Print Skills Audit

Equipment Evaluation

This is an evaluation of the equipment I have used over the past year.

Downloaded Brushes

I used these brushes in my Unit 3 project, as my project was on carbon footprints. I used them in a black colour, and applied effects such as drop shadows and bevel/emboss to make them stand out more. The brush set is called 'Follow In My Footsteps', and I downloaded it from http://www.brusheezy.com/

Downloaded fonts

I chose to use this font in my Unit 3 project, as I thought it was easy to read, and would be liked by the target audience. It is also thick, and therefore may resemble carbon. It is called 'Beer', and I downloaded it from http://www.dafont.com/

Production Monitoring Blog- 4th April (Including finished project)

Last week, my main objective was to tidy up the magazine, and make sure everything looked professional. I think I acheived this by using more shadows, so that the front cover looked more striking. I also made the sell lines smaller so you could see more of the picture, and they weren't taking over the page. This allowed me space to create an additional sell line. I also changed other aspects such as the price which it would be. I set the price originally to £2.99, but changed it to free so that it would appeal more to the target audience. In addition, I made sure all of the front page elements were lined up, to give it a more professional look. I also slightly changed the design of the double page spread e.g. made a polaroid frame in photoshop, and inserted an image of a globe to give the spread more colour and meaning.

This week I plan to start my post production work e.g. my equipment evaluation and final print skills audit, as I met the April 1st deadline.

The final version of my product can be viewed below:

Photoshop Tutorials

This was a photograph I took while I was in London, in the Science Museum:

I have edited it on Photoshop, using 2 different tutorials. These were the results:

http://photoshoptutorials.ws/photoshop-tutorials/photo-effects/surprisingly-easy-rainbow-light-painting-effect.html

I felt this was an easy tutorial, but can make some photos look quite effective without having to do much.


http://www.adobetutorialz.com/articles/30970670/1/use-lighting-effects-to-make-beautiful-artwork-photoshop-cs5

This tutorial was slightly harder, but the results are quite good. Although the photo I have done doesn't look like the one in the tutorial, I believe I have applied the tutorial well.

Production Monitoring Blog- 28th March

In my lessons last week, I simply continued with my magazine front cover. I changed certain elements of it, such as the font from ‘Myriad Pro’ to ‘Beer’ from dafont.com. I also changed the layout of the magazine, and added more elements to the front cover such as the price, images for the sell lines, and a bulb, to signify an offer. I learnt how to layer the image over text, so part of the model’s head now covers the masthead. I also made some minor changes to the double page spread, such as changing the fonts, and moving the header from the bottom of the first page to the top. I seemed to have problems installing fonts in the library at college, but this was resolved by installing the in the media room, and implementing them into my magazine.



In this week, I plan to continue to tidy up both the front cover and the double page spread, so that they as professional as possible. I will experiment with different elements on the front cover, but apart from that I think I am nearly finished, and do not have much more to do.



There are various things that could potentially go wrong this week. The files might corrupt, so like I have been since the start of my project, I will continue to save different versions of each file. I might also run out of network space as the project is getting bigger and bigger as I work on it. To prevent this, I will monitor the remaining network space I have, and when it gets small, I will delete more items off the network. The computers may also crash, so again like I have been, I will save my work about every 10-15 minutes when working on it. The fonts may continue to not install on the C: Drive in the library, but this doesn’t matter, as I am nearly finished, and will probably not need to work on my project in the library.

Production Monitoring Blog- 21st March

Last week, I think I achieved quite a lot in terms of the progression of my product. In Monday’s lesson, I wrote my blog write up, as I am this week. In the remainder of Monday’s lesson, I changed the magazine layout (see picture below). I then had my photo shoot on Tuesday, but didn’t actually start editing my photo until Wednesday. In Wednesday’s lesson, I chose which photographs would be the best for my product, both for the front cover and double page spread, and then edited them. I used various tools while editing the photos, such as the spot healing brush, which removed all blemishes such as spots or eczema, on the model’s skin. I also experimented with brightness and contrast settings, to try and get the best colour I could. In addition, I changed the colour of the model’s eyes slightly, so that they looked more striking in the magazine. On Thursday’s lesson, I continued to edit the photos that I have chosen for my product, and then integrated two of them into the double page spread. As I was doing this, I created objects in Photoshop for the double page spread e.g. the header and the green box on the right. I encountered a problem while importing one of the pictures into the InDesign document; this was that the photograph looks slightly pixelated when I preview it. However, when I click overprint preview, the image sharpens up. On Friday, unfortunately I was absent, so I did not manage to get any work done. I did use a free lesson on Thursday to drag the front cover image into the layout I had already created for the front cover. I have now realised that I will probably have to change the layout of the front cover considerably.


In this week’s lessons I plan to continue with the production of my product. All of Monday’s lesson will be spent doing blog write ups, as I am writing my weekly production monitoring blog and the photo shoot blog. In Wednesday’s lesson, I plan to continue editing the front cover photograph, and also to also change certain aspects of the front cover layout so that the photograph and the text fit in together. On Thursday’s lesson, I would like to rewrite some of the article so that it comes across as more humorous, so that it appeals more to the audience. This may take the whole lesson, as it might need changing considerably. In Friday’s lesson, I plan try and tidy things up, and make sure everything fits in together; both on the double page spread, and on the front cover. I will also try to think of sell lines for the front cover.

There could be several things that could go wrong, one of these could be that I run out of network space again. To prevent this happening, I will keep monitoring how much disk space I have, and delete old work if necessary. Files may also become corrupt, but again to prevent this happening, I am saving different versions of each file. If fonts do not install on my disk space, I could reinstall them onto the C: Drive.

Photoshoot Blog

On Tuesday 15th March, I had my photo shoot. It was booked from 10.50- 11.50, but I only took half an hour, instead of the full hour. The lighting set up consisted of 3 lights. These were the fill light, the key light and the back light with a honeycomb filter. This together acted as a butterfly lighting set up. The key and fill light together make the subject look more angelic, and are also good for photographing women, hence why I used it. The back light with the honeycomb filter adds depth to the photo and creates lighting on the hair, again enhancing beauty. A white backdrop was also used.


Firstly, the model (Carlie), changed into the footprint t-shirt that I had prepared. We then went into the photo shoot room, and I began taking pictures for the front cover. In these pictures, I used a pair of black shoes, with the laces tied to each other so the model could hang them round her neck. I did encounter a problem at this stage, which was that I kept getting the top of the backdrop in the pictures. Chris Warriner suggested that I stand on a step ladder to avoid this happening. By standing on the step ladder, I also experimented with different angles. Another thing I did was asked the model to pull different facial expressions and poses to see which was best for my product.

I then used other props such as straighteners, a tv remote and a mobile phone with its charger. I experimented with all 3 of these to see which would be best for my product. I got the model to hold these objects in different ways to see which would look best. I also asked the model to look into the top left corner of the room. I found that this made her look more innocent, which was the effect I was going for.

When taking the photos, I had to make sure that the framing would be correct for the product, so I was advised to think where the text would go, with each photo I took. I managed to take approximately 80 photos, so I had a lot to choose from when considering the best ones for my product. To make sure the lighting was correct for my product, I turned the fill light down near the beginning of the shoot.

However, I encountered a problem when uploading my photos to the computer. I had run out of memory on my network space, so had to delete some old photos on my drive, and then upload them. I also have to be very careful now, in terms of how much data I can store on my network space.

Production Monitoring Blog- 14th March

Last week, I managed to get quite a lot done with regards to my magazine. On Monday, I continued with my pre-production work. I managed to get this finished on the afternoon in a free I had later that day. On Wednesday, I created the InDesign document, and started to create my double page spread. I also wrote some of the magazine article, and got about half of it done. On Thursday, I continued with the InDesign document, and changed the layout of the magazine so that it looked better. However, I am still not happy with the layout, and therefore plan to continue with it this week. On Friday, I went on Photoshop, and started to create layers for the front cover of my magazine. By doing this, when I take my pictures, I can just paste it into the Photoshop document, and see what needs changing . However, I’m not too sure if this will work, but I will be able to see if it does when my pictures have been taken. I have used various technical skills in both Photoshop and InDesign. In Photoshop, I used margin guides, so that my sell lines are lined up, and the magazine looks neat. I also used the stroke tool, so that the ‘G’ is emphasised on the masthead. In InDesign, I used the text effec ts tool, to make the header of the article looks effective. I also added boxes to the document, but changed the content settings to either graphical or text. Over the weekend, I prepared my props. I printed black footprints onto a white t-shirt, by painting the bottom of a welly black, and stamping them onto the t-shirt.



In this week, on Monday, I will spend half the lesson writing this blog. I plan spending the other half of the lesson looking at magazines such as Nuts or Heat, so that I can get ideas for a layout. I want to use these magazines as these are the sort of magazines that appeal to my target audience. On Tuesday, I have my photo shoot at 10.50, so I will use this time to take pictures of the model in various poses, with various props. In Wednesday’s lesson, I will download these pictures onto the computer, and choose the ones I want to use for the magazine. I will then start to edit them. I plan on spending all of Wednesday’s lesson doing this, as I want the photos to look as best they can. In Thursday’s lesson, I will again look at magazine articles, so I can get an idea of how to create humour in my article. I hope to actually finish the article in Friday’s lesson. If I don’t use all of Friday’s lesson on the article, I will come back to the front cover, and continue optimising it. I will learn new technical skills this week, especially when I am doing the photo shoot. These technical skills may involve lighting, or camera settings. I might also learn new technical skills in Photoshop or InDesign, which will make both the article, and the front cover look effective.


There are various things that could go wrong this week. Although I trust the model I am using, they might not turn up to the photo shoot. In case this happens, I have a back up model. The cameras may not also be available for the shoot. To avoid this, I could go and see Chris Marriner to make sure there is definitely a camera available for the shoot. The photos could also not be of the quality that I had wished for. I am going to take a lot of pictures in the shoot, to make sure that I have some that I am happy with. In case any of my important documents go missing or corrupt, I have saved different versions of them, so that if one document becomes corrupt, I can refer to an older version, and keep going.

This is a screen dump of what the magazine article looks like at the moment:

This is a screen dump of the layers I have created for the front cover:

Production Monitoring Blog- 7th March 2011

Last week I began my pre-production work, which consists of several documents. These documents are essential, so that I know my photo shoot and production work will go to plan, and look good. Pre-production work has also helped me to think of alternatives, and contingency plans in case anything goes wrong. I was absent on Monday last week, but began to work through these documents on Wednesday. The first thing I did was created by schedule, so I know exactly when I need to carry out tasks in order for the project to be in by the deadline. As the schedule didn’t take me that long, I also created my photo shoot plan in the same lesson. In Thursday’s lesson, I began work on the treatment for my project. I got through about half of this, but didn’t manage to complete it all. On Friday, in the lesson, I continued with my treatment, and as of now, it is nearly completed. I completed my mood board in my free lesson on Friday, and also managed to work through a fair bit of my story planning sheet, and finished off my Photoshop mock-ups. I also booked my photo shoot at break on Friday for Tuesday 15th March at 10.50-11.50. Before booking the photo shoot, I had a meeting with my model to inform her of what the photo shoot would entail. Over the weekend, I constructed my flat plans, however, these still need to have colour added to them. I didn’t use any specific technical or equipment skills last week, as it mainly consisted of working through pre-production documents. Below is an image of the mood board I created.

This week, I plan to get my props sorted, as it would be a good idea to use one of my free lessons to go into town and buy them. I also plan to change these props so that they fit in with my project. On Monday this week, we were shown how to create these production monitoring blogs, and we have started in the lesson writing them up. On Wednesday, as it is a 90 minute lesson, I plan to use this purely on researching about carbon footprints, so I can start to plan how my article will be written. In Thursday’s lesson, if I have enough information on carbon footprints, I will create my InDesign document, and start to plan the layout of my article, as well as thinking of a title for the article. However, if I haven’t conducted enough research in Wednesday’s lesson, I will continue with this on Thursday. In Friday’s lesson, I would like to tidy up my pre-production work, and get it finished so that it is in for the Monday 14th deadline. In this week, I plan to improve my InDesign skills, so that the article I create looks as good as possible.


To avoid any problems in this project, I will also create back-ups of my InDesign document, and any other important documents that I create in this next week. I will also find a back-up model for the photo shoot, in case the one I have already made arrangements with doesn’t turn up. If I need any certain fonts for the InDesign project, I will make sure these are backed up on the C: Drive, so that the document doesn’t corrupt, and the fonts aren’t lost. To make sure that I do not run out of network space on my college user account, I will check this, and if there is not a lot left, I will delete unnecessary documents from other subjects.

Below you can see the finished version of the double page spread. I have added various elements such as quote inserts, and pictures. I have also added text effects to the header, to give the page some depth.

Magazine Double Spread (First Attempt)

This is my first attempt at creating a double page magazine spread. It is about the way Channel 4 represent disability in both Misfits and Cast Offs. It has been created using Adobe InDesign CS4, which has specifically been created for projects like this, as it can handle large amounts of text, unlike Photoshop, which was created to handle images.


Firstly, I made a folder called ‘magazine’ in my documents. Within this folder, I created another three folders called ‘images’, ‘text’ and ‘fonts’. This is so that the text, images and fonts I used in my magazine were in a place I knew, and there wouldn’t be any broken links. Then, I set up my page.We had to measure a magazine with a ruler, and set our page widths & lengths to these sizes. The magazine we measured was 295x 210mm, so I set my page at the same size. We then had to set up the margins, this time I forget to change them, but to improve next time, I will measure up with a real magazine. The top and bottom margins are self explanitory, but the outside margins are the margins near the outer edge of the page, and the inner margins are the margins nearer the spine of the magazine. We also had to set up gutters, these are the gaps in between the columns. We used column guides so that we could create boxes to place text in, this was quite easy as the boxes snap to the column guides.

Next, I imported text from the disability essay I had already written. I placed the text in the first text box, then threaded it into the following text boxes, so that it flowed throughout the document. The font size I used was 9, as this is a rule of thumb for magazine producers. There are some gaps in the document, which I have left for pictures and quote inserts. I also used the drop cap tool, which makes the first letter of the article bigger, signalling the start of the story. I then created a masthead, which consists of white text against an orange background. I made the background orange because it fits in with the jumpsuits in the Misfits programme. I used text effects to make the masthead look more effective, these were drop shadow, outer glow and bevel & emboss.

To improve my magazine, I need to put the pictures in, as well as some quote inserts. I could also need to change the margins to fit in with that of a real magazine.

Magazine Front Cover

We created the front cover for a magazine, and the brief was to make it rebellious, and in a style similar to Kerrang or NME.

I framed the image so that the was space for sell lines down the left hand side, and also for the masthead across the top. I didn't use a tilt on my picture, but this could be a target for next time. It was easy to control the model, and I asked Chloe to pull various poses so that she looked rebellious. I controlled the eyeline so that it was in the top third of the image, which made Chloe look powerful, reinforcing the rebellious manner.

When the picture was taken, the weather was not too good, and there wasn't a great deal of natural light that could be used. I believe the picture I have used could have been made brighter with the ISO settings on the camera, but I didn't remember to use these at the time. Some problems with my image are that it is not bright enough, and the background isn't consistent as it was taken against a white door, but there is also brickwork in the picture.

I used margin guides in Photoshop so that the sell lines were in line, and made the front cover overall look much neater. I used the font Myriad Pro from Photoshop because it fits in with the style of the magazine, and is easy to read.I tried to download fonts, but they wouldn't load up onto the computer. I started a photoshop tutorial, but I didn't have the skills to complete it, but I got halfway, and I think the masthead still looks good. The tools I used weren't completely new to me,  as I have used Photoshop before, but I did learn to use the expand/contract tool to add depth to the text.

I also used a controlled colour pallette of red, black and white. I wanted to keep the colours simplistic, and these colours also match with the background. When i was creating the masthead, red seemed like a good colour to use, and therefore I also used this colour for the background of the sell lines. I didn't sample colour from the image as most of the colours in the picture were more neutral, and wouldn't have made the sell lines or masthead stand out. I used colour codes to keep the colour of the background of the sell lines consistent.

I cropped the image so that Chloe's eyeline was higher on the image, therefore making her look more powerful and rebellious.I controlled the text alignment to the left, but moved text boxes where relevant so that the text is placed in the right place. I used the shapes tool to create different size shapes, for the sell lines, as well as the main sell lines. A made the shapes different sizes, as I feel if I made them all the same size, the magazine would not look as rebellious, and would be moving further away from the style of NME or Kerrang. I made new layers for the text, and for the bar code. I copy and pasted the barcode from Google Images, and placed it in the bottom right corner.

The main sell line reads 'Chloe has a new hit single 'Sex on The Beach!', this relates to the image as she is holding a cocktail shaker, and Sex On The Beach is an infamous, well-known cocktail. The image also has connotations, as the words on her hand 'Mix It Up' are referring to music, as well as the cocktail shaker in her hand.

I have various targets for my unit 3 project. One of them is to use studio lighting rather than natural lighting, as it makes the images look much more effective, and when the image for this project was taken, the weather wasn't very good, and we had also ran out of reflectors, so we could not make the image brighter by using that either. A studio backdrop would also be a lot better than a found backdrop, as the backdrops round college do not look as professional, as others, in many other music magazines such as Kerrang or NME. We could also research and use better props, possibly buy some or bring some in from home, as wer could only use some from the box at college, and by the time we had got to the box, there was not many props left. Other photoshop techniques that I haven't used yet may also make the magazine look more effective, so I could use these. I think I could also develop my skills with a camera, and remember to use settings that effect the quality of the image, or the colours, such as shutter speeds or ISO speeds. I could also take more pictures so that I have a larger range to choose from when it comes to making the print text. Another good idea would be to work on my framing skills, to connotate different tones, and so that I don't have to crop my picture to make the magazine look effective.