Photoshop evaluation

What tools did you use on Photoshop?

I used a variety of tools in Photoshop to enhance the image and make the magazine much more professional. The tools I used were the text tool, eraser tool, rectangle tool, ellipse tool, the brush tool, the clone stamp tool, polygonal lasso and magnetic lasso tool, the gradient tool, a variety of filters, a variety of image adjustments such as Hue/Saturation (CTRL-U).

What did you find difficult to use? Easy to use?

I found almost everything easy to use, the hardest feature of the magazine that had created was the logo. To achieve this vinyl effect I had to use a variety of tools, filters and image adjustments.

Was your text well controlled?

In my opinion I believe the text was well controlled as it was in the centre of the magazine, I was able to control the size of the text

Did you cut out images? If so how did you do it?

I did cut out images using both the polygonal lasso tool and the magnetic lasso tool. The tool I used first was the magnetic lasso tool which functions through finding contrast in the image, this was a problem as some parts of my image had limited contrast and for these parts I used the polygonal lasso tool.

Did you add effects and drop shadows? Why? How did you do this?

I used many effects in my work and I accessed these effects by double clicking on the layer of my choice which brought up the layer style window. The effects I used were different on each component that I added for example on the skyline I used a gradient overlay and bevel. For my headline used a drop shadow with a high amount of spread whilst making sure it was centred. I did this to show that the headline was above everything to emphasise its importance.

Did you download fonts? Why did you choose these fonts (TA?) how did you download them?

I downloaded a few fonts, tow for the logo and one for the rest of the magazine. The first two fonts were called Pepsi and opificio. I used these two fonts for the logo and for nothing else as it would make the logo stand out and contrast the rest of the magazines features. The other font was called Bebas Nue which I used as it was bold and stood out from the rest of the fonts. I downloaded these fonts from a website called dafont.com.

What colours did you use? Why?

I only used a few colours to keep the magazine nice and simple. If I used a variety of colours instead of a simple colour scheme, this would make the magazine possibly look a bit tacky and messy which wasn’t the look that I was trying to achieve. Some of the colours I used were from the background image which I achieved by using the eye drop tool.

What would you improve about your front cover?

If I had to improve anything on my front cover I would maybe choose a different photograph or to work on my sell lines by wording them a little bit better and using other techniques.

What were its strengths?

In my opinion the magazines strengths were the extra effects and features I added. For example I designed a logo using Photoshop that looked like a vinyl record. Another example of this could be the added blur in the backdrop which I achieved by masking the layer.