Photo options

Today I've chosen the pictures that I am most likely to use for the cover and the double spread pages. 

These, in my opinion will suit the cover page:

 

Obviously I will have to cut them and make the background lighter. 

These three pictures are my favourite and it is very hard to choose which one I want to see on the double spread of my music magazine:

My next step will be working with these pictures in Photoshop and actually creating the pages. 

The "М"

Continuing working with the "afterglow" this time I took another picture and added a frame in the shape of "M" on it. Originally it was dense white so I've made it transparent so both the photo and the frame could be seen. 

I think these kind of picture would look good as a cover of an album or one of the promo pictures for the new artist as it showes the face and also suggests the name - Marijuama - to the people and I think it's quite unusual. 

Afterlight

Today I've downloaded a new app on my phone called "afterlight". 

It is now very commonly hashtagged on Instagram and used by loads of people. It is like a mini photoshop which allows you to add different effects on you pictures, play with shadows and contrast, add light and frames. 

I was bored and partly interested in how this app works so I've played with one of the pictures taken today. This is what it looked originally:

I've added some brightness, removed some shadows, added an affect on it that faded the colours and also I've chosen one of the "light leak" effects which is seen on the left of the picture:

Now it looks a little bit unreal but it's fine for my magazine as I want it to be something not ordinary and with its own unique touch. I like the new picture more as it gives nice combination of colours and shades and is not as brown as the original one. It also gives nice shadows, one from Maria's legs and the other two from her arms, that kind of remind me of wings of an angel (if you look closely), and her white dress fluttering in the wind adds to that image.

Photoshoot

Today we did a photo shoot for my music magazine. It took us a few hours, two cameras, many changes of costume and more than a hundred shots and poses. But we did it and I am more than happy with the result. 

Just like I've planned, I've used white background and two spotlights to create shadows. Some of the pictures have an effect of the crossed shadows and I really like it. 

As I said, there are at least a hundred of photos, but I've picked the ones which I like the most and posted them below. They are not photoshopped yet and there had been no effects added.

A massive "thank you" to my gorgeous model, Maria Sokolova. (instagram.com/marijuama)

Poll on names results

Today my poll on names is closed and the name of my magazine is decided. It is the "Vox Populi". 
When I was looking for the possible names of my music magazine, I've chosen this one because it means "Voice of people" or "Public opinion" which is a good name for a magazine with a lot of articles and reviews. Also this is the name of one of the songs of 30 Seconds To Mars and this makes a link  to the music industry. 
Thank you for everyone who voted :)

Photoshoot plan

This Saturday I will be doing the photoshoot for my Music magazine and I have to plan everything before I start so everyone involved will know what to do. 

First of all, the photoshoot will be taking place inside and during the second half of the day, even closer to the evening. I've decided to use white background as it will allow me various manipulations of the pictures afterwards. Also, my model has dark but quite bright shade of hair and it will contrast and stand out a lot on the white background. I am planning to use two spotlights and also two cameras. 

I have no clear ideas of exactly what photos I want o take but I am inspired by a picture of Cara Delevingne I recently found on the internet :

and some Instagram pictures of this young girl, Maria Sokolova (Marijuama), who actually agreed to be my model :)

I want to show a rebel side of a feminine beautiful girl and show emotions and movement in my pictures. I probably will try to make some similar to these pictures and also try to do something originals and bright. 

Fonts

Before starting making the magazine we have to research some fonts for the masthead. I still don't now what the name of my magazine will be as the poll on names is still on and people are still voting, so I did some screenshots of the fonts I liked the most and their names. I want my magazine to be quite modern so I was looking for simple serif or sans-serif fronts with straight or a little bit more round lines, very readable and quite fat so they will still stand out even if they are overlaid by a main picture. 

This one is called "Kenzo" and it is actually the same kind of font which the famous brand uses for labels or signs on clothes. It is tall and bold sans-serif font and it will look effective for a short masthead and I see it either in black or neon colours. 

This one is called "Couture" and is very round and bold and I would probably use it for the contents page rather than cover. 

This one is called "Revolution" and as the name suggests I would use it for a Rock or very modern and Pop-art magazine (which would publish something in style of the latest Lady Gaga's album "ARTPOP"). Even though it is bold and vowels have round shapes, consonants have sharp edges and angles and this adds some aggression to the font.

This font seems quite artistic and original to me. The letters are tall but the top half of them is bigger than the bottom and I find it interesting. Like in the image, this font looks very nice when applied to two or more words. This type of font is quite often used on posters

such as this one. I like the idea of using this font in one colour and shadow it in another. 

This is personally my favourite font of all that I've chosen. It reminds me of newspapers so suggests a quite serious content of the magazine and older audience (18-30 years-olds). It is a serif font and what interested me in it is that it has very thin lines and serifs comparing to the main bodies of the letters. It is also a little bit elegant and will look good in simple colours, such as black white or dark blue and all their shades. 

All of my fonts are similar to each other because I have some kind of vision of what I want to see on the pages of my magazine. I want the fonts to be quite bold and eye-catching. I like these fonts and I think in the end I'll use two of them - one for the cover and one for the contents.   

Poll on names

I've added a poll on names for my future music magazine on the right of the page, just above information about me. I've chosen 4 different names, and they are the names of the songs, which I thought would sound good as a magazine masthead. So be free to choose one :)

Research summary

All this research was very important for my work on the music magazine.

• Now that I've compared different pages and layouts I have some ideas of layouts of my pages. It helped me to notice all the little things such as barcode or website that make magazine real

• Also, looking at the photographers and their photoshoots made me think about what I would want to see on my cover and contents pages

• ABC figures showed me which kind of magazines are most popular, and all the statistics helped me  to choose right direction for my magazine

• Questionnaire allowed me to get people's opinion

Overall now I have enough information to create a Music Magazine that will be as close to real as possible and will please the potential audience. 

Modern features

The history of the photographs started around 1800 and since than it obviously had improved. Today, there are so many gadgets that can make photography very easy and interesting.

All the smartphones and popular Apple products have a good quality camera, that allows people to capture something interesting at any moment. Many different programs replace Photoshop. 

such programs as PS Express, Mirrorgram and VSCOcam are personally my favorites. They allow not only to take pictures but to add different effects on them. 

Also, social networks allow people to upload their pictures and share them with friends and the world. The most popular are Facebook, Tumblr and "twitter for pictures" - Instagram. 

So today anyone can make a good photo and create something original and this leas me to conclusion that technologies are also a part of a good photo. 

Photography pp

Photography presentation from stacey_s96

Analysis of Questionnaire results

So for my questionnaire I've asked 

24 people, 12 male and 12 female. 

I had three age categories: 

14-16    17-18    and Older

Most of the people who answered my questionnaire were 17 or 18, and 2 people were older. 

This decided the age of audience that I will aim my magazine to. 

Out of 24 people majority of people do read music magazines, however 8 people still never do so. 

Those who buy magazine do it mostly once a fortnight.  

      

I've asked what genres people prefer and these are the results:

Classic	Jazz/Blues/ Soul	Rap/RnB/ Hip hop	Pop	Rock/ Metal	Other
0	3	9	7	3	2

So rap and hip hop is the most popular music, second popular is Pop genre according to my questionnaire.

I've also asked what would people want to see more inside the magazine and most people want to see more of music reviews and top charts. 

10 out of 24 people prefer the magazine to be bright coloured and other 14 had shared opinions. 

19 people are ready to pay 1-2 pounds for the magazine and 5 people would like to pay 2.50-3 pounds or get it for free. 

This questionnaire was useful and it helped me to make decisions. All this information is important in creating a popular and well celled magazine.It is important to know audiences opinion to create a successful media piece. 

Questionnaire

Questionnaire

Please select one (unless you told to do more) answer at a time.

1. Your gender?

Male       Female

2. Your age?

14 – 16      17-18     Older

3. Do you buy/read music magazines?

Yes        No

4. If yes, how often? (if no, skip this question)

Once a week       

Once a fortnight      

Every month   

Other (please state) 

5. What genre of music you are most interested in?

(You may choose more than one answer)

Classic

Jazz/blues/soul

Rap/RnB/Hip hop

Pop

Rock/metal

Other (please state) 

6. What would you expect to see more in the music magazine?

(You may choose more than one answer)

Articles/Interviews

Music reviews

Top charts

Photoshoots

News (music)

Other (please state) 

7. What kind of pictures would you expect to see in the magazine?

Colorful and bright

Classy/black-and-white

Very original (beyond realism)

Other (please state)

8. How much would you pay for the magazine?

Get it for free

Under £1

£1 – 2

£2.50 – 3

£3.50 and more

9. Do you have any other ideas and suggestions?