Dramatic Changes To Magazine Cover

After receiving informed feedback on a rough draft of my magazine cover, I have decided to make dramatic changes to it as I wasn't happy at all with the visual image my magazine cover and the front image quality was also poor. As a result of this, I was able to rework the layout and typography of the front cover, by removing the image and then using various InDesign features to create a basic layout. The screen shot below shows the layout of the front cover as it stands, with the improvements made. For example, I was advised by my teacher to increase the size of the title logo, in order to make it a more prominent focus point of the magazine cover. Also, using the colour scheme of the title logo, I was able to create an ongoing black, red and white theme across the cover and onto the corresponding contents page. Due to these decisions to change the magazine's cover photo, I will be shortly carrying out a photo-shoot with one of my friends who is a singer and guitarist, and then I'll edit one of those photos to create a more up to date and effective look for my front cover.

Experimenting with Image Editing Software

In order to widen my knowledge and use of a range of different image editing programs, I have used an online editing site called www.picnik.com - It allows you to upload a photo, edit it in simple ways, such as adjusting the contrast and sharpening the image, and then save it for your own further use. Using this site, I decided to experiment with my front page photo and here is a screen grab of the result:


The quality of the image is not that much different, however I have made some improvements on it, in terms of lighting saturation and size of image. The warmth and depth of the lighting creates a more contemporary image atmosphere and I may consider this style of photo editing when it comes to choosing the final edited photo to go onto the front cover.

Magazine Front Cover Progression

After roughly editing the front cover image, I was able to create a mock-up magazine cover and take a screen shot of it, which is shown below. It isn't at all finished, however shows the start of my thought process and the image of my magazine front cover. The cover lines are also just drafts, but also show a rough idea of the content that I will use. I have also used band logos to add a better image to my front cover and also grab the target audience's attention on the shelf.

As it stands, I realise that I have a lot more editing work to do on the front cover of 'Launch' magazine, however this screen grab shows the first stage in the production progressions.

Reasons for Image Choice

Original Image:

I chose to edit and develop this image, as I believe it most suits my genre of music magazine. The people featured in it look passionate about their musical talent, as shown by their posture and poses, and they also are young and 'fresh-faced', so they would appeal, as a band, to my target teenage audience. Their clothing is also relevant, as they look smart and have stage presence as a result. Although the original quality of the image is fairly low, I will be able to edit this as part of the production process to try and improve this aspect.

Photo Manipulations

After choosing a photograph to edit, I was able to open the image in Photoshop. Initially, I started by cropping out any unwanted parts of the picture, creating the focus on two of the people in the image; the lead guitarist and lead singer. After this manipulation, I decided to adjust the colour 'levels', which enabled me to change the atmosphere of the picture, and create a more exclusive and 'gig' atmosphere. After this, I sharpened the edges of the picture to reduce blur and create a crisper image. This combined with adjusting the quality setting to 'high' enabled me to increase the visual quality of the photo.

I then used the Render tools to adjust the colour and lighting effects of the picture.

The first filter I tried was the 'Spotlight' light angle. I was able to change the light direction, to create a 'warmer' or 'colder' atmosphere:

I then used the RGB lights to create a completely different effect on the image, as shown by the below screen-shot:

Images taken on Planned location

After attending the gig, I was able to take many photos of them in action, for example, the guitarists, their instruments and the lead singers. I am hoping that out of the many photos I took, I will be able to find one to suit my magazine front cover. I am not entirely happy with the setting of my photos, however I will be able to edit these photos heavily using Adobe Photoshop, to create a suitable front cover image. The quality of the photos as they stand isn't as good as I would initially like, however I am able to also edit this. 
After sorting through the 50 images I took, the photos below are possible images I could use:

I think that this first image has the most potential for a front cover image, as there is a lot happening in the picture and creates that 'band' atmosphere. The poses are confident and show musicality and I think that if I crop and edit the lighting of this photo, I could use it as a potential image for my front cover.

The second image isn't ideally positioned, however I could use the lasoo tool on photoshop to cut out the guitarist and place it onto a more neutral background, which could look effective with some experimentations.

This third image is similar to the second, however shows different poses and could also be potentially edited and used.

Image Set-up Plans

I have recently been invited to a local party/gig, where 2 bands who I am close friends with are going to be playing there; 'Legal Culprits' and 'Years Apart'.
I have decided that this will be my set location for my photographs, which I will intend to use as part of my music magazine's front cover and contents page possibly.
Each band has a variety of instruments and members, so I will try to take a diverse range of shots to try and find a suitable cover image. As my planned genre is 'modern music and popular culture', I believe that my plans for photographs will be suited to the target teenage and young people audience, as they would be interested in any new acts and getting information about up and coming live bands as soon as possible. I may need to edit the pictures using Photoshop and InDesign in order to create a better setting for the photos, but I will decide on this process once I have uploaded the photos and decided on a few to edit further.