Part 1

I started my front page construction process by opening an A4 sized page in Adobe photoshop CS4, I also opened my initial image in another photoshop document, i then selected my initial image and copied it onto the A4 page. As my image did not fit the A4 page appropriatlly, i had to stretch it. to do this without pixelating and making the image look strange i used a tool called "maintain aspect ratio" this allowed me to adjust my image without any faults, After i had done this i made sure that i pressed the tick to confirm the change of the image. As the sky in my photograph was fairly over exposed i decided to adjust the brightness/contrast until the photograph had the sufficient light that i wanted, I accessed this tool by image>adjustments>brightness/contrast. I then began the editing process of my background, as you can see above i changed it to black and white, allowing for all the other elements of my frontpage to stand out and catch the audiences eye. I wanted to keep my two models in colour so i had to select them sepereatly via the magnetic lasso tool, found on the default tool bar. After i had selected my models i went to select on the upper tool bar and inversed my selection so that the background and around the models was selected. To change my background to black and white i accessed hue/saturation found in image>adjustments. I changed the background this way so that i could get a slightly darker tone to the image. Once this was complete i then selected the small sections such as inbetween the models arm and body, doing the same process, image>adjustments>hue/saturation.

Part 2

Before placing the secondary cover stories i felt i should start off positioning my main headline and adjust the size of my other elements around this as it is what i want the audience to see first. Making the bands names was very simple i used an arial font with a size of 250pt, it is a bold text to show masculinity and power. I then used a an effect on the writing called Mosaic tiles, found in filters>texture. I decided to use this as it matched the pattern of the bricks keeping the vibe of rebellioun and masculinity. When creating the "VS" sign on the cover i decided not to use any pre loaded fire effects as these sometimes look unprofessional, instead i started in a new photoshop document with a transparent background and a base layer of text. I began with an orange text as this is the traditional colour of fire. I then entered filters>liquify and began using the forward warp tool, brushing the top part of the text upwards in flame motions. After i had done this i added another layer of text in the colour red, it was slightly smaller than the liquified text. I began the same process but this time using smaller brush sizes but a harder brush pressure this allowed me to create a more bold inner flame. Finishing the flames i decided to the "VS" sign an effect that would make it look more realistic and hotter, therefore attracting the audiences attention and adding tension to the story. I decided to use the effect plastic wrap found in filters>artistic>plastic wrap, this is what gave the sign a shine.

Part 3

I began to add images on to my front cover I used the left third for my images as this is the best place to put them so that they get noticed, but i decided i did not want my secondary images to large to draw attention away from the main story, therefore i made them fairly small on the page and decided to make the background of them black and white so that they blended in and matched the colour scheme of the front cover, i placed borders around the images by using the rectangular shape tool in the tool bar on the left of adobe photoshops layout, i simply made the box slightly bigger than the image, made sure that the cover story images were layered on top of the shape and then moved them behind the image creating an accurate border to highlight them so they do not loose all importance and interest. I experimented with different coloured backdrops for the secondary cover line texts but overall i felt the text looked more professional without them. The texts were simple Arial fonts, sized 70pt, i made them bold so that they were not to thin for the reader as this made my magazine reader friendly due to its ease of veiwing. My masthead was made before the beginning of the construction of my magazine, therefore all i had to do was place it in the top left corner of my magazine. The masthead was to small for my magazine, so i had to use the move and maintain aspect ratio tools to transform my masthead. Making the banner for my magazine was also very simple, i created the rectangular base layer for my text using the rectangle tool and positioned it accordingly. To put text on my banner, i selected the text box tool and clicked once on the shape, this enabled me to type inside it evenly, if i had drawn a text box over the banner it may look odd and not central. The barcode is an image from google.com that i have edited and placed a price and issue number inside to make it seem more professional. I placed the barcode in the top right corner of the page so it was away from all elements of the page. Finally i added the theme of my magazine which is a rock symbol known through out the world, it is used in all three of the genres my magazine targets, rock/indie/punk. I placed two of these rock symbols either side of the lower corners in the magazine, they are pretruding from the banner and are the same colour as it, making them blend in and helping them become something that the audience can associate with the magazine.

Part 4

My final construction process involved touching up the overall image, for example slightly moving elements into better positions for better composition and a more pleasing image on the eye. I deleted the rock symbol in the right bottom corner as i felt having two of them made the image seem unprofessional and to even, it seemed to me that having odd numbers can make the composition of the magazine better. I also deleted it because it was covering one models foot, making the image seem incomplete. Finally when i finished the magazine i felt as though the colours were way to bright for the genres of music my magazine covers, this is why i experimented with the filters and found one that i felt made the image much darker and more mysterious. This filter was called chalk and charcoal, i found it through filters>sketch>chalk and charcoal.

Large Final Front Cover