Shutter Speed

 Both of these pictures were taken on a shutter speed of 2 seconds. Keeping the shutter open enabled the camera to capture the movement of the light and create a pattern. The longer shutter speed, the more light can be followed.

A quicker shutter speed allows us to be able to capture people in motion. E.g people running and jumping.

Basic Post Production Photographic Effects

This is the original image I used. There has been no adjustment made to it.

On this image I used Unsharpen Mask and Auto Colour. To create the Unsharpen Mask effect I went through; filter, sharpen then unsharp mask. I set my radius to 2.2 pixels and the amount to 150%. This added a subtle emphasis to the eyes which create audience identification.

 Using my brightness and contrast too I put the brightness to -20 and the contrast to 15. To get to the brightness and contrast tools I went to; image, adjustments and Brightness and Contrast. I also used the vignetting tool. To get this I used the elliptical tool and set my feathering to 90 pixels. I then drew a large circle that covered the majority of my image. After I did this I went to select and inverse, then image, adjust, contrast and brightness, then brought the brightness down to -40. It is a subtle change but makes the subject stand out and draws the eye into the lighter sections.  The feathering tool creates a gradiated effect and makes the darkened area smooth and blended.

For this image I desaturated it and added light and darkness with the dodge and burn tool. To get to the desaturation I went into image, adjustments, desaturation. This took out all of the colour and made it back and white. I then used the dodge and burn tools to add a bit of darkness around the edges and a little more lightness around the eyes, this captures the audience’s attention and draws them to the eyes.

Magazine Front Cover

For my magazine front cover, I used a head and shoulders shot; this allowed me to make sure that my composition of my model was correct. E.g. I had the eye lines in the right place. When I first took some pictures I found it difficult to get the eye lines correct and found that I had to take more pictures to ensure that I had got it right.

I didn’t have to use the ISO settings as the weather was quite good, there was not a great deal of sun but there was enough to create an effective shot. I should have used the ISO to see the difference in the images and I would consider doing so in my unit 3 work if the weather is not great. 

There wasn’t really a frame for my model, so I didn’t have a frame when it came to adding text. I did, however, manage to use the picture to my advantage when it came to adding my sell lines. There were areas of the image that are not as important, so I used these to my advantage and place my text and sell lines into it. Next time, I would try to frame my image a bit better and give myself more to work with.

There wasn’t that many problems with the image I used, however, the images I previously took were not too good. The eye lines weren’t right, they weren’t head and shoulder shots and there were a few lighting issues with them which is why I chose not to use them.

The eye lines were harder than I thought to get right; I had to do a lot more than just make sure they were in the top third to get a good picture. I had to make sure that the pose was right and the lighting was too, which it seems that I focused too much on and neglected the eye lines. 

To create my margins I use Ctrl+R to access the rulers, I then dragged them down so that I had a border on my image. I used the margins to create a guide of where all of the features of my magazine would go. It would also mean that I knew that all of my pictures would print out as the margines would be a guide as to what would print out.

 For my font, I downloaded the Hard Rock font from Dafont.com. I chose this as it creates a unique magazine font. It looks different most other fonts that you see. 

 From photoshop I gained a lot of skills and used a lot of new tools on it. I learned about drop shadows. I also learned that when I want to change the size of the picture, if I hold down Ctrl+T I can make the image smaller or larger without distorting the picture in any way. This came in useful as the image was too big for the A4 sized page.