Pre Production Processes

Original

This is the original image that I produced my self from a photo-shoot, I am going to resize, edit and experiment with this image for the front cover of my magazine.


Resolution

Though you can't really tell this image has been resized from 72 DPI to 300 DPI (the magic number), which is the minimum quality you need for a printed product. 72 DPI is a very poor quality to begin with, 300 DPI will enhance the image once its been printed for increased clarity.



Unsharp Mask

This is the image after I have added the unsharp mask, what this does is it increases the sharpness and clarity of the image. My perfect formula was to set the amount on 210, the radius on 2.2 and the threshold on 0. I also changed the brightness and contrast, I set the brightness on 39 and the contrast on 20, I believe this gave me the perfect image


Clone Tool

I used the clone to to try and perfect the models face, this tool is useful for resolving blemishes spots and even scars. In this image I have removed the little brown spot in Chiko's right eye, to give a clear white image in the eye. I have also used this tool to remove the tiny and few blemishes that he had, mainly affecting those in the light on the left side of his face.


Burn tool

I used the burn tool to darken up the outside of the image, i did this by selecting the setting to shadows, which gave off a darker shade. I also use the burn tool to create the thin scar on the hand. I then went on to use the dodge tool too lighten up the left side of the face, which enhanced the lighting making it look clearer. I then accompanied that with the burn tool to create an upside triangle which was to create the Rembrandt lighting effect on the darker shaded side of the face.

Curves

This effect was given off by using the curves adjustment. The curves adjustment allows me to tinker with the RGB (red, green blue) settings of an image. By creating S-shape curves on the graph I was able to manipulate the colours to suit a certain style. I wanted the image to be more colourful and defined, which I believe I achieved.

Additional Processes

Black and White

This is the Black and White edit, I made this by using the adjustment setting a setting it to black and white, after toying around with it I decided to use brightness and contrast setting. I set the brightness to 39 and the contrast to 20, which I feel gave the best quality image. I then decided to add a noise filter, I set the amount to 44% and the distribution to uniform. I think it takes the image back in time a bit and makes it look as though it was from a 1950's photo-shoot.

Noise

This is the Noise edit I made using the Noise filter. This filter allows the image to look as if it is vintage, it would be useful when trying to make old style images. It would also be useful to consider pairing this filter with a black and white or even a sepia style effect, that'll make it look real vintage.

Sepia + Noise

I have used the sepia edit accompanied by the noise filter to create this vintage style image. I set the saturation higher and the contrast of the image lower so that I could achieve my desired effect.

Final Edit

There was a lot of work to be done on this image, I intended on having a massive X in the  background, of course representing the X-men. this was made a severely difficult task by the fact that I had used a black back drop. This meant that I had to cut out the shape of my model from a this kind of backdrop, which I discovered to be quite the demanding task. It would had been much more suitable to use a white back drop. Nevertheless it had to be done... The first step was to use the magnetic lasso tool to cut out the models barely visible figure. in order to do this I copied the image and changed the brightness and contrast till it was visible enough, which made it much easier to cut out. I refined the edges of the figure using the refine edge tool, setting the radius to about 2.2, I then tinkered with the smoothness and the feathering till I had  the desired effect. Total Film follow the convention where they have the model/figures head over the "Total Film". In attempt to achieve this I used the magnetic lasso tool to cut out the shape of the model (that's right there's two heads there.)

Where do I start. Well this piece of art is just... wow. In order to achieve a front cover that can resemble an ideal Total Film, there were a few things I needed to make sure I had acquired. #1 Total Films house font, #2 my own set of house colours (total film usually follows a scheme of three theme colours), #3 cell lines to attract potential audience base, #4 a baseline filled with even more interesting films. And last but not least #5 A kick-ass title and kicker to grabs attention. These in my opinion are the 5 most key things I need to make it truly resemble a Total Film Magazine.

• So for #1, I used dafont.com to acquire the Eagle Bold font, which is what I used to write the FILM. I then inserted the TOTAL in he Arial font, mainly because in my opinion it resembled it the most, I noticed that on most Total Film titles, the Total is left hollow in the Film, so I used the magic eraser tool after merging the two to delete it.
• #2 In order to have a 

Other Images             

The original image I found was presented in this format, at first glance especially in this size, it looks extremely good, however in the size I required it to be it became too pixelated. 

(An example of this is shown below)

Already the quality is becoming blurred, so I experimented with a few different versions of the image, by messing around with the adjustments and image settings I was able to produce the perfect version for the magazine.

For this first version I fiddled with the RGB colour setting, I created subtle curves on the graphs, which allowed me to tinker with the most over powering colour, however I felt as though if I was to use the brightness and contrast setting I could produce a better more qualitative finish. I did not. The final image (shown above) looked a bit to "cartoon-ish", I had gone a bit too far past the line, especially with the RGB settings. And so it was back to the drawing board...

This was the final image I decided to go, mainly because I had realised the previous error in my ways. I tried not tinker with the RGB settings instead I only used the brightness and Contrast. I was most happy when the brightness was set to +14 and the contrast set to +72. This allowed the image to be darkened, mainly so that when it begins to blur as it stretches out, it doesn't lose as much colour as it did before.

InDesign

This screenshot shows the potential layout of my magazine. In order to follow various different Total Film list article conventions, I will open the list article up with a few introductory paragraphs, (signalled by the drop cap) these will need to be short, concise and compelling to read. Once I have grasped the audience attention I'll direct them on where to start, though its empty on here I intend a baseline where I can list the #10 through to #6 contenders in the list. This will also need to be eye catching as that's where the audience attention should be. #5 through to #1 will be the main course of the meal, these images will be larger than the rest, they will more written about them as well. I want to have the diagonal effect on the images, a convention which Total Film use to add power and energy to the page, which also captivates the reader as it makes the page look more alive per se.

This is what the last page will look like. As evident I have kept to the conventions and rules that i set up on the previous page, I believe this makes the work look more shaped and organised, though this is isn't complete, I intend to keep this style through out.

Version 2

Now then... This is it. All my ideas and hard work have finally come into fruition. I'm sure you've noticed  the drastic change. As different as they might look, I have only finished adding what is needed. For example the header text. To try and keep it Marvel related, I used the Avengers (Avengeance) font for the main title and as for the kicker, I used the Captain America (American Captain) font. This was of course accompanied by the massive portrait of the entire squad looking to send out a bold statement. I used the image as tactic to grab the audience attention which will then lead them to the title. The baseline I intended to have turned out even better than I hoped, I used  the shape tool to create an extremely thick black line across the bottom, I then inserted the images and text and also the movies allocation number on the list.

Quite clearly this does not have as much of an effect on the page, which is why I then added the two thinner black strips, personally I thought it looked a bit like a reel strip. I also added the "Kick Start Here" as a clear indication on where the list is supposed to start.

This is the final side of the image, as you can see I have kept and followed the initial style I had set myself. I have designed all of the text to stay within the confines of the text columns, even on the previous double page spread.

The purple shapes are where I have designed the text to be as shown, all text is in the shape. Another useful convention Total Film uses that was useful to consider was the use of page furniture. Without page furniture I can assure you, this magazine would not look anywhere near as good, it used to fill the page up, consequently adding energy to page, which makes it a more exciting page to read (for some reason).