Evaluation

Evaluation

When I took the pictures for my front cover, I struggled to use the manual focus as I am mostly accustomed to using auto focus on the cameras I have at home. I now know how to use the camera's focus properly and the zoom, so my pictures will be less blurry and more in focus. Next time I use the cameras I will make sure the right settings are in place and to use manual focus properly. I didn't really think carefully about the background for my image, which presented a problem when I wanted to add the masthead. The colour of the bushes and trees behind him were very dark, as it was an overcast day, meaning I couldn't use the masthead I wanted. As the background was so dark after I applied black and white to the picture, I faded out the background so you could just see his face. That way I could use the masthead I wanted and it made it easier to apply the cover lines. I will make sure to consider the background more carefully in future photographs.

I think that I handled my subject well and gave him clear instructions, but I think I could take control slightly more to be able to experiment with new angles and lighting. I struggled to use Photoshop properly as I am very new to using a programme like it. I found it difficult to work with the layers, though they came in handy when I made a mistake and wanted to remove something. I used a variety of tools, but mostly stuck to the basics, such as crop and applying text. I also experimented with a range of tints on the photograph. Cutting out my images went quite well considering I hadn't done it before on Photoshop. The effects I added were basic black and white and I did this on Photoshop also. I downloaded a font from a website because I wanted one to suit the magazine, as I didn't feel the other fonts on Photoshop made the magazine look the way I wanted it to.

The main colours I used were black, red and hints of yellow because I thought these colours contrasted one another and stood out. To improve my front cover, I think I would make it higher quality and take better quality photographs for it (e.g. use the manual focus properly) and I would also add more cover lines and experiment with font styles. The magazines strengths were that it stood out and the masthead was strong and powerful.

Bad images

I didn't like this image because it was out of focus and set in a dull background.