My Editing Journey (Front Cover)

Planning: Before and After of Joe's photo

Here is the original photo of Joe followed by the finished photo.

• I brightened the left hand side of his face.
• I lightened the shadows.
• I used the blemish corrector tool.
• I sharpened his eye, eyebrows and other significant features.
• I made the guitar more contrasted than the rest of the photo in order to show off the important reoccurring element of music throughout he magazine.
• I blurred the background a bit more.

    

Using the Dodge Tool

I've been using the Dodge Tool with the Range "Midtones" in order to get rid of any unwanted shaddows. I asked a few of my classmates which photo they preferred out of the two pictures to the left and they all said that they liked the bottom one the best. This is because the shadows took their attention away from Brittany's eye (which is the main feature of this photo).

Photo Shoot 4: Selection and Rejection

Rejections:

I wanted to capture some good long-mid shots of Joe but his facial expressions in some of the pictures weren't displaying the rugged, "tough-guy" image I wanted him to be portrayed as. In the photo above he looked more bored than aggressive and his posture in this pose wasn't my favourite.

At first glance I really liked this picture and I think it looks quite aspirational which would certainly appeal to the aspirers from my TA, but The neck of the guitar isn't completely in the shot and you can see a prominent glare in Joe's glasses which reflects everything from behind the camera. This would be very difficult to edit out in Adobe Elements and for this reason I won't be using it on my contents page.

This photo didn't fit Joe's image either as he looks too casual and doesn't really look like a well known star. I think this was due to the pose and camera angle which the photo was taken in. As it was a mid shot taken at eye level it didn't really give Joe the image I wanted. In addition the lights were not in the right position so one of Joe's eyes look very dark and you can clearly tell that this was just a rushed photo that I improved. I also did not use the rule of thirds, this could easily be cropped and fixed on Adobe Elements however it would take up time that I could spend on doing other things. It would be much better to choose a higher quality photo.

Selections:

My main goal with incorporating Joe into my magazine is to reach out to the Rugged Traditionalists in my TA so that they recognise that this is a serious multi-gender magazine which applies to them as well. In all of my favourite photos from this shoot I believe that the image Joe is portraying has made it apparent that this is also a "manly" magazine in which the male population can buy too.

The light on Joe's left has been set further back than the one on his right which created this amazing shadow effect and comes across as quite mysterious. I think this could make a great photo for my contents page which advertises another article within the magazine. Since only one half of Joe's face is distinguishable I think that this will add to his star image of being a perplexed man who people will want to read/find out about.

This photo is very dark (as of the rest of the photo's from the shoot) so I will have to adjust the light levels on Adobe but I think it works in favor of this image. It first glance, Joe looks like he's in deep thought which my TA would find intriguing and might like to find out more which will encourage them to buy the magazine to read his article.

This was one of the better long-mid shots I got from this shoot where Joe is making direct eye contact with the camera. His checkered shirt, brown belt, suede jacket and guitar are all typical signs of the Country and Western genre so it would be conventional to have it on my contents page. He is in a confident pose and my audience should notice that he is portraying a well known star.

Although this photo is similar to the previous in terms of lighting, props and his pose, I told Joe to look more serious and to turn his body to face the camera more. By doing these subtle adjustments it changed the whole mood of the photo, so instead of looking curious like the photo before, he looks slightly more dominant. This is due to the angle of his body and the direct glare into the camera. His hand is also clenched into a fist.

Research: TA Analysis of Survey (Focus Group)

Yesterday, I conducted a focus group made up of 10 (5 boys and 5 girls, ranging from 16 to 19 years old) people to find out what my TA think about my magazine and to gather their ideas on what I should do differently/change. I showed them my hand drawn drafts of each three of my pages to they could understand what feel I was trying to achieve with it. The results were as followed:

1. I’ve been told that Countrypolitan sounds very similar to the gossip magazine Cosmopolitan which has a target audience of women around the age of 30 years old, do you think this will discourage young people or men to buy it?

Yes = 2

No = 8


When I asked the "Yes'" why, they said that boys might be embarrassed to buy a magazine so similarly named to Cosmopolitan especially if they look alike. This means that I will have to make it clear that I have a target audience of both genders and show that there are a lot of awesome articles that they would enjoy too.

2. How does my cover image make you feel about the magazine? Who do think would buy it based on how it looks?

"The banner in the middle looks a bit random but it still looks better that not having one at all, 'cause it's pink girls will probably be more drawn into buying it"

"I like it and it gives off a positive vibe. It looks like it would be a Spring Edition"

3. I was thinking about having a banner going across Brittany’s shoulders but I don’t know what to put in it, what is something important that you would like to see in the magazine that could be put in the banner?

"Maybe a quote or a song lyric"


"Yeah I agree with Robbie, 'cause usually magazines have a slogan or quote next to the artist so it'd be cool"


"I like the idea of a song lyric"


"Concert information maybe? I don't know"


"Something relating to your DPS so it creates synergy... have it in the same colour or font too"


"Tour dates"

4. Do you understand what the cover stories are going to be about or should I change them so they all focus around music?


I understand them = 9
They confuse me = 1


The person who was confused by the cover stories said "I understand them but I just don't get what 'Life on the Plains' has to do with music, the same with 'Where to go and what to wear', it seems like they're titles that fashion magazines would have on them, not music magazines."

5. Is £5 too expensive for a magazine (taking into consideration that it is going to be very high quality)? What about £3?

"Obviously the cheaper the better"

"I don't want to pay a lot of money for something that I'm probably only going to read once"

"I buy Vogue and thats like £5, sometimes higher so if it was going to be chunky then yeah sure"

"£3 is more realistic to be honest"

6. Do you think that my contents page looks a little bit too blank and if so, should I have an actual photograph of a field covering the whole background instead of it just being white?




"I kind of like how simple it looks"


"Me too, I've never really read a magazine that has a contents page with an actual photograph as the background"


"It does look a bit blank, but I think when you get a bit more writing on it it should be fine"

7. Would you rather read something that is formal or informal?




Everyone I asked said that they would like to read informal magazines and preferred "conversational" articles because of how much easier and more encouraging to read.

8. What would encourage you to read a full double page spread? Large text? More pictures?

Large text = 1

Many photos = 2

Attractive people = 2

Well known bands = 5

9. Would the use of lace or wood look better on my cover, contents and DPS?

Lace = 4

Wood = 6

*NOTE: All of the boys said wood and all but one girl said lace*

Planning: Adobe Draft 4

 In order for it to look realistic I had to be very precise when filling in the gaps of background showing in between every strand of Gabby's hair. by zooming in as close as I could get I was able to fill in the brown colour which creates the illusion that the post is actually behind her head.

Planning: Adobe Draft 3

 My main focus this hour was to remove any of the excess skin on Gabby's lips to really give her a pristine star image.

Planning: Adobe Draft 2

Planning: Adobe Draft 1

I spent about two hours on my first draft; looking through all of my front cover research posts and my hand drawn draft to come up with some ideas since I hadn't actually got the shot I wanted for my cover photo. I chose this photo from the second photo shoot I had with Brittany as the camera I used was of very high quality and Brittany's pose was perfect. The only thing I'm worried about is the background since it isn't the most eye catching and it is extremely difficult to make a believable cut out, especially on a photo so big as the main cover image.

Research: TA 2 (My Magazine)

 I am going to ask a group of 10 people of different genders some questions so I can see what I need to change or enhance on my magazine pages.

Hand- drawn Drafts of Front Cover, Contents and DPS

Planning-Photo Shoot 4 - All photos

Indya Conway's Slidely by Slidely Slideshow

Photo Shoot 4 Plan

Photo Shoot 3 - All Photos

Photo Shoot 3 by Slidely Slideshow

Mood Board of Winter Country Clothes

Photo Shoot 3

This photo shoot was a lot more fun as a photographer than it seemed to be a model. Brittany and Amy kept on telling me that they were freezing since I planned them to be wearing summer style clothes, not even taking into consideration that it planned to snow tonight. Since it's November I'm going to have to research winter style Country and Western clothing because I have only ever researched the conventions of Country clothing in general. Since people think about Spring and Summer (harvest time) when they hear "Country" I am going to have to show people that winter Country clothing exists too and not just the flannel shirts and dungarees they're used to seeing.

On another note, I did get a few good pictures that I think I could use for my contents page. It was really hard to find models willing to pose because all of my friends are away at University, but Amy came home for three days and was kind enough to help me.

I had to keep in mind that Brittany and Amy have quite different facial features and skin tones so I took a variety of pictures with and without flash. In the end I found that the flash gave a much better quality however it might be difficult to edit on Elements 11 since it lightened their skin tones and gave off a bleached effect.

Once we got to the farm Brittany refused to wear the Cowboy boots which made it very tricky for me because her Adidas trainers didn't look country at all. I'm hoping I can somehow edit them out on photoshop or I might just have to cut them out completely. I let the girls wear they black coats in the last few shots too because I thought it was way too cold to have them to stand in their thin shirts for another 30 minutes. I liked how they were both wearing similar clothing but I wish adhered to more of the conventions of Country Music.

Below are some of my favourite photos from last night.

I really like how all of the colours tie in together

Brittany's cowboy boots work as a sign for Country Music.

This was an unplanned picture but I think it looks really good.

This is a high resolution shot with both models looking into the camera. However they have different facial expressions. Maybe this could work on my contents page to show a contrast in their personalities?

Not looking into camera and breaking conventions

Amy's face in this shot is positioned just how I wanted and the shadows look really good..

In this show I tried so show symmetry.

Photo Shoot 3 Plan

My plan for this photo shoot is to help my target audience see a bit more of the graceful side of country music, and by incorporating lace and pearls I think I can do just that. I have two models for this shoot which means I can use so many new poses. We are going to an abandoned farm after 6th Form which i think will be a great location to shoot at as it is easy to get to and adheres to the conventions of the country lifestyle. In the second hour Amy is leaving and me and Brittany are going to a forest (bearing in mind it will be darker since she sun will have gone down) to take some more pictures. I got some inspiration off of Taylor Swifts music video "Mine".

I wanted to make use of the sunset and since 6th Form finishes at 3:20 this means we only have an hour to sort out makeup, hair, costume and actually commuting to the location. Hopefully things will run smoothly but it will be a bit of a rush.

Target Audience Profile

Target Audience Profile by Slidely Slideshow

My goal is to make my TA as large as possible in order to sell more magazines. This will be quite hard since girls/women are more likely to buy magazines specifically targeted at them and boys/men tend to buy more "manly" things with are aimed at them. However by having a mixed gender audience it will broaden the techniques and colours I can use to make my magazine appeal to both males and females.

Women are increasingly being represented as being more successful and independent as the world modernizes and so I think it is important to show that in some aspects throughout my magazine (which is one of the reasons why I chose to have a female starring on my double page spread and front cover). I will not use any pictures of Brittany at a high angle since this will make her look inferior and vulnerable. Instead I will mainly use eye level shots so the my target audience won't feel psychologically dominated or dominating.

My TA will be people from younger generations so I'm not planning on catering for the elderly or in my magazine. This means that I can use smaller font and make my pages look a lot more busy (whilst still maintaining a neat layout). I think in some respect teenagers and people 50+ do have some things in common when it comes to their wants and needs in a magazine. For example a lot of the magazines I have researched which are aimed at younger people have large fonts and page numbers (predominantly on the contents page) making it easier to find the corresponding article because they are probably either too lazy or don't want to spend a lot of time reading the whole contents page. This is the same as all of the magazines I have seen which have older target audiences, so I think it will be a good idea to make my headings in a different/larger font and some of the important feature stories page numbers bigger than others.

Another issue I may have is actually getting my magazine to appeal to young people as Country and Western music in the UK is thought to be a genre aimed at older people. What people in the UK don't understand is that Country music is getting so much more popular in America and is even kicking huge pop artists like Miley Cyrus and David Guetta out of the top 10 spots in Billboards Hot 100. I plan on showing people that Country music has completely reinvented itself since the age of Loretta Lynn and George Straight and is now dominated by artists like Keith Urban and Carrie Underwood. By showing that Country and Western music can be just as exciting as any other genre I must break some conventions of a standard country music magazine whilst sill adhering to the principals that make Country, well, Country.

I think it would be a good idea to make a magazine which both Eastern and Wester Audiences have access too but I think that this would be too difficult as people from different countries have different ideologies of what they think is entertaining when it comes to magazines (and any form of media).

My Target Audience's  Demographics According to Bulmer and Katz:

• 17-30 year olds
• "Tribe Wired" people with access to technology
• "Struggling Singles" (I will have to think about the cost of my magazine)
• "Fun/Atics"
• Male and Female
• Western Audience
• "Aspirers" (I will try to make a positive impression on these people)
• "The Individual" (make synergy throughout my pages and have a strong house style)
• "Reformers" (include a story about charities or a benefit concert)
• Middle - High Class 
• European
• Any religion

My TA According to Denis McQuail:

• Reading for entertainment
• Reading for information
• Reading for personal identity

Planning: Possible Locations for Front Cover Photo Shoot

Possible Shoot Locations by Slidely Slideshow

TA Research - Profiling

This magazine is a Billboard Spring edition which features Katy Perry wearing a black floral dress as she is ambushed by Gerbera flowers. Not only does the season of the magazine determine the colours and clothing used on this cover but it also indicates the target audience for this particular magazine. Due to the predominant colour being pink not as many "rugged traditionalist" men will purchase it. This is all due to how people choose to present themselves, for example, although some of the men might enjoy the contents of this magazine like what's in the features and photographs, they wouldn't want to be seen purchasing it since it wouldn't adhere to their image. On the other hand teenage girls from the ages 15+ would instantly be drawn to this cover since it is almost entirely pastel pink. It looks very fun with the use of the transparent, circular puff which makes it appear ultra modern and bubbly. The masthead of Billboard Magazine shows off more of the pop side of the music industry as it is in a serif font and the 'b' 'a' and 'd' are all filled in with the primary colours. In my opinion, the cover story is also aimed at the female half of the population as it offers an insight into "The Court Of The New Queen Of Pop". By using the word "Queen" it triggers people to think about female superiority (a topic which most women would be proud of and therefor want to read). Everything on the page is neat and in place in terms of feature stories and puffs which is stereotypically what the traditional woman prefers.

In contrast men would probably be more swayed to buying this magazine (as well as women) because Lily Allen is shirtless. As far as demographics goes this magazine would not be put up for sale in eastern counties like Dubai as it isn't the image they ideally want to portray to their public (due to different ideologies). So by making it a westernized magazine it decreases the target audience. Blumler and Katz expanded the "uses and gratification" theory which explains why certain people read or choose to use media in a certain way. In my opinion, the people who buy this magazine have the sole purpose of reading it for developing "personal relationships", so when they read it they would use the medium for emotional and other interaction. This is because a lot of the feature stories are biographies with interviews telling the reader about their lives and music careers. They could also just be reading it to diverge from their everyday life/routine I think I will do a survey about what type of magazine my TA would like to read out of Surveillance, Personal Identity, Personal Relationships and Diversion. The use of the panthers is a sign which represents strength and fearlessness, something which the stereotypical man would appreciate and be interested in. The whole cover is full of words symbolising wild cats and felines.

The words used are quite lustful which draws in people who read magazines for entertainment. The colours used are also classed as being quite masculine which further lures in the male TA.
You can quite clearly see the contrast between this cover and Billboards Katy perry Spring Edition.

It seems that BBC's Music magazine is trying to attract an older audience by they way its page is laid out and by the images they used. Usually the model they use on the front cover is a huge indication of the age,  class and sometimes gender of its TA. The cover is the main selling point as it is the first thing consumers see on the shelf in a shop. By having the famous pianist's name "HOROWITZ" in bold it helps the people notice it much faster and will probably be the first thing they will read. As this front cover features Vladamir Horowitz, an deceased piano "genius", people who know his music or who have grown up listening to his classical pieces are more likely to be persuaded into buying it. He must have quite an old TA as he died in the 80's, which will therefore affect the magazine sales. Horowitz is also very famous for composing for different moves so students who play piano or appreciate the arts might also find this magazine interesting to read. 

There is also a small symbol on both sides of the title which makes the magazine appear that a lot of time and preparation was spent producing this magazine which people who look for quality in a magazine would appreciate.

It also seems like quite a high class magazine as well since the mast head is in a serif font which is normally a sign of being classy and high quality. They use a variety of different fonts with a range of sizes to make it easier for its audience to pin point a story that they might be interested in reading. The buzz words in this text box located tin the middle of the page are in a bright red colour which contrasts to any other colour on the page. Elderly people stereotypically like cheaper things and are constantly on the look out for a bargain so this really helps sway the consumer to buy this product. Not only are the words "PLUS" and "FREE" in red but they are also in capitals and use an exclamation point to let people know that this is important.

The colour scheme is also very different to the two previous magazines on this post as it is mainly brown. Older people appreciate simplicity and studies show that they prefer more natural and pastel colours so they will instantly be attracted to this warm front cover.

I've found out that most magazines (no matter what age, gender or class) incorporate many sizes, colours and fonts in the writing on their front covers. No matter who the target audience is, the institutions still need their magazines to stand out in order for them to be sold and using these techniques will increase the change of the magazine being noticed in a shop. thus increasing their sales. Some of the features that the TA influences is the specifics like the pose of the model, the types of fonts used, the key words used, and the positioning of the texts.

A webpage I found on what colours different age groups prefer.