Photo editing

This is a before and after of the image i plan to use in my magazine, the image on the right is my final outcome edited in photoshop.


I first use the dodge to to add highlights to the photo because of the lack of lighting when i took the photo it looked flat so the dodge tool was perfect for adding depth.






I then change the contrast of the photo to give it even more depth.







I then used the posterise tool to create the effect for my final image.

Photos

This is the image i plan to use for my front cover, it was created using a by slowing the shutter speed on a digital camera and moving a light in front of it causing the light to become blurred and distorted. The image did start out as individual letters but i used Photoshop to merge them together. I choose to this image because as with most genres of music my genre has strong links with art. I feel that this image is more artistic than having someone posing for a photo. I also found hard to find someone to photograph that i could link to my genre well. Instead of trying to focus an artist from my genre i thought it would be easier to take a photo such as this.Also i wanted my front cover to be different from other music magazine front covers, after researching magazines from the same or similar genres i discovered it was hard to find a conventional front cover like a traditional band photo, this is one of the reasons i decided to use the photos i did. In my opinion the photo works well as it incorporates both the controversial and artistic side of the genre. I thought it would be useful to examine some of the album artwork of two artists in the genre too see if there were any trends or themes i could incorporate into my magazine.
Studying the artwork from the two album covers has help me confirm that the photo on my front cover is relevant to Dubstep, i
have found that a lot of the artwork associated with the genre or used by artists has a 'Technological' influence, often featuring mechanical imagery or some form of electronics. This is why i think my photo on the front cover fits in well with the genre as it has a similar look to the album covers i have looked at. And hopefully it will appeal to my target audience because of the similarities it shares with the artwork of already successful artists in the genre.












I plan to use one of the these three photos as the image on my double page spread. The images are supposed to represent a 'party animal' as my main article asks what effect dubstep is having on its listeners. I think the non serious style of the photo will appeal to my target audience. I plan to edit these photos quite heavily in photoshop before putting them in my magazine by this time hopefully the images will look fairly surreal. From research into the genre i have found that it is not uncommon to see something unusual or unconventional in either magazines or artwork, this is why i have decided not to use photo of a human and instead use a subject that doesn't necessarily fit in with a traditional double page spread photograph, this is something that i think will appeal to my target audience.

Below i have featured a cover from Mix mag, a dance music magazine that often features articles on dubstep. This particular cover features subject matter very similar to mine so i believe it is relevant to include this as evidence because it shows that the image i have featured on the front cover of my magazine will both represent my genre well and appeal to my target audience since i have already established that my magazine and mix mag share very similar target audiences.

Below i have an example of a front cover from DJ magazine, since most Dubstep artists will also perform live Dj sets as well as produce music, i think it is fair to say that my magazine and this one will share similar target audiences. I have used this example because this front cover also doesn't feature a traditional photo of a person. I believe that because of the fact that my genre and genres it is associated aren't always conventional it allows me to use the images that i have and still appeal to my target audience.

Flat plans.

I think the overall layout of my magazine front cover is fairly simple, i choose not to have too much going so not to make the cover looked to cluttered. I decided to use a graffiti style font for my mast head as i think this will appeal to my target audience, i also think that an interesting font will have more chance of drawing in a reader in then a plain, boring font. I have decided to repeat the name of the genre 'Dubstep' all over the page to make it clear to readers what the magazine will focus on, i also hope that this will attract someones eye who is interested in the genre and encourage them to read the magazine. I want my front cover to have a black background and bright fonts so the important information on the page stands out. I plan to use a different font from the mast head font for all the headings and sub headings purely because i believe this will look better than using the same font all over the page. I have made the picture for my front cover artistic as i think this will appeal to my target audience more so than a picture you might find on the front of a pop magazine. ATM magazine one of the magazines i researched that focuses on the same genre, has articles that focus on art and fashion associated with the genre, it is for this reason i choose to use an artistic photo on the front cover.


Again i want to keep things simple on my contents page i want to display all the information in a way that's clear and easy to read, I think that how i have laid out the information on this page enables the reader to find out articles are in the magazine and allows them to navigate to their chosen page quickly, this will kept the audience interested and not frustrate them. Similar to my front cover i want to use darker, more subtle colours for the background to make the foreground standout more. I want my subscription offer to stand out in this page more than anything else.










I want the left page of my double page spread to be completely filled with my photo, and the right hand side to be all text. I am not going to try to break up the text on this page as i feel that my audience is old enough to cope with a full page of text. i want to use the same font for the headings that i used on my front cover so my audience can become familiarised with the font and so it is easily recognisable. On the right page of my double page spread i want to use a three or four column format rather than having a massive chunk of text.