Post-Production
28-02-2023
Print Advert Editing-
As most of the photos I took were landscape and not portrait, which would have been better as it would have been easier to fit into the A4 canvas, I needed to start my print advert by choosing an image that would be great as a background and that would fit in the A4 canvas. Moving forward, I will take my pictures in portrait the next time I have a project that focuses on a print advert.
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After that, I needed to soften the sharp edges of the crystal, and I had two options for doing so: using a layer mask or the smudge tool. I tried the layer mask first, but it didn't appear to work, so I switched to the smudge tool, which worked well.
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Now that the edges of the crystal are smooth, I've decided to do this to another crystal. I initially wanted to do this to the amethyst, but the magnetic lasso tool wasn't working very well because the amethyst's edges weren't sharp enough, and I tried to increase the brightness and saturation, but it didn't work because the purple of the amethyst wasn't bright enough, so I decided to increase the brightness and saturation of another crystal. Like with the previous crystal, I employed the same technique using the magnetic lasso tool to highlight one half of the crystal because the other half didn't have any sharp edges that the also tool couldn't pick up. Once the outline was complete, I adjusted the crystal's brightness to +38 and then its saturation to +57 to achieve the ideal blue, which I felt was the best colour for the crystal. After that, I once more used the smudge tool to soften any jagged edges that were around the crystal.
I could continue making my print advert look more like a print advert once I had completed boosting the brightness and saturation for the crystals I selected, so the first thing I did was import the Canon logo to the canvas. But, I needed to get rid of the logo's white background because I didn't want it. I did this by selecting the background using the magic wand tool because it only chooses one colour, in this case, the white background, and all I had to do to remove it was press the delete key on my computer. However, because the other white backgrounds weren't connected to the rest of the background, the magic wand tool didn't completely remove all of the white backgrounds. Fortunately, this was an easy fix; all I had to do was click on the other white backgrounds and then press the delete key on my computer. After erasing all of the white, I was able to use the transform tool to resize the logo. To do this, I pressed the CRTL and T keys simultaneously, which caused a square to appear around the logo. I then used my mouse to resize the logo to the desired size by clicking on the small squares on the corners of the big square.
When I resized the Canon logo, I realised that many of the print adverts for the company feature a camera in some way. The camera I used was a Canon EOS 4000d. I needed to find a picture of that camera to add to my print advert. Finding one with a transparent backdrop was important since it would be simpler to import into my print advert because it would have no background at all. After importing the camera, I scaled it to the correct size and moved it to the canvas's lower right corner.
.Since I thought it would look better on the left side of the canvas, I chose to move the image of the camera and its text there. I saw that the trees made it difficult for me to see a portion of the title, so I asked my friend sitting next to me what she thought. She confirmed that the tress made it difficult to view the last half of the title. Thus, I made the decision to change the text's colour, first to blue and then to purple, as well as relocate the title and the slogan to the left side of the canvas. To finish off my print advert I finished by changing the slogan's colour to purple just like the title.
Front Cover Editing-
I created a box with the rectangle tool to serve as the foundation of my front cover so that there would be a specific space for the Canon logo. Now that this was finished, I could import the Canon logo. However, I would need to use the magic wand tool to erase all of the white backgrounds from the logo because I didn't want them. Next, I imported an image of a barcode to my front cover, so that I would look more like a magazine as they usually have a barcode on the front of the magazine. After the barcode was imported to my front cover I moved it to the bottom right corner of the canvas. After I had moved the barcode to the right place on the canvas, I used the horizontal type box tool and then create a text box so that I could put what the price of the magazine would be, which is free. As I wanted the free part to stand out I changed the font to perpetua titling MT. Once this was finished, I added a photo I had taken of my camera on my front cover. I first used the magic wand tool to get rid of the background but soon realised that the wand was getting rid of parts of the camera as the background wasn't specific enough so I moved on to using the magnetic lasso tool.
01-03-2023
Front Cover Editing Continued-
I used the magnetic lasso tool to outline the entire camera because I wanted to remove anything that I didn't want, but I soon realised that the tool wasn't doing a good job because it was creating very jagged edges. So then I moved on to using the eraser tool and the magic wand tool together to remove the unnecessary parts of the camera which was the strap that allowed you to have the camera around your neck as well as the background of the image. But, this method didn't work either. Another method I attempted to get rid of the background and the strap was to use the magnetic lasso tool on the individual parts, this method also didn't work.
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| Magnetic Lasso Tool |
I decided to take a small break from editing the camera image and focus on the rest of the front cover so that I could think of a better way to edit the camera. While editing the front cover, the first thing I did was make a box with the rectangle tool that would sit next to the barcode image. I then deleted the rectangle's outline and modified the rectangle's colour to red. I then moved the free text box to the rectangle, change the text colour to white, and raised the text size to 48pt because the small, black text was difficult to see against the red background. Impact became the new font that I used for the text. I scaled the barcode image a few times because it was difficult to see the numbers at the bottom. But, I later realised that I should have moved the red rectangle and the text to the opposite side of the canvas, leaving a space between them. This worked nicely because it allowed me to easily resize the barcode image whenever I felt it needed to be.
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| Rectangle Tool |
I went back to working on the camera image. After deciding how to best achieve the desired camera image, I realised that I didn't need to use the entire camera and instead chose to only use the lens. As the edges of the lens were clear enough for the lasso tool to pick up, using the magnetic lasso tool to delineate the edge of the lens performed really well for this task, though it took me a few tries to get the outline perfect. Once it was perfect I needed to copy and paste the selected area so that I could delete the other layer with the full camera image on. I tried to add an image in the middle of the lens using the frame tool but it didn't seem to work as I am not familiar with the use of this tool so I decided just to leave the lens the way it was. Now that I was happy with everything that I had done so far, I could start importing the images I took while out on my photoshoot. some of the images that I will be adding are photos taken at the Winter Gardens and Barnes park. I added a landscape image to the canvas' left side first, under the Canon logo, and then an image of a stuffed wolf, which I positioned above the red rectangle. To ensure there was no space between the previous rectangle and the barcode image, I decided to have one large rectangle spanning the entire bottom of the canvas instead of just a small one in the left bottom corner. I also decided that the rectangle should be white rather than red to make it easier to read everything inside. All images that I imported were sized down to smaller images so that I could fit more in as this is meant to look like a collage.
I then imported a picture of a ram's skull to the canvas and put it next to the picture of the stuffed wolf. After that, I imported a different image of a dinosaur head and positioned it between the pictures of the stuffed wolf and the skull of a ram. Next, immediately next to the landscape picture that is below the Canon logo, I inserted an image of a peacock's head. The book of shadows was the next image I imported, and it was positioned below the landscape picture. The following two images I added were of an eagle and war medals: the eagle image was positioned below the peacock image, and the war medals image was placed under the book of shadows image.
I made the lens layer visible and relocated it to the proper location on the canvas after importing all of the photos. I wanted to make the edge of the lens brighter, so I added a layer mask and used the paintbrush tool to lighten the edges. The small black and white squares at the bottom of the toolbar needed to be black and the feather of the paintbrush needed to be modified, so I increased it to 54.6 px. After completing all of that, I could begin to lighten the lens edges. I used the ellipse tool to make an ellipse at the bottom of the canvas after lightening the edges of the lens. Then, I created a text box inside the ellipse with the horizontal type tool that reads "Free eBook worth £15.99" and I boosted the text's size to 18 pt to make it more noticeable. But, the ellipse shape was covering the dinosaur head image, so I had to adjust the text and it down a bit to clear it. The last thing I did in this edit of the front cover was I made another ellipse shape but this time it was over the peacock image, this was so that I could import an image of my print advert and place it inside the ellipse. But, before I did that I used the transform tool to rotate the ellipse on its side and move it so that half of it was outside of the canvas.
Front cover Feedback-
I asked my class to complete a form that I created so that I could get some feedback on the current products that I had created. From this form, I got three responses. The first response said "I like how you've integrated the images around the camera lens" which is perfect as that was what I was aiming for and I am happy that this person understands that as well. The second response said "the collage of pictures" which also links with the first response as I was aiming for my front cover to have a collage of images that I took with the camera I used. The last response said "I like the variety of images used" which again links with the first two responses as again this was what I was aiming for, for my front cover.
The next question I asked in my form was what they didn't like about my front cover. The first person I received was "Your Canon Guide is very dark and doesn't stand out to the reader" which I agree with this as when I looked back to my front cover I noticed this, so next time I will be sure to make text colours brighter not dark and make sure that if the text is in a box the make that box colour bright as well. The second response I got was "the text at the bottom looks a bit out of place" again I agree with this, so next time I will be sure to ask for more feedback so that I can make sure that everything that I do looks appealing to my audience. The last person said "nothing" which is great as I understand that this person understood the idea I was going for and maybe couldn't think of anything bad about my front cover.
The next question I asked about my front cover was if there was anything I could improve or change. From this question I received three responses, The first person said "not sure" which I understand that they may not have been able to think of anything I could improve or change. The second person said "Add a title to the magazine" which I agree with as I realised that this was the one thing I forgot to add, so next time I will make a checklist of what I want to have on my front cover so that I don't forget to miss anything off. The last person said "maybe make the camera lens a bit darker" I can understand why they have said this, however, I want the camera lens not to be noticeable too much and I wanted the camera lens to look like it was faded over the collage.
Print Advert Feedback-
In the next part of the form, I asked questions about my print advert, the first question I asked was what they liked about my print advert. All the responses I got said something related to the background and setting of the print advert. This made me understand that my class understood what I was trying to do for my print advert and if they understand maybe other people will.
The next question I asked was what they didn't like about my print advert. The first response said "I'm unsure of what the main image is trying to show", I can also agree with this statement as it is only showing a line of crystals and it isn't really saying anything, what I should have done was choose a different image that could explain itself, so I will make sure to do this next time I have a project like this one. The second person said "the picture has come out a bit blurry" when I looked at the image I used again I realised that the bottom half of the image came out blurry because it was the part the camera was focusing on, so next time I take images I will have to make sure that camera focuses on what I want it to. The last person said "its a bit empty" which I agree with as I didn't really add much about the camera as this was only a draft, so next time I created a product like this I make sure to include everything that I want in to so that when I get feedback for it, I will know that they are seeing everything I want in my print advert instead of only seeing some of the things I want in my print advert. I understand moving forward I must really think about what I want in my products.
The last question I asked was if there was anything that I could improve or change. All of the responses that I received said something about the text being too small, too big or having the text take up most of the print advert. I understand why these people have made these statements, as I realised that I made the text for Canon's slogan too small, I really should have increased the text size up a couple of sizes and because I didn't have much information about the camera I should have made the other elements take up most of the print advert.
Print Advert Version Two Editing-
To start the editing for my print advert version two, I needed to import the image I will be using as the background, which was a book of shadows image. I also needed to resize the image to fit the A4 canvas.
After resizing the background image, I created a text box using the horizontal type tool, this text reads " Dive into the magic" which will be used as the title of my print advert. To make it stand out more I change the colour of the text to purple and to make it stand out even more I created a rectangle for the title to go in. After, this I imported an image of the Canon logo, however, there is a white background on this image that I didn't want so to remove the white I used the magic wand tool to remove all of the white. I also moved the Canon logo into the rectangle at the top of the canvas. After, this I imported an image of the camera and moved it to the right bottom corner. Then, I used the horizontal text tool that reads "Canon EOS 4000d" and "Find out more" with a website link, to make the text stand out more I changed the colour to white so that it is easy to read. Finally, I used the horizontal type tool to create another text box that reads "Will you become the next greatest witch?"
To improve the print advert even more and to add some more information, I added three more text boxes with the horizontal type tool, they each read "Striking Photos", "Remote Shooting" and "Effortless creativity". So that these facts about the camera stand out to the audience I change the colours of each one of them, the first one I changed to light blue, the second one I changed to a darker blue and the last one I changed to red. This was so that the text would jump out to my target audience.
Print Advert-
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03-03-2023
Front Cover Version Two Editing-
To start the second version of my front cover I needed to decide what image I would use as the background because for this version I wouldn't be doing another collage, I will just be using one image as the background. However, I couldn't decide which one to use out of the three I picked, so I decided to import them all to Photoshop so that once all the editing was done, I could decide which would look better with the editing I have done. Once all of the images were imported and fitted to the A4 canvas, I could move on to the rest of the editing. The first thing I did was I created a rectangle across the top of the canvas solely for the Canon logo and Front cover title. I did this by using the rectangle tool and clicking and dragging over the space I wanted the rectangle to be. After that, I imported the Canon logo and with the magic wand tool I was able to remove all of the white that I didn't want in the image. Now that all the white has been removed I could resize the image and move it into the rectangle I made a few minutes ago. But, I needed to make sure there was enough space below the logo so that I could add the title to the rectangle. Next, I used the horizontal type tool to add a text box that will say " Witchcraft! Really?", and the colour of the title will be orange to help it stand out to my target audience. Now that the logo and title are place, I could move on to make the front cover look more like a magazine front cover, which I did by adding a triangle with the triangle tool l, this was so that I could have something in the corner of the canvas saying that this magazine is a new magazine and not an old one. So to do this I rotated the triangle onto its side and change its colour of it to blue then added a text box to the triangle that reads " New" to make it stand out I made the colour of the text first red but it was hard to read so I changed it to yellow and changed the text font to Wide Latin to make it bold. But, for this to look good I needed to move the Canon logo and the title along a bit so that everything could fit.
After I thought about adding an image of the print advert I did it to the front cover, so that it shows something that will be in the magazine as well. But, I want it to stand out, so I used the ellipse tool to create an ellipse just below the title for the image to be housed in, to make it stand out more I made the colour of the ellipse purple, so it would make the image stand out more. Now that was done all I needed to do was import the image of the print advert and scale it down so that it would fit in the ellipse. Next, I imported the image of the camera that I took and used the magnetic lasso tool to outline the camera's lens after I copied and paste the camera lens into another layer and delete the layer that housed the image of the whole camera. As I noticed that the edges of the lens were a bit jagged I used the eraser tool to clear up the edges.
I thought it would look good to have the lens over the background image where the water is spraying up from the pipe, so I adjust the lens and the background accordingly to get them in the right place to make this idea I had a reality. I had another idea that I could put on my front cover which was to have a small gallery in the bottom corner of the canvas, I was inspired by a previous Canon magazine cover to do this. So as previous Canon magazine covers had what I wanted to add to my front cover I used the magnetic lasso tool to crop the template I would use for my small gallery from a ready-made magazine cover and place it on to my cover. But I soon realised that it wasn't really working and the image came out blurry so I decided to remove it and make my own template for the small gallery. So, I created a green rectangle for an image to go into which would be an image of the skull of a ram. The green rectangle will serve as a border for the images.
Before continuing with the small gallery of images, I realised that I forgot to add the barcode and the price for the cover so I created a rectangle for the barcode making sure the background of the rectangle was black and then I added a text box that reads "Free" also making sure that the text colour was back. I also added another text box but this time it was for a text that would read as "Begin your journey into photography with this step-by-step guide" and to make it pop out to the audience I change the text colour to green. Now that was done I could finally continue with the small gallery of images, so I created another green rectangle for another image, however, I ran into a problem which was that my scratch disks were full which is a problem I have had before so I knew how to fix which was to more documents out of my one drive which worked perfectly again.
Print Advert Feedback-
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Once version two of my front cover and print advert were complete I asked my class to fill out a form so that I could get feedback on my products. From this form, I got five responses. The first question I asked about my print advert was what they liked about it. The first and second person said something related to the image I used for the print advert. This helps me understand that just through the image people are possibly interested in looking at my print advert. The third person said "I like the theme of the print advert" which makes me understand that this person knew the topic of journeys I was doing for my print advert. The fourth and fifth responses said they liked how I used different coloured text to help the image stand out and that it is interesting, which I agree with, as my aim with having different coloured text was to make not just the text stand out but also the background images as well.
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What they didn't like about my print advert was the second question I asked about it. Again, this question drew five responses. A few comments said nothing, which was great because it confirms that they found nothing unappealing about my print advert and that this advert appeals to them. One person mentioned "font colours," and while i can see why they suggested that, I'll stick with the colours I choose for the text since I like them. The text may be harder to read in some colours than others, so I'll remember to choose them carefully the next time.Front Cover Feedback-
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Once I had completed the second version of the print advert and front cover, I made a form for my class to fill out so that I could receive feedback for these products. From this form, I received five responses. The first question I asked was what they liked about my front cover. The first, second and fourth person said something related to the images that I had used for the front cover. This tells me that the images I took were good for this project and they were interesting to people within my target audience. The third person said "I like the layout and I like how you included the print advert too" which is helpful as I want to add the print advert to the front cover as I want to show something that would be included in the magazine and I am happy they like the layout because it shows that it is appealing to people within my target audience. The last person said "it is totally different to the first one," which tells me they prefer this version to my first one and I have to agree with them as it has more elements to it and if it wasn't my work I would want to read this magazine.
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I followed up by asking them what they thought was wrong with my front cover. Again, there were five responses to this question. A few comments said nothing, which was great since it shows that they liked my front cover and had nothing negative to say about it. Two people said they were unaware that the image in the centre of the front cover was a camera lens and that the design made it seem strange, which I can see given that it doesn't actually demonstrate that it is from a camera but rather just a lens from anywhere. However, I chose only to use the camera lens because I thought it would look better than having a whole camera in the middle of my front cover.
06-03-2023
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After taking a small break from editing because my hand was starting to hurt, I realised that I didn't really like the layout of the small gallery so I deleted the green rectangles and the image of the ram's skull and created a six-squared box at the bottom of the canvas using the rectangle tool and the lone tool to separate the rectangle into six squares but keeping the background the same colour, green. Once the squares were made I could import six images of my choosing which were an image of the shipyard trades, an image of pressed glass, an image of a ship's bow, an image of a village, an image of a painting of a ship and an image of ship machinery. With each of these images, I scaled them down so that they could fit into the squares but I realised that some of them were hard to see so made the rectangle and the squares bigger so that I could make the images bigger and easier to see. As I got feedback that the image of the camera lens looked a little bit off with the background image so I decided to go through the background images I imported at the start of this edit to see which background would be better with the camera lens and it turns out it was a scenery image that I took in Barnes park.Front Cover-
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