Photos. Blog 6.

To put on my magazine pages i had to take photos that i thought would be suitable for my target audience and think about what the photos would be used for. I thought of my main flash and main sells when i did my flat plans, so that i could then take the pictures for the stories.

My main flash front cover photo:

The main flash on my front cover is about Pop stars new years resolutions and so i wanted to have a photo that would represent famous pop stars getting together to do a photo shoot, you can tell that they are all famous for their own reasons because one of the subjects in the photo also have a story about him later on in the magazine.

I wanted to have a plain background so that it would be easier to use in photo shop as i wasn't planning on keeping the background at all, i was going to cut it out completely. I think the lighting could have been used a bit better because it looks quite yellow but i don't think this effects the image too much, possibly using daylight would have made the picture look brighter and clearer.

I wanted the subjects to be wearing casual clothing because all of them are supposed to be from pop rock bands, by wearing casual clothes i think that it draws the target audience in because they can relate to them. On the other hand i do think they could have been more fashionable clothing as the magazine is mostly aimed at young teenage girls who are easily influenced by fashion. I also wanted the clothes to have bright colours but that doesn't stand out too much because the background on the front cover is bright anyway, i think this would be too blaring. I put the guitarist in the foreground so that he is the one that stands out the most and captures the most attention because he is supposed to be the most admired by young girls and most well known. By doing this when the audience glance at the magazine they will see this famous pop star who they admire and want to buy the magazine. I defiantly think that this image stands out the most compared to the rest of the images i did for my magazine, which then makes the magazine stand out most to the target audience.

Main Sell-Cameron Williams photo:

This is the photo i used for the story about the pop star Cameron Williams. I used the brick background so that is isn't a really busy background and is easy to cut out in photo shop. I wanted to cut out the background and then in photo shop use the paint brush tool to colour the background in a bright and eye catching colour. By doing this it would appeal to my target audience a lot more as it is eye catching and would draw them in. The way he is posed would also be appealing to my target audience because its like he is keeping a secret from the audience and my target audience would automatically want to know what his secret is and would by doing that draw them in and want to read about it especially if he is well known which is meant to be.

Although i think i chose this model at the wrong time as one of his eyes is slightly swollen and there is a scar visible, this wouldn't look good in a children's pop magazine but i am going to use photo shop to try and hide the scar and make it look as realistic as possible so that it would be suitable for my target audience. Again i think that the way he is wearing casual clothes makes him look more natural and makes him look as though he is more of the pop rock sort of person, which my target audience really likes. The lighting that is used is daylight which i think works really well and makes the subjects skin look much more clearer which then means that i wont have to use photo shop to makes his skin look clear. I wanted this pop star to have long hair so that he would look more like he is from a pop rock band and i defiantly think, by looking at other kinds of magazines that I'm doing, that my target audience will be drawn in by this.

The Queuetee's band photo on the front cover:

I really wanted his image to be like a typical girl band image fro young girls because for one my target audience will look up to this kind of band and so they have to be happy, enthusiastic and look fashionable. I think that i have achieved all these things when i took this picture and i defiantly think that it would appeal to my target audience because of these things. I wanted them to look happy and enthusiastic because they need to be role models to the target audience and because the audience is quite young they wouldn't understand properly why the subjects looked unhappy and wouldn't by the magazine especially if the image is on the front cover. I wanted the subjects to be a typical girl band and got my inspiration from the spice girls because they were looked up to by young girls all over the world and partly because they were always happy, enthusiastic and energetic. I chose these clothes to wear because i thought they weren't too over the top but they were still in fashion and again i went with the more casual look with clothing. In the magazine there is a page on fashion and i had the idea of letting the subjects wear the clothing on that page so that it promotes the clothing. The fashion page isn't shown in my double page spread of front cover but it says on the contents page that there is a page later on in the magazine on it. Again i wanted to use a plain background so that it would be easier to use in photo shop as i want to colour the background in a bright colour so that it is eye catching to the audience. I am also going to do a theme colour for the Queuetees band which goes throughout the magazine and onto the double page spread so i thought the colour pink would look good in the background of this photo because this colour is popular with my target audience which is young teenage girls. I think i could have improved on the lighting as i think it is too yellow and maybe sunlight would have been better for this image and would also make it more bright and clear.

Double page spread main photo:

This is the photo i used for the main image on my double page spread. I wanted them both to be looking at the camera and smiling because this connects with the audience and draws them in, they also look very friendly and when looking into the camera and smiling this makes the audience think that they are being friendly with them and this is inviting to my age target audience.

Again with the background i wanted it to be clear and unobstructed so that it is easy to cut out on photo shop. The lighting doesn't make this picture look that bad but the same with the other images i think i could have used sunlight instead. The subjects are very central in the image and i think this is very important because it means that the eye is drawn straight to them with no distractions and i also think that by them both having their arms round each other they look even more friendly and welcoming to the audience.

I wanted them both to wear stripped tops because they are supposed to be a very close girl band and it shows that they are really close to be even both wearing stripped tops, i think this important to grab attention to them to my target audience, as the story is about their band getting back together after 4 years, this kind of story needs to have attention drawn to it. I have decided not to cut the background out on this image and to leave it the way it is, as this image will be on the double page spread it wont need as much attention as the front cover because the reader has already got to the double page spread. I also looked at other examples of double page spreads for my target audience and they didn't seem to take the background out of the main image.

This is the photo for the competition on the double page spread:

I chose this photo to be the competition photo because it is an image just before the subject (Kat Cooper) dyed her hair and this could represent her before the girl band broke up for four years and you can then see a change in the band. I think this is the best photo for what it is going to be used for because it is different from the rest of the images and looks more like it could be a prize and signed by the band member. I chose the background to be quite clear for the same reasons as before, so that i can cut the background out on photo shop and colour in the background so that it looks professional and also goes with the theme pink for the girl band, by doing this the audience can see a connection.
I wanted the subject to be wearing something elegant and pretty so that it shows that she is in a girl band, also because for the purpose of this photo the fans would want her to be wearing something pretty and girly because my target audience are young girls and aspire to be like the girl band. I wanted the subject to be quite central in the image because it is then eye catching straight away. Although i did want the subject to be slightly to one side so that the composition is more interesting and not just right in the middle. I didn't want her to look at the camera for this photo because unlike most of the other photos i took fr my magazine it doesn't have to connect with the viewer straight away to capture their attention, the image is for a prize so connecting eye contact with the audience isn't essential.