The student learned several important skills for improving images and magazine layout while progressing from a preliminary college magazine task to a full music magazine product: 1) How to use levels to improve overall image quality and properly lighten or darken areas. 2) How to use the spot healing tool to remove unwanted elements and make images look more polished. 3) The importance of planning photography in advance to have suitable high-quality cover photos and coordinate pages. 4) How to do research on other magazines' conventions to guide design choices like appropriate shots, pull quotes and professional appearance.

1. Q7.Looking back at your
preliminary task, what do
you feel you have learnt in
the progression from it to
the full product?

2. When I first started using photo shop for my college magazine I did
not have a good understanding on how things such as levels worked
to get the best result. However while improving the images for the
final music magazine I learnt how to improve the overall look of the
image by changing the levels. I have also learnt how to use the spot
healing tool. I had not previously used this tool before while in photo
shop and did not use it for the image for my college magazine. The
spot healing tool is used to take away anything that you no longer
want in the image this made the image look more professional and
like a music magazine.
Photoshop:
If I had known how to use photo shop better for my
college magazine the image would be at a higher quality
and look better.

3. Camera positions
For my college magazine I was told to do a medium shot, this works worked fine for my college
magazine and I decided to use a medium shot for my front cover. A medium shot just contain
the person up until the waist. However after doing research for my music magazine I found out
that long shots can be used for the double page spread. A long shot is when the whole person
is in the shot.
For my college
magazine I did not
plan my
photography. Not
planning my
photography meant
that I did not take a
high quality image
that would be
suitable for a
magazine front
cover.

4. Planning
Throughout making my music magazine, I have learnt
that planning is an important part to make sure the
magazine is at a high quality and looks like
professional.
For example planning the photos that I was going to
use for certain parts of the magazine is important so
that you can design the layout of the whole page. You
will also have a clear idea of what you will need the
model to wear or look like. To help me think of the
photos I could put in my magazine I looked at the style
of photography that other magazines have used as
well as finding images from google to create an image
of what I wanted my images to be like.
For my college magazine I had not planed what my
front cover was going to look like which made it look
unprofessional and I did not keep to the convention of
a typical magazine image, this is a medium shot that
fills the page.

5. Research:
Before I started making my magazine I researched different music magazine brands so
that I could see what they front cover, contents page and double page spread looked
like to get ideas on how to design mine. I was also able to find out the conventions
that each magazine has and each reader will expect to see. I had not done any
research before starting my preliminary task so I had not looked at any magazine to
get ideas. This means that it was very basic and did not look like a professional
magazine. I have learnt that if I had look at other magazine I would have been able to
see the conventions such as the type of masthead, style of images, pull quotes and
much more.