The document describes the process of editing a photo in Photoshop and experimenting with layouts in Publisher to create a mock magazine cover. It details steps taken to remove imperfections from the model's face, add blur and adjust colors, brightness and contrast. Placement of images and selection of masthead color are also discussed. The purpose was to experiment with software features, get an idea of how the layout might look, and identify techniques to use or avoid for the final cover design.

1. Mock design of my
magazine front cover
Here I experimented with Publisher
to play around with its features and I
used Photoshop to play around with
manipulating my images. It gave me
an idea of how both software's
worked and also allowed me to make
a ‘mock’ of my magazine front cover
so that I could experiment and see
what looked good

2. Here I was zooming in to use the Spot Healing tool to remove some
of spots and imperfection on my models, Dans, face here. I used
the navigator tool bar so that I could zoom in and get closer to the
image so that I could be more accurate with removing
inperfections.
I concentrated around the mouth as this is where a lot of the red
imperfections where. I wanted to remove this in order to make
my images look more professional and also more appealing. It is
true to say that more images seen on magazine now have been
photoshoped to look more ‘perfect’ and ‘airbrushed’ I felt it was
important to stick to this rule as it is a key convention of general
magazine therefore would also apply to my genre, rock magazines

3. Gaussian blur
Although I used the Spot Healing Tool to remove more prominent
imperfections. The Gaussian blur effect helped me to make my
image have a ‘soft focus’ look to it. This could make the image less
‘defined’ so I didn’t use a high level of the Gaussian blur as I wanted
it to not look too ‘pretty’ with the soft focus look.
Here I made a
background
copy so the I
would have two
layers of the
same image.
This is
important when
using the
Gaussian Blur
effect so that I
could add this
effect to the top
layer, and then
use the erased
to rub away
some of the
blurred effect.
However this helped greatly to remove any excess
red tones to my models skins and therefore make it
look more appealing and attractive. I erased a lot of
the Blue effect around my models hair, clothes and
jawline so that they would be more defined and
stand out as key features to my image here.

4. Here as you can
see, I altered the
brightness and
contrast to my
image. I lowered
the brightness a
little as thought
this would fit in
with my magazine
much more being
‘dark’ and ‘grunge’
looking as it is a
rock magazine. I
also made the
contrast higher as
I felt this made
features of my
models face stand
out a lot more and
be more
Here is come prominent.
evidence of me
using the eraser to
remove some
Gaussian blur.
Here is some evidence that I
used the spot healing brush
to edit out imperfections
and the red eye removal tool
to darken Dan’s eyes

5. Here I edited the colour balance in order to level out the colours
in the main image. I wanted to make it less red in order to make
sure the skin was not too red. I added a more ‘blue’ colour level
to make the image look a bit more ‘cold’ than ‘warm’ as this
would give a dark, edgy look to it rather than a bright, poppy
look to it

6. Here I edited the exposure and I found that too much exposure really
did not look appealing. The brightness of his face would not look
good in my genre of magazine as generally rock magazine have this
persona of ‘dark’ and ‘grunge’ to give a ‘rock star’ look. And this
image with a higher level of exposure would not suit my magazine
therefore I will not use too much exposure when I edit my final
pieces for my magazine.

7. Here is a cut out of
the image I chose to
experiment with. On
a white background it
looks good and quite
clear around the
edges
Here I put my cut out
image on a black
background and here it
did not look very good
and you can see my
cutting out isn’t as good
as you can see the grey
in-between the hair from
the background I cut it
out from previously. I
have learnt from this
that I should be more
careful with my cutting
out

8. Here I has to align my
image to the left
hand side as the
photograph I took did
not have all of Dan's
left shoulder in it
therefore I had to
align it to the left
edge of my
magazine. This also
gave a good effects I
thought as it made
the image look 3D
Here is where I
chose the colour
fro my masthead.
It was an
important thing to
as the colour of the
masthead is almost
a distinctive thing
to magazine and is
associated with
certain magazines.
For example the
colour red is
associated with
NME magazine as
it is the colour of
their masthead

9. page to look like. I have not included all the key
features here and am aware that I need to put
those in my final design (like the barcode, a sub-image
and text on the bottom) doing a mock plan
of what my front page will look like has helped me
a lot as I can see it done properly instead of just a
drawing. From this I have found some methods I
should not do. I will write these in my conclusion.
But this also allowed me to experiment with the
Publisher software and get used to it.