When looking back at my preliminary task, I feel I have progressed massively. I have done this by adding more text and being aware magazine conventions. I feel by understanding conventions, this has benefit me when creating my front cover as allows me to think more about the layout of my magazine cover. The research I carried out when creating my music magazine helped me make specific choices during the production of my magazine as looking at existing NME magazine covers gave me inspiration and ideas as to how to create an effective and attractive front cover. In comparison to my college magazine, my music magazine looks a lot more professional; I have achieved the professional look by applying my Photoshop skills by using the 'blemish' tool and the 'FX' options. I feel I have definitely improved on my camera skills as on my preliminary tasks, I have not followed conventions such as eye contact with the audience and it is not a close up. On my music magazine, the artists have direct eye contact with the audience and it is also a medium close up which is a key convention.
If I were to recreate my music magazine, I would change the text inside my plugs; I would add something along the lines of 'free poster inside' because it is conventional for a magazine to have a poster inside. I would also add another features story as I do not have many and I feel more will attract the audience.
When looking back at my preliminary task, I felt this helped my practice my Photoshop skills by playing around with the 'spot healing brush' and the 'text' tool. This task introduced me to the future tasks I would be faced with when creating my final music magazine, it allowed me to feel more confident when using Photoshop as I already had an insight as to how to use it.
My Photoshop skills have improved vastly from my preliminary task to my final magazine cover. I have learnt how to use more advanced tools such as the blur tool, the spot healing tool and the FX option. I have learnt how to achieve the best image as possible, for example, I have learnt how to space my models into the correct space so I am not wasting space like in my preliminary task. I have learnt how to position my models so they look more appealing to the audience, for example, by positioning the female models on the side so they look attractive and appealing. By having the female models facing straight forward, directly opposite the camera, this makes the models look wider and broader at the shoulders however by positioning the models on a side, they look smaller and more feminine. On my preliminary task, the masthead is over the head of my model, this is a disadvantage as the models will not be the key feature of the magazine and the audience will not be attracted to the magazine by the models but by the masthead. On my final magazine cover, I have positioned my models over the masthead so they audience are attracted to the magazine. This is a key convention on magazine covers. My preliminary task do not include one main feature story therefore this is unconventional and does not appeal to the audience. The use of one main feature story is to directly drag the audience into my magazine therefore it is conventional for my magazine to include this. I have used conventions on my music magazine cover such as using the '+' sign as this will illustrate to the audience that there is more inside the magazine.
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