Photos taken

Pictures I might use or I am not going to use

Pictures I'm definitely going to use

Lightning, how I used the studio

I need to take a couple of pictures of a crowd and a christmas tree to edit the pictures. I am going to cut out the backgrounds of the pictures and edit them to make them look more professional, as I don't like the background too much. 

I have used a dimmed flash and a golden reflector. Actually I needed a black backdrop, but I decided to take the pictures bright and edit them the way I want them to be.

Despite my model didn't wear the shoes and pants I asked him to wear, I have given him glasses and a wig to wear. He brought leather jackets and a suit to add variation to the pictures, so it would look as if he had pictures taken on different days and/or locations. 

The poses my model took were poses as if he was standing on a stage, giving someone a microphone, dancing or just casually posing. I made him try to pose inviting and relaxed, as that is how Elvis poses like. 

EDIT 28/11 17:00 / I've started to edit a picture I want to use on my contents page. 

EDIT 05/12/2013 / A couple of days later I took a couple of christmas tree photo's to paste to the background of some images in my magazine (for example: front cover)

 

I took these two photos at home with my iphone. I am planning to use these on my contents page.

Planning & preparation of photoshoot

As I am making a Christmas edition for my magazine, I want my model to stand in front of a Christmas tree but I'm not able to bring one in school so I have to photoshop one behind my model so I need the same lightning for both pictures.

LIGHTNING TECHNIQUES:

Lightning settings I want to use:
Softbox from slightly above
Softbox close and level with head
White reflector
Silver reflector
 I definitely want to use reflectors with every lightning except from the softbox from high above as I want the photo to look professional without any unwanted shadows under eyes, nose and chin.

PHOTOGRAPHS TO TAKE:
Model side laughing (cover)
Model posing as if performing (DPS)
Model posing as if dancing (DPS)
Record

THINGS NEEDED:
For model and set:
Elvis wig
Ray Ban glasses
Black suit, performance clothes (jumpsuit)
Leather jacket

Big change about magazine

I have decided to change my magazine. I wanted to make a vintage-retro magazine from the 50 to 60s but after more research and after having started my drafts I've decided that an old magazine looks too amateur and simple, it doesn't look as much as a magazine of these days. People now wouldn't recognise it is a magazine, so I'm going to change the year and design of the magazine to the 89-90s and it's going to be better quality. New drafts are coming, front page, name, genre etc stays the same.

House style

I want to make a christmas edition of my magazine, so I have put the 'special christmas edition' writing at the top of the page. I will most likely place red and green colours on the page, yet I haven't decided how I am going to do it exactly. Also I want to place 2 small cover lines and one very big teaser which grabs the most attention.

The contents page is going to be very plain and simple with 5 images of artists which are going to appear in the magazine. I have decided to make all the images in the magazine black and white except for the cover photo as that has to attract the audience's attention.

I want the DPS to be plain with a black and white image of the model too. The text is going to be a feature article which is stated by the 'feature' writing on the top of the page. The text is going to be a journalistic feature article in first person with no direct questions asked. 

Masthead designs

To be honest, it wasn't hard for me to decide what font and colour I wanted to use for my masthead. The moment I saw the magazine 'RollingStone' their masthead I fell in love with their font and way of presenting their masthead.

RollingStone has given their masthead a shadow effect which includes white lines in it with a white outline around the letters to make it look like the red letters are pushed into the block it is cut out of. 

I have copied the name a bit as my masthead is going to be 'RollingRock' which has a joke in it (rolling stones - rolling rock - rock and roll). The reason I have chosen this name is because the first time you read it you know it's about rock as it both looks like rock&roll and rollingstones. 

My masthead will contain the same font which is Royal Acidbath, yet I am not going to edit it as how RollingStone did as my magazine is an 80s magazine which should be more basic than a magazine from the 21. century. 

Yet as I have decided to make my magazine a Christmas edition, I want to colour the font in red as that will give the page a Christmas image (Christmas colours are green and red) and red is a very attractive colour for the cover, contents page and lay out. 

After having played with photoshop I have somehow managed to make a white line around the letters, yet they are transparent, which is no problem as it will give the masthead an unprofessional look which is needed for my 80s magazine. 

This is how my masthead looks like at the moment, after having it edited a little bit. I wanted to add gradient to make a shadow effect yet that would be too professional and edited for my magazine. I might change some effects to the masthead later.

Photography and the Studio

THE SET AND LIGHTNING

In the studio in school they have a white or black backdrop. The white backdrop might be turned into grey with the lightning. (Backdrop = the paper on the background) Unless you want to have a shadow effect in your photograph (then you should stay closer), it is recommended to stay five to six feet away from the backdrop. 

While photographing the lightning is very important. In the studio there are two big soft boxes, which soften the light that is reflected on to the model through flashlights. You can also use a white umbrella to soften the light, though soft boxes are better to use. To make sure the model or the room will not become too hot because of the lights there are fans in the soft boxes. Everything works with flashlights, the lights in the school studio are trinity flashlights. When you take a picture the flashlights will go on and off without blinding your eyes. The flashlights have the settings one to six, which decide how bright the light is going to be. Six is the brightest setting, one is the most dimmed flash. When pressing the flashlight or when taking a picture, you will hear two beeps. The second beep tells you that you are ready to take the next picture. All lights are connected with each other through infra red through a little mechanism called 'godox' which sends a signal to the transmitter from the camera to the lights, and from the lights to the lights.

On the set there are also reflectors used, which are round, rectangular or triangular objects that reflect light. They can be white, gold or silver. In school there is a gold and white one. They will help you dim the light. For example: you can remove the shadow of a persons face under their nose and lips. An assistant or your subject can hold it, you can hold it yourself or lean it on something or buy a stand made specifically to hold it. 

CAMERA

There cameras in school are a Nikons D7000 18 million megapixels with a 155 millimetre lens or a Nikon D40 with 7 million mega pixels and a 150 millimetre lens. On the camera there are two buttons on the left hand: AM and S. A means 'aperture priority' and S means 'shutter priority' (focus).

Aperture Priority makes you choose how big the lens and the size of the opening in the lens gets while you take the picture. The larger the lens is, the more light it gets in. If the lens is set on Shutter it will focus automatically by itself, but when it is set on A you must focus it yourself. This works good when you want to focus on a close up, or when you want to decide how you will use your depth of feel.

Depth of feel is when the background and foreground are both focusses similar, when there is no blur in one of them. Shallow depth is that the foreground and background are both different focussed. For example: when you have 2 people and one is standing in the front and the camera is focussed on the one in the front, it is shallow depth. 

When taking a picture you should look through the view of the camera, because if you look through the main screen you will not be able to see how the picture is going to be.

OWN PHOTOGRAPHY IDEAS, LIGHTING ETC

Exactly same pose, arms crossed, light directly on face, use golden reflector to remove the shadows under lips, nose and eyes


Again Elvis: again the same lightning technique: no shadow on face (reflector) and light coming from one side, the side his head is turned to. Since the magazine is going to be a Christmas edition, I want my model to stand in front of a christmas tree or in snow (snow might be photoshopped)

Magazine inspiration

Looks very artistic and suiting colours, popping front cover

Example for how I could form my double page spread

Though this is an advert, the use of their images is something i could use for my contents page or double spread. For example, I really like how the man at the top is a picture that is cut out, the right hand side of it is cut out.

Title looks very nice, good idea for mine!!.

I like the quote and the way the title is written with a small description. Again not a lot of pictures, more text than images. Example double page spread

OTHER IDEAS ON HOW A VINTAGE/RETRO MAGAZINE LOOKS LIKE: