Q6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this

product?

Before creating my own front cover I researched other POP magazine front covers, the purpose of this was so that I could see how a real front cover looks and use this as inspiration for my own front cover. Also it meant that I would be able to see the type of images used, text and the different codes and conventions.

I then researched both POP magazine contents pages and double page spreads, this was so that I would be able to look at the real examples of the magazine and then use these examples for inspiration for my own magazine contents page and double page spread.I would be able to get the idea of different layout, images used and the sort of text used.

Blogger is a good way for me to keep all of my finished work organised and to be able to keep a track of what I have done and anything else which I need to do.

Having a diary on Blogger was a good way of seeing how much time it would take to create each page and also keep a track of what work I have already completed.

To take my images for my magazine I used a Pentax k100D DSLR camera. The reason for this was so that I could get the best possible quality images and so that no matter whether I wanted to make the image bigger or smaller it would still stay the same quality and not become pixelated.

When taking my front cover image I also used lighting and a white background, this was so that I would be able to get a clean looking, bright image.

Using Photoshop meant that I could easily edit my images so that they suited my genre of magazine. When taking the photos of my models I purposely made sure that the model had a minimalistic amount of make-up on so that I would be able to edit the models make-up as I wanted on Photoshop. Some of the techniques that I used were the burn tool- the purpose of this was so that I could make the eye make-up of the model darker and look more defined. I also changed the models lips colour so that it was brighter and suited my genre.

I found using Photoshop to create my front cover successful as I already know how to use Photoshop to a good standard so it meant that I could quickly progress my magazine front cover.

I found it easy to add images on my front cover as I would open the image on another document and then copy it to my front cover and then use the free transform tool to change the size of the image to a more suitable size.

For my contents page and double page spread I used QuarkXPress, this program was good for creating my contents page as you create set grids which you then stick to, to make sure that then all stay in line and in the correct columns. This also applies to pictures as it means that you can stick to these set grids too, making sure the images are in line with the text.

It was good for creating my double page spread as it meant that I was able to make the columns that so if the text overlapped the text box then it would flow straight into the next text box.