Finished Magazine Covers

Portrait Cover 1:

With this first magazine cover, I went with my original plan but also adapted it too. The original plan was to have three different versions of myself to represent hobbies, personalities and physical features. I believe I have executed this well, but whilst I was creating it, I always found that there is always something missing, and so I kept adding or changing my idea, I like what I have produced, but it isn't something I would purchase myself. I think that it is due to the lack of colour on it. A way I could have improved it is to have more of my body in the shot, then that way I would have filled up more of the page, I would also use brighter colours such as blues and reds, colours which relate to my three traits. What I do like about my cover is the sepia colouring where the text box boarder is, as I feel like the text really pops out of the page due to it. Another feature I like is the three bigger heads behind the original ones, I like it as to me it undertones the three at the bottom, creating and almost superior authoritativeness to the traits. The final thing I like about this cover text in the back, which is 'who?', as the magazine was first based on what makes us, us; which is why I decided to use the word 'who' to say, without these three traits, I would not be recognised as Metmany Smith.

Portrait Cover 2:

With my second magazine cover, I created a warm illusion with my brightly coloured coat. I created three versions of myself to reflect a flame illusion, by starting faint and getting more distinctive. I then came up with the name 'Flaming Distort' as it fits best with what the cover is effectively showing., I then created a sepia boarder around the text as I felt that if I didn't do so, it would mean the cover will look quite mono toned and bland. It also gives a good effect of the warm cooler over the cooler ones, enhancing that heat illusion I am projecting. I added 'GET INSPIRED' at the top there as it was a project about what kind of things we could do on Photoshop, and at the beginning of the process we had to gather inspiration, and this was what the outcome was from the inspiration I had gathered. I faded the text slightly so that it blended in with what was happening in the background too. 

Portrait Cover 3:

With this cover, we were given the opportunity to go out into the city centre of Bath and take portraits of ourselves in the community. When we were given the chance to go to the city center, the first idea that came into my head was paparazzi like shots, in my head, these were shots taken where the subject is off guard, but especially with paparazzi photos of models and actors, they still somewhat look glamorous, whilst also looking realistic in the shots as they are in mid-action.

I decided to try this out twice, the first try of this, I had my picture taken as soon as I turned around, I feel like this shot was fun, but when it came to editing, I didn't feel like that there was a lot that I could have done. And so I thought of, due to the fact that I was turning around for the shot, to create a transparent distortion to it as usually if my picture were to have been taken mid-spin, the picture would have been out of focus and distorted to a certain extent. I placed three of the same shot on the page to make it look so what dynamic as well. I named it 'PICTURE IT' because I felt that due to the blurriness and distortion, it sounded like a good play on words.

Portrait Cover 4:

I was aiming for the same sort of style as my third portrait, with this one. Here, I based it on one of my favourite bands, Clean Cut Kid, hence the title. They are an indie pop band, but also slide into the category genre of the alternative style in music. Their songs to me, have a slight retro touch to them due to their rustic instruments. To create an illusion of retro in the picture, I made the actual frame a browny gold colour. Next, for the text I again, applied a sepia text box, which made the title pop out as the blue looks distinctive on the warm colours on the page. Even though, visually in that picture, I do not look like what the title is implying, I am actually the complete opposite, and by having that difference in the colour scheme from the text box to the general picture suggests that in my opinion.

In all my magazines, there is a recurring pattern of effects being used such as the sepia bordered text and creating transparent layers to give the distorted effect. I feel that even though I mainly repeated these two effects, I have still had a chance to experiment with other kinds of tools on Photoshop such as cropping in my first portrait, another tool I have used is colouring enhancement and layering text. Overall, I am happy with what the outcome is and what I have learnt in the process.