Photo Research- Ariana Grande

Photo Shoot 1 (Best Photographs)

I have chosen my three successful photogrpahs out of my first photoshoot. i have decided to choose the first one as i think she is positioned nicely and the photo is is at a good quality. however i think that her coat looks too scruffy for the type of magazine that im doing, i also think that the photo is too up close and there will not be enough space for any writing, the title or photos. the second one is better i think tas the lighting is better as it brightens her eys which makes her look younger. How her hair falls around her face also makes the photo look better as it makes her look more elegant. however her hair is slightly messy and would need quite a lot of work in photoshop. also the hair band on her wrist is distracting and it also does not look proferssional. i like the lighting on the last photogrpah as it is very bright which makes her features stand out such as her eyes. howver although the lighting is bright, the skin and area around her eyes is quite dark which makes her look older and less innocent. i think th elighting also brings her best feature out 'her cheeks' as i have also taken the photo from a higher angle. to conclude i think these photogrpahs were the most successful in my first photoshoot but i dont think t hey are strong enough to use for my final music magazine front cover, therefore i will be taking another set of photos to produce a good quality magazine cover.

First Photoshoot

For my first set of photographs i took photos of my friend. for her clothing i got her to wear a pale blue coat so that the colour did not overpower the writing on the front page. however after i took the photos i realised that the clothing did not look as neat as i thought. i also made her hair and makeup quite natural by having her hair down or some of it pinned back. for her makeup she had little foundation and eyelashes with mascaerer, becasue of the lack of brightening her face i hasve decided next time to use highlighter to make her cheeks stand out and also to brighten her face around her eyes. i also need to think about other disadvantages of the photos such as the hair band around her wrist and any stray hairs. i used artifical lighting for this photoshoot as i thought it would be best. to achieve these photographs i researched the photos that were on current magazines of the same genrre. i then took photos using the same positions as the models.

My Font Research

 

i firstly began with finding some fonts that i preferred and the ones that i thhought would be good for my magazine. out of those i found a font that was my favourite, i then experimented by changing it slightly by stretching, having caps lock, spacing the letters or making the letters italic. next i started looking at the colouring of the font, i decide that i liked the pink and more girly colours as it suits my magaizne best. lastly i developed the font by making it look more unique by adding shapes such as th hearts and stars.i also looked at making the colouring look more metalic. howver i like the fonn that i have chosen as it is simple but still has an interesting look an responds to my magaizne title research.

My Magazine Titles& Final Decision

To decide my music magazine titles, i researched differnt names of current magazines to give me an idea of what was avaliable. After doing my research i was aware that some titles includeed shapes such as hearts and circles or had a unique letter. i have decided to call my music magazine 'Beatz'as i think it sounds the most appropriate for my magazine. i have also decided that the 'a' in the title will be a heart and the 'z' will be the unique letter.

Magazine Font Research

Music Magazine Research

Target Market&Genre
My genre that I have chosen to do for my magazine is POP. The reason that I have chosen this is because I think it is the genre that I listen to the most and it is very popular with people my age also. Therefore I can relate to it more and it will be easier to respond to my research. I have decided that my target audience is going to be aimed at teenagers between the ages of 12-16. I think this is the best age gap as people will be going through similar phases. Therefore it will be easier to choose what content I would put in the magazine because they are a similar age. There is not a particular gender for the magazine to be pointed at as I think it can be read by either. However I think it will be more popular with teenage girls; this is because they can become quite obsessive with their role models and people they like such as boy bands and male singers. There are usually two types of teenage girls, which are obsessive fans and people who just enjoy the music. I think I have aimed the magazine towards the obsessive fans because they would enjoy it more as it would contain information and photos that they would want to know, such as interviews. On the other hand boys can also read the magazine, but it will be less popular with them. I think it will apply more to the more feminine boys who enjoy reading and looking at girly things. The magazines that I have looked at such as ‘top of the pops’ and ‘bliss’ also have a similar target audience so by doing my research I know how to respond correctly and make my target market happy. My target market like POP music artists such as cheesy music acts who are very popular such One Direction, Union J, Arian Grande and Justin Bieber, these types of musicians will gives me inspiration for my music magazine.

My School Magazine Evaluation

About Yourself

During this project I had to make sure that I had confidence, to ensure that I would be happy with my work and be confident in what I’m doing, I think if I didn’t have confidence I would not be able to go on in the project. I also think that I had to depend on my creativity. This allowed to me to come up with any new ideas when making the front cover and the contents page. In the stage of photo taking for my front cover, I had to use my photography skills that I learnt previously before I started the project. I used my ICT skills to help the process of making the magazine cover easier, as I was already aware of how to use certain programmes and functions on the computer.

One skill that I had to develop on was to push myself more to enable me to create a good quality magazine. I think if I didn’t push myself to work harder, none of my work would be done and also would not be at a high quality. I also had to be very persistent when doing my work to allow myself to meet deadlines and finish in time to move on to the next step in the project. I found this quite challenging as I am quite a slow worker; but after learning how to manage my time sufficiently throughout the project, I found it a little easier.

I think to improve for next time I would definitely improve on meeting deadlines, as I did struggle to meet them during the project. I think I would also improve on my accuracy such as using skills to make the magazine better, for example using the rule of thirds and using alignment. I think I would also ensure that I put much more effort into the work as I feel like I did not give my full potential and it could be at a higher quality.

About the Technology

During the process of making my magazine front cover and contents page I used ‘ADOBE In Design’ for the first time, which I thought was very easy to get used to as the layout was simple. When using this programme I used tools such as ‘The type tool’. I liked using this tool as it was easy to use and I found the different functions that it had quite interesting. Such as being able to change the font colour and changing the width/length/italics/boldness made the writing more fun and interesting. I would say that this tool was the most useful during my work as I changed and used text and fonts quite a lot. I think also the ‘Selection Tool’ was also quite useful as I used it mostly to select images and text to move. On Photoshop I think a tool that I need to get to grips with is the cloning tool because when I used it to blur out blemishes it did not give an accurate finish. I think once I have fully understood the tool I will be able to give a good quality photo. To take my photographs I used my DSLR camera (A Nikon D3100). From doing this work I have learnt how to take photographs in natural lighting, and how to make them look professional. To take my first set of photos for m front cover I used artificial lighting without a flash to make the photos more natural. For the contents I took the photos in natural lighting, with the model standing by the window. While taking both sets of photos I tried taking some photographs using sheets of paper to reflect light onto the model. I also tried taking photos with artificial lighting and a flash, but the photographs were exposed to too much light which meant that they were too bright. In my future work I will have to choose better backgrounds as I think the places I chose to position models were not appropriate places as the walls were dirty. Also I will need to learn to position the model not so close to the wall so that a shadow isn’t formed.

About the Layout and Structure

The layout features that I have learnt about are what I have used on my front cover such as making any images and text float, rather than being on the edge. Also I have learnt about the rule of thirds and how to position my photograph. I also thought about alignment. I applied this to my work floating my images on the front page and also using the grid lines to keep the text and pictures in line with each other. I think the layout features came out mostly successful; however there were some disadvantages like the title not being in line with the writing, and the bottom line of the writing not being in line with the barcode. If I was to do this work again I would be more creative when designing my front cover as I feel as though it is very basic and not very exciting. I would do this by maybe adding a photo to the front cover or adding another colour, and making sure everything is in line and every image is floating.

Organisation and Use of other people

For my front cover I used a friend outside of school and for my contents page I used another friend from school. As I am quite close to the model I used for my front cover it was very easy for me to take the photos as she didn’t want to disappoint. The model that I chose for the contents page was very easy to deal with as she doesn’t mind having her photograph taken as she is very photogenic. A problem that I had with both models was that in some photos they did not take the work seriously, which resulted in the laughing in the photos. When I do the next project I will ensure to be stricter when taking the photographs so that the models know that it is serious and that the photos need to be taken. I persuaded them to let me take the photos by rewarding them after, as this worked quite well I will use this technique next time.

Contents Proof

My Contents Page

I am quite happy with my contents page as I feel like I have made the layout quite interesting. I like the use of the sticker that I made on power point as i think it makes the page more eye catching. I used these range of colours as they are similar to the front page and the colour of what the model is wearing. However i did not change the shadow around her face which distracts you from her face. I used the same font as the front cover as i think it worked well and it is fun and quirky.

Best Photo

I chose this photo as the most successful as i think that out of all my photographs that I took, this was the best quality and also I think it looks the most professional. However I do not like the shadow around her nose as it think it distracts you from her face. I also think that the background is the best in this photo as it is clear and not distracting. i like how she is pointing and it will work well when making my contents page.

My Contents Photos

Contents Fonts

For my contents research I decided to use the same font as the front cover as I think it worked well. I attempted to change it slightly but I quite liked it how it was.

Contents Page Drawings