For this photo I used manual focus, I did this to ensure that I could focus on the person and make them stand out from the background. I took the photograph in portrait mode so that the photo would fill the whole background of the magazine cover and give it a more professional look. My images were in focus as I used manual focus to ensure this as I was afraid the images would not have the professional look I wanted or they may have come out wrong if I used manual focus. I did think carefully about the background for my images. I wanted them to be mostly bland and not of bright colour however I wanted to add a little bit of colour to bring personality to my cover. Next time I will choose a model who is willing to try a variety of poses and styles which will make the quality of my magazine look better and more professional.
On photoshop I used a variety of tools, first of all I enhanced the background changing the brightness, contrast, saturation, and curve levels to change the look of the photo and enhance certain colours. I also used the text tool to add text and headlines onto the cover and I used the magnetic lasso tool so that I could have the top of the models head over the masthead to give it a more professional look. I downloaded three fonts from www.dafonts.com to give my cover a creative, summery look to fit with the style and subject of the magazine. I downloaded a bold, eyecatching font called 'cityscape' to use on the masthead to attract readers attention, I then downloaded a font which I was to use for the majority of the subject headings etc called 'applewood' which looked sketchy, and lastly I downloaded a font which had a block background which would make certain things stand out from the rest. I used three main colours for my magazine, enough to give variety but not too over powerful. I used bright colours, pink, blue and yellow. Pink being a girly colour, blue being a manly colour and yellow being a controversial colour, to show the magazine isnt just for a certain gender. The strengths of my magazine are that it is bright, bold and eyecatching and fits in with the theme which is based around summer music, it would stand out from other music magazines on a shelf if it were sold, however what I would do to improve it would be to get a better photograph to use, I would make it look more bold, and summery and more appealing to the audience which is people male and female of mid age, a attractive female in summer wear and maybes sunglasses and some form of music software would be good to use as it would attract both sexes and would represent summer and music.
