Skills Development Essay

In my foundation portfolio I had to create a front cover, contents page and double page spread for a music magazine that would be sold in supermarkets and other types of shops. It had to be created by using original photos which I had to create and take myself with a minimum of four images throughout my magazine. For my front cover I had to create a new artist and make them my feature in the magazine, this artist would be used for my double page spread in which I had to create myself. This artist had to be created and portrayed through the use of mise-en-scene and cinematography as a particular genre which I chose at the beginning of the course. To get the most out of the genre codes and conventions I did LIIAR analysis on three existing music magazine which focus on that particular genre and the specific audience which I wanted to target. But before I started this magazine I had a preliminary task which had me creating my own college magazine. For this I had to learn to use Photoshop to its full potential in preparation for the music magazine. I had prior knowledge of how to use Photoshop but had to attend lessons which helped me gain more understanding for the software.

Before starting my AS Foundation course I had limited knowledge of using Photoshop as I did an ICT course in secondary school in which I had to use it. I only knew how to use certain tools which would have stopped me from getting a good grade and also using it to its full potential. I only knew how to manipulate the images i.e. making them bigger or smaller, also using the skew tool which helped me create the illusion that the picture was on an angle and the cutting tool which helped create and cut out images I didn't want however these images where usually messy and looked unprofessional. Other than those tools I didn’t know anything else, so when I started college I could use the software but only at a beginner’s level.

These skills that I had already picked up were used to help create my induction task, the College Magazine. When creating my college magazine I found that the first tool I got taught was the quick selection tool which I used to manipulate the images which made the magazine look more professional. I place the image which I had manipulated onto another image which was of another place. It took me a while to put together drafts as I hadn’t gotten used to the different tools which I had recently learnt and also hadn’t figured out the correct technique in which to professionally use the tool quickly and correctly. However when I was putting together my music magazine I found it was easier to create my drafts as I had the proper knowledge and also had enough practice with the tools to create them quickly and professionally which helped as part of my planning and preparation for my final magazine.

The other tools which I also got taught to use was the Blur tool and the Clone tool which helped to make my college magazine look professional as it got rid of the rigid edges of the images I had cut out and also the clone tool helped to remove any blemishes which showed on the image. However, looking back now I can see many ways in which I can improve it, for example, I sometimes blurred the image too much and it became noticeable thus unprofessional. For my music magazine, I became used to using Photoshop and I had gotten faster at using the tools as the constant practice I was getting, and also with having Photoshop at home I was able to be on it during my free time and get to know the software better by creating little images for pure practice. This helped a lot as I was able to create more drafts and get feedback with improvements quickly.

Being able to use most of the tools on Photoshop I found it easy to create the conventions of the magazines, for example I could create the masthead and sell lines which were eye catching along with the flash and teasing content which would draw my targeted audience in. Researching, knowing and using the codes and conventions of the genre and magazines helped to make my music magazine look professional as it looked like it could be bought and sold in marketed stores. My front cover uses the magazine conventions correctly as I have the masthead in the correct place so when placed on the shelf in shops it will be seen, also my sell lines, even though are usually printed in a straight line are skewed to create the edgy look which is a convention within my genre so doing this helped to link both codes and conventions of the magazine and genre which helped to make the magazine look believable and also work. For my sell lines I used the quick selection tool to get rid of the background which helped to give it the indie look. Even though the edges were rigid I refrained from using the blur tool as I believed it would work better without it. I also manipulated the main image as I used the editing levels to create the bright sunny look of the artist.

For my contents page, I originally got it wrong as conventionally the contents need to be stacked neatly together however I had them scattered around. So in my final contents page I slit the contents into sections which is what the music magazines I analysed had done, so I knew this was conventionally correct. The images on the contents page where again cut by the quick selection tool and manipulated using the editing levels. I chose to do this so that there was a theme carried through all three pieces. For the smaller images I used the shape’s and changed their opacity so they became translucent. I also used the skew tool on the shapes along with the images to make the images stand out from the main image. In my double page spread the quality of the piece is the best out of the three as I created it last and knew the tools very well and this showed through the article. I used the codes and conventions carefully on this piece and also from the research I had done I used the opacity tool to give it the professional edge.

Overall having done the college magazine at the beginning of the year helped me to learn and use Photoshop to a level in which I feel comfortable to go along to create anything. I think throughout the year my skills have improved noticeably and also being able to use other software such as Prezzi’s and GoAnimate I am able to progress with my creativity in future projects. The quality of my music magazine is much better than my college magazine from the simple reason of learning and practicing the tools in Photoshop and also knowing the codes and conventions of the area.