Photographic techniques

To take a good photograph you must consider:

• Shot distance
• use of tilt
• shot composition
• Eye line
• tone
• line
• colour , including vivid , primary and monochromatic colours
• Texture and hints on creating texture
• patterns and hints on capturing patterns

Shot distance types

ELS/LS- good for showing the insignificance of character or for showing characters as powerless in an overpowering environment.Also good for establishing location.

MLS/MS-good for showing movement or for a balanced tracking  of characters and their environment.

MCU/CU-good for portraiture or for moving image

BCU/ECU-good for showing the significance of a character or for showing the characters as powerful.Also highly useful drawing attention to character emotions.

Tone

Control of tones including variations of light and dark , emphasising important parts of the image and colour generally set the mood of your photograph.Tone control can be used to emphasis the shapes of the most important elements of a page.

Photographic / moving image techniques 

Composition

You need to think very carefully about how you compose a photograph.Many photographers place their subject in the middle of the photograph , which may result in a dull image.Use of the centre image composition can create a focal point.

Foreground/background

When designing a shot remember to keep in mind both the action in the foreground n the background

Framing

Keep the rule of third in mind when designing your shot.The viewers eyes are drawn to the cross sections of a frame, this is where your action should be taking place.

Lines

Lines are useful for emphasising and leading the viewer towards a  main area of a specific subject.They may divide up the picture into segments and differ in size and shape.This can influence the mood of a photograph.You can easily control the appearance of lines in your pictures by camera viewpoint.

Using colour

Taking control of the way in which colour is used in your photographs is a key way of improving your images.Keep your eyes open for for the vibrant coloured subjects , but also look for delicate coloured subjects and ones with muted tones.

colour sells -Bright bold colours are used on magazine covers so choose or plan the shots you will take on magazine covers.

Primary colours- include blue , yellow and red

Monochromatic colours- often have a sense of harmony and have two subjects

Textures

We must look at texture and patterns when taking a photograph.Texture can be used on a close up .Direction height and quality of lighting all combine to create a texture.

Are you ready for the weekend? article

This is was my induction task and I was asked to create an article for a music magazine.I had to choose the artist and try to feature conventions such as main images and titles:


                 First draft                                                                                             Second draft

My target was to focus on the present tense as past can be included to an extent , but my article had too much. I need to avoid creating a timeline of the article and focus on new content as young explorers want to find out the latest gossip. I tried to make the masthead bigger and the start of the article in bold to highlight what information is included in the columns.

Strum magazine

Front cover
For my front cover I decided to use a well known band that will catch the attention of Indie fans and use a exclamation mark at the end of the masthead to connote its playfulness as well as seriousness. I tried to use the  pull quote of "we want to be better rather than bigger" to create a preview of an interview and tease fans wanting to know more.To improve my design I was told that the cover image seemed stretched which affected the overall quality of the design and I realized that the right hand corner felt a little bare and dull.

Contents page
This is my first attempt at a contents page and I  tried to create a layout so the audience could easily navigate the magazine and find articles they are interested in easily. To improve I should work on my design and layout skills as I should try to maintain the same font style throughout and use capital letters where appropriate as there are a number of punctuation errors. I found making this much more difficult as a contents page should be packed with images and text , to create the sense that it is value for money. I was pleased with my first attempt of a contents page , but would take more care to reduce spelling errors in the future. Another major issue I have to address is that many of my images are stretched and out of proportion.

Double page spread
This is my double page spread and I tried  make it look professional by adding columns of text and pull quotes. The large image on the second page has a caption to help give more information about the bands style. To improve , I think the layout could be better as it overlaps  and I should include more text on the second page.One of the issues this spread has is that it is the second page has little synergy with the first, creating the impression they are not linked.I also think that the caption underneath the main image is tot small and in the wring colour.I think that with the columns I was too interested in following a formula , so the text looks dull and uninteresting as a result.                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

My practise magazine cover

This was one of the first times I had attempted to use photoshop and I tried to make the masthead cover the top and make it bold.I tried to cover the masthead with my artist to make it look professional and include various sell lines .I tries to include a plain background so your focus were on the text, so your eyes would be drawn to the subjects inside of the magazine. I realise that there is area for improvement because I will need to include more sell line and information about article as it looks rather plain.

                First draft                                                                                             Second Draft

                                                    What I need to do to improve:

I need to make sure that the image I used is to scale and to adda a barcode and price. I have also included too much dead space which makes the cover seem plain and boring.The sell line needs to be enlarged. The sell lines are not big enough and should be aligned down the right hand side. I think that there is too much dead space in the background.

Institutional research

Own industry leading brands that include retail, health, construction and fashion.They embody market leading criticism and their magazines include construction news, retail week , HSJ , nursing times.net and  Drapers.

Conde Nast mainly focus on fashion magazines such as vogue , Glamour and easy living.It produces  eighteen consumer magazines in the us and was founded in 1909.They own twenty seven websites and have currently made over fifty apps.





Natmags is a British magazine publisher based in
London.It was established in 1910 by William Randolph Hurst and was wholly owned by Hearst cooperation.Its publications include cosmopolitan , best and coast.

                                                                       

Ipc media is the leading company that owns over sixty types of magazine including womans own , photographer and TV easy.It is owned by time inc. and it is a consumer magazine and publisher in the united kingdom.They sell over 350 million copies a year.They were founded in 1958 and their headquarters are based in London.









Future publishing is the sixth biggest publishing company in the united kingdom.It is the official magazine company of three major games manufacturers and is was founded about 1985 by Chris Anderson in somerset with the magazine amstrad action.It reaches 51 million international consumers a month and publish magazines based on sports , photography and film.










Bauer media reaches over 19 million adults a week and own more than eighty brands that cover a diverse range of genres such as Heat , closer , practical fishing , mojo and Q.They were founded 1875 and their headquarters are in Hamberg in Germany and cover more than sixteen countries worldwide.It originally started of as a small printing house but over time grew into Britain's third largest publisher.

Music videos

Here are two music videos that include bands that I want to use in my music magazine:

Planning my photos

I want to try to create an element of mystery through the people I am going to photograph and I will possibly photograph a group of people as if they are in a band .I am going to use a natural background so we will focus more on the people in the foreground and I want to provoke the people as cool characters who will possibly be looking away from the camera to support this.I don't want to use make up as I don't think it applies to the indie genre as much as pop for example but I want the to wear darker  clothes to show that they are serious about music and love what they do.

I will need to choose a sunny day to get the correct lighting and I have not chosen who I will photo yet.Finally , I would like to take the photographs in a natural environment such as a park or woodland to create the correct mood that is not over stylised or create the wrong impression of the genre.

The recce

In this space, there may be potential hazards such as traffic and i will avoid to avoid other people who don't want to be filmed.To minimise the danger i am going to be avoiding busy roads whilst filming.I think the weather will affect the filming as it is an outdoor environment so there fore if it rains it will affect the emotions I am trying to get to the reader.I have considered the background as it will be plain to focus more on the person in the foreground and i would like the lighting to be bright , which depends on if i record during a sunny day or not.

I do not need to book a venue as it will be outside and I have permission to take photos in this area. Additionally,I have decided to not rely on someone else and i have a plan B if the worst happens.Crowds are likely to be an issue to me, so to stop this i have decided to go early in the morning or later in the evening.Finally I am hopeful that I will be able to capture the footage i need in this area to a good standard.

rationale questions

Colour usage:
I am using toned down colours for mature readers as it is for the indie genre and it is not trying to be bright and colourful such as we love pop. I am using a three shade colour scheme as it is going to be a mix of reds blues and whites.

Image usage:
There will be various images of current bands and upcoming artists and they will present themselves using direct gaze to connote confidence.

Text usage:
I want to keep the magazine have humour such as puns so the reader will not feel that it takes itself too seriously and I want to use sell lines to encourage the younger generation to purchase the magazine.

Layout and font:
I want to use fonts such as calibri that are quite normal to engage the reader rather than use a childish font that that is tailored more to children such as top of the pops magazine.

Music that will be included in my magazine

Here is a music video that is the genre of music that i will be trying to incorporate with my magazine:

Flatplan magazine cover design

This is the design for the flat plan of my magazine front cover.It includes all the conventions such as a  large masthead at the top and a large main image in the centre.I have added sell lines so the magazine appears to be full of useful articles that students should find appealing:

Next is my plan for the contents page. I tried to use what I have learnt about the layout of contents pages in other genres of magazines whilst adding the features:

This is my double page magazine design that I created on microsoft word and is a template that will help me to make an interesting article:

As you can see I have tried to make the style of the article similar to other magazines such as NME or Q that are the same genre as my magazine , which I want to be based around Indie music

research Questionnaire results

These are the graphs that helped me decide on the genre of my magazine and helped me to understand what the audience wanted:

This graph indicates that a higher amount of people would like the magazine to come out more often , rather than monthly.This graph makes me think that people don't mind paying for the magazine more often as they are receiving additional content that will help them to keep up to date with their favourite genre of music.

This graph is important as I can include competitions in my magazine and offer prizes according to these results, so I will probably include cinema tickets, gig tickets and free holidays. I believe it is important as this may be a feature that draws the audience in.

I can see from this chart that more people don't go to see gigs , so it may not be appropriate to include them as competition prizes every week and change what you win.

This bar chart tells me that festival tickets are the best enticement to include with a magazine.I can also see that CDs and  DVDs are not as popular as festival tickets , which is suprising.

This pie chart indicates that Daft punk are the most popular band among the young people I asked so including them in the magazine or cover may influence if they buy it or not.

This pie chart tells me that half of young people read NME followed  closely by Q magazine and a few enjoy reading we love pop.

This graph tells me that it is a mix of qualities that will sell a magazine , mostly the use of colour ,and there are different factors that will sell a magazine depending on the person.