the page, i think this is a really effective use of the space i have been given. I wanted to create these mock ups so that when i shoot with the flairs as i intend to, it gives me some perspective on how i should shoot and from which angles as well as what to avoid. By mocking up my potential layouts not only has it re confirmed my skill set in the likes of photoshop and lightroom which has given me the confidence to continue with my original shooting ideas. from my edited pictures and converting them into backgrounds it has confirmed that i must beware when editing my actual photos not to make them too dark otherwise i cant add text onto the image which can cause alot of difficulites for myself.

Using test shoots for experimenting with potential front cover

As part of my experimentation phase I wanted to use my magazine cover test shots to come up with some examples of what my front cover could look like, experimenting with not only the styles i could create for a cover but also taking practise in the softwares i would be using for the real thing. I began with choosing very different images from my test shooting to show variation as i do not know which style of image i will use for my real front cover, i ensured to use two photos one with coloured filtering and one without.

 To begin with i set about editing the basics of both images such as the brightness and saturation however before all of this, when opening my photoshop document i ensured to change the sizing of the document to the give myself a realistic idea of what i am working with, in this case A4 sized paper for printing. As most of the alternations i wanted to make were just enhancements of my original images, much like how i want to edit when it comes to my real magazine, i gave myself as much creative freedom as possible to enrich the colours of the images as well as play around with possible morphing techniques for the colour of my images, these were some of the possible images i came up with; As you can see, i did not do morph the images, i just enhanced what i already had, much like i plan to do with my actual magazine. I wanted to focus on enriching the colours of each photo therefore i mainly focus on editing the vibrancy and shadows of my photos as well as the split toning tool which really helped when editing my split toned images when using the coloured film over the lighting to shoot. Overall, i am really happy with how my editing went, it has opened my eyes to what i can do and how to find the correct balance without over editing an image or over saturating it.

 

Once editing my images, i selected two of the images to create two example magazine covers, to do this i exported my images and opened my ready made photoshop documents of an A4 size and downloaded the font i have decided to use, as spoken about in my experimentation on font blog post. After exporting my images into photoshop i wanted to edit them further slightly, as it was just finishing touches i went onto the effect slide down down and selected the 'Auto' edit tool which touches up the images to give them a better quality, overall i really liked the touching edge it gave my images so it added it to both potential front covers. Next up i added in my title, i wanted to experiment coloured font however, as you will see i believe it gave my magazine an unprofessional finish therefore i will not be adding this into my magazine, I will just have to edit the darkness of my images so that text can be seen, i also edited the fill and opacity of my text to experiment with how this would help and yes, i believe it did. When it comes to editing my magazine I will not be as timid with the tool. After editing my image and adding in its title, i added in a barcode to add the magazine potential, overall i did not like adding it in as i believe it distracted from the image, the same could be said for content clues on the front cover, i did not like this therefore i did not add this into either of my potential magazine covers.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  After reflecting on my created covers, i wanted to take this on step further. I had seen a boarder around the outside some magazine front covers that i really liked, with the title above. I thought this was really effective and something i wanted to incorporate into my own magazine therefore leaving my two magazine covers above as is, i imported one of my images into InDesign to see if i could recreate some thing like this image; When using InDesign i ensured i included a slug and bleed as specified by my chosen print company which was 3mm. On reflection i am really happy with my way my experimentation went when it comes to adding a boarder into my work, it was simple enough to do without me wanting to break down and cry. As this image is just a mock up of how my cover could look, there are some imperfections however when it comes to editing my images for my magazine i will not be so lax about them.





By me creating a mock up of what my magazine could look like it has really pushed my understanding in software such as InDesign, i am happy with my basic understand which i can develop on through tutorials during college time but i have now practiced important techniques such as adding in Bleeds to the outside profile of my page layouts. In doing these mock ups it has also made me re consider important aspects of my cover shot such as insuring that i do use my white background as the dark background was extremely hard to work with when adding in fonts etc, it has also made me consider the types of shots i do. I must remind myself to keep the camera portrait instead of landscape to help myself fit the image onto the page without dis morphing the image, after creating my front cover i would also like to create a mock up of the inside of my magazine too. That way I can play around with layout and transporting documents from one software to another.