Edited Photos

These are the images I have used for my magazine, before (top) and after (bottom) they were edited on photoshop.







For this photograph I decided that the image was too dark, so I increased by the brightness by about 50%. After seeing how it would fit into the space on my front cover I also decided I needed to move the two models closer together, I did this with the lassoo tool to outline the model on the right and move him slightly so he overlapped. I think this also creates a sense of dimensions to the image, making it seem more 3d as opposed to just a flat image, which is something used on the cover of Kerrang magazine to make images appear closer to the reader and attract them to buy it. I also removed the background by again using the lassoo tool to highlight both models, crop them and put them on a white background. I did this because the green I had originally used did not fit with the red black and white theme of my magazine logo and front cover, and also the lack of a background highlights the image and makes it seem sharper. One thing that I was displeased was with this photo was that I had to crop the top part of the left-hand model's hair to make it fit and level properly, but this was only a small inconvenience and I managed to make it fairly un-noticable when I added the image to my front cover.

This image was taken with a few objects in the background that felt out of place for a rock band's living room, which was what I wanted to make the set look like. I used clone stamp to remove the desk, painting and beanbag from the image, adding more carpet and curtains to the right hand side of the image. Originally the curtains I had edited in looked too straight and tidy for the rock-theme so I decided to re-edit them and make them look a bit more torn and scruffy. I first used filter to add noise to the image in order to make it slightly grainy (see below image) in order to make it look more like the image used in the existing NME magazine double page article that I looked at, because I thought it gave the image a quieter and relaxed tone. But after putting the image into my publication I decided that the noise made the picture too distorted and the detail became unrecognizable. I then chose to re-edit the image without the filter, increasing the brightness to enhance the detail of the image, I also tidied up the edges using the blur tool and added some more shadows using the clone stamp to make the curtains look more three-dimensional. I ended up with the finished image (see above right) which I think fits very well into my publication.

For this photograph I cropped it slightly to make the model the focal point of the image. I also used clone stamp to remove extranious detail from the background such as the paintings on the wall, and the pattern on the chair fabric because I wanted the background to as neutral as possible. I considered making the background white but after trying it I decided it didn't look as good when put into my article, the coloured background of the image sets it apart from the white page of the article and makes the image seem more solid. Lastly I auto-coloured the image, increased the brightness and contrast and sharpened it slightly as well in order to make it an eye-catching center-piece for my article.

I edited this image quite a lot in order to make it look like an album cover to use in my contents page. I inverted the colours in order to give the image the black/blue look, I then smoothed out the background using the paintbrush in order to make it fully black. I chose to make the album cover black because it gives the idea of serious rock music. Many well-known rock bands have used black album covers such as Metallica, AC/DC and the scorpions. I also used the paintbrush to remove some of the highlighted areas of shadow from the models' clothing in order to make it seem more simplistic and tidy. I then used the clone stamp to take parts of the glowing edges and placed them around the outside to create detail for the cover to create a space-type theme. The name of the band is Trial By Crack and the Album is called Freebase, so I thought it would fit appropriately with the drug association to make the album look 'spaced out'. I also altered the hair and faces of the models slightly using clone brush and the blur tool in order to make them look more unkempt and distant.

Photos

These are the photos I took for my music magazine. I used different backgrounds, camera angles, camera distance, lighting, degree of eye contact, facial expression, and clothing to some degree in order to get a varied range of images for editing. I used models who are part of my target audience in order to familarise them with the magazine and appeal to them further.












I asked the model to play a song on guitar for this photograph because I wanted to introduce the band I had created as having a casual relationship with the audience. I didn't want the images to show them up on a stage or in some glamourous pose, I wanted them to appear like regular people interested in music just like the audience, which I felt would create a feeling of familiarity between the reader and the people in the photos.

I wasn't originally going to use this image because the model on the right smiled where I had wanted it to be a more seri0us pose, I considered cropping it and adjusting the image to incorporate only the model on the left, but eventually decided against it after spending some editing it and did not use this image in my final magazine.

Again I tried to give this photograph a personal feel by trying to show the members of the band in an everyday setting, I used props like the beer cans, whiskey bottles and guitar to try and show their 'rock and roll' attitude, theming with the rock/indie genre of my magazine. To further the familiarity of the image I took it from a higher angle so the reader would be looking down on the image, which creates a feeling of comfort and position of power. Making the reader feel at equal with the band members instead of just an insignificant fan. This is something I wanted for my magazine in general, to make it as appealing to the target audience as possible on a personal level.

I took this photograph against a bright background because I think it made for a more lively image. I had the models stand in profile back-to-back because I thought it gave a feeling of teamwork, that they had eachothers back. Which I thought was appropriate since the idea is that they're band-mates, I thought it would be appealing to see for the readers. I was originally going to use this image for my front cover but then I decided that eye-contact was essential to engage the reader and encourage them to buy the magazine, so I used this image elsewhere.

I took this photo for use on my front cover so so I had the models give complete eye contact, as is conventionally used on magazine front covers in order to give a sense of personality for the reader. I wanted them to have neautral poses without much facial expression to convey that my magazine is serious. I wasn't as happy with the photograph as I would have liked to have been though, due mostly to the lighting and shadow which I had assumed would come out better in the photograph.