Skills Development

Looking back at your preliminary task (the college magazine task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

I think when looking back on my preliminary task, it is clear that i have improved my skills on photoshop. The light exposure on the college magazine cover image is far too bright and over-exaggerated. I think that it makes the magazine look a very poor quality, as it is clear that I wasn't really sure what I was doing. By the time I got round to doing my music/fashion magazine cover, I had practised with adjusting the light exposure, and was much more confident with photoshop. I think that the subtle light adjustments I made to the image make the cover look far more fashionable and professional.
I had not done very much research on magazine conventions and appearances when I first started on my preliminary task at the beginning of the year. Although I obviously knew roughly how a magazine was meant to be put together, I had no idea how much effort and detail was required to make a magazine perfect like I did by the time it came to doing my main task. I find the contents page for my college magazine embarrassing because other than the page numbers,  headings and title, it lacked any realism and any resemblance to a real magazine whatsoever. The layout and over-sized font make it look as if I had just been lazy. And the font resembles that of a two-year old's handwriting. The contents page that I made for my main task has a plain white background to make it look more sophisticated, something which I learnt from the mistake I made with my preliminary task. I made the font simpler to look more high-fashion and elegant. My preliminary contents page looked far too plain, so I added two images to my main task page, a feature which I had noticed comes up in most fashion and music magazines on the shelves. Another feature which I thought it would be a good idea to add was the editors note, just to make it seem more personal and to avoid any spaces being left which would require a need for a bigger font, which would look tacky and lazy (like in my preliminary task).
I put a lot more thought into my photos for my main task than I had with my preliminary task. I thought that the background on the cover image for my College Magazine was appropriate for the task I was given at the time, however it took focus away from the person on the cover. I knew that this was fine for a college magazine, but would not be suitable for my fashion/music magazine, as the focus should be on the featured cover artist. This is why my model is against a white background. I had also noticed that most magazine images are mid-shots taken straight-on, and the artist is virtually always making eye contact with camera. However I ignored this convention when carrying out my preliminary task by taking the image from a low angle, only to find that the angle did not flatter my model at all, and it looked almost as if she was struggling to keep eye contact with a camera at such a low angle. For this reason, when moving on to my main task I decided to take my shot from just a slightly higher angle than a straight-on shot to flatter my model, and to ensure she was making the best-possible eye contact to draw in readers.