Magazine Cover - Editing;

For the editing of our magazine cover we used a piece of software called 'PhotoScape'. We had to download this software as we thought this would be better for editing the main image and producing a successful magazine cover. We also did not have any existing photo editing software on the computers we were using, so felt that this was the best option. We found that this programme was very easy to install and the programme was quick and easy to learn to use and to find our way around.

Here are some print screen shots of our initial editing of the main image for our magazine cover. In order to create this lighting from the original image we had to change certain aspects such as the lighting; the 'brighten' and 'darken' tool. This made the image blend in better with the background and gave the image an oomph. We then changed the tools 'sharpen' and 'contrast' and once we had played around with these tools, came to the conclusion that we had edited the image far too much and the image became pix elated, as we can see from the above print screen. This was due to the fact that we were exploring the new software and did not realise that we had added and changed the various tools and aspects of the image. So we decided that we should start from scratch and use this as an example of our mistake. By the end of this process, we had successfully learnt the nature of the new software.  

Next we tried to re-edit the image and ended up with two new outcomes. Shown in these pictures. The one on the right was brighter and looks more 'fake' in comparison to the one on the left. Although when it came down to the final decision, we decided to chose the picture on the left, This seemed to contain less exposure and was less dark, proving to be more fitting for our magazine cover.

Our next issue was the fact that we wanted to make the image look as professional and realistic for a magazine cover as we realistically could, and you could see the pole of the spot light we used for the images very noticeably and wished to make it more discrete. It took us a little while to work out how to do this and finally came across the 'Clone Stamp' tool. This can be used, and was used by us to copy a small section of the picture and place it over another section. To get this as precise as we could to blend in with the wall we had to carefully select a section very close to the light pole and then steadily drag the tool up the rest of the pole, and the colour shading of the wall gradually cloned into the pole, and we found that this successfully made the light pole as hidden as we could possible get it. 

The next step of the editing process of our magazine cover was to add the title. The print screen above shows how this process took place. Although, we found it difficult to find a font which we thought was bold, tall and at the same time didn't have big spaces in between each letter. So we decided on the font shown, but then we used 'Paint', copied the top section of the image from 'Photoscape' on to 'Paint' to then select each individual letter, change the background to transparent, and then place each letter closer together and placed the title back on to the top bit of the image. We then saved this, and placed it back in to 'Photoscape' and placed very precisely over the existing image, so that it matched just right. This was a time consuming process, but we felt it was beneficial to make the magazine cover look more professional and to our liking. The reason for the letter 'S' in our title being rough around the edges is due to fact that when we moved the the title back on to the image, small white blocks appeared around the edges of the letters, we had to zoom in on the letters on 'Paint' and use the filling in tool to fill in the white blacks black. This was also time consuming, but if we wanted the title to have to effect we wanted it to, would need to be done. We were pleased with the end result.

This print screen shot is to show the developing process of our magazine cover. It shows the method the programme uses in order to add extra images. Here we can see where we added a small image of our production company logo, this is an extra addition to what we pre-planned what would be included, we thought that it would be effective to show as it could represent that this magazine perhaps prioritises our company, which is the same for many magazines.We also added a small picture of Sophie dressed as the character, to give an insight as to what the film will be like and her role in the film. 

We added a price, bar code, website and the date, this makes it seem more realistic and follow the conventions of existing magazine covers. The writing we included is simple and short, but relevant. 'Top 10 films this Christmas inside!' is used to show the reader what else will be involved in the magazine, and as we planned our film to be released in December, Christmas is relevant. We said 'Latest reviews...' this is a good twist as the title of our magazine is 'Latest' making our cover more quirky and interesting to the reader. Our tag line was - 'D.I.D you? Did she realise?' which combines the title of our film and then an added, catchy sub-title. This does not give too much of the plot away, but does intrigue the audience and leaving them wanting to know more.