Rough draft of Double Page Spread

Rough draft of Contents Page

Construction Process & Reflections - Billboard

I decided to use this image for my billboard because it represents my genre clearly and effectively, as well as appealing to the audience by showing them an area in Cornwall that may be familiar to them. In terms of the camera angle, after researching the rule of thirds I tried to apply this to my own photography work. Applying this technique meant that I would have more space alongside my main object (the Headland Hotel) for my typography.

The clear sky creates a positive atmosphere for the audience, and the inclusion of the beach below the hotel will hopefully appeal to them, because it is showing a regional area that may be of interest to them. It also informs them on the genre of my magazine, and I also wanted to include a preview of my magazine on my billboard to give a clearer indicator on the genre and audience.

Construction Process & Reflections - Double Page Spread

In terms of imagery, I wanted photographs that could easily be associated with the article featured in my double spread, in order to follow conventions as well as show that there is a clear connection present. In order to receive the content for my article, I emailed the famous author, Ruth Saberton, a list of questions containing various different content in regards to her work and lifestyle. After receiving a thoroughly detailed response from Ruth, I condensed the information down that I thought would be most relevant and beneficial to my article. I wanted to include information relating to one of Ruth's recent and famous books, The Letter, hence why I created my title based upon this.

When creating my double page spread I also tried to follow genre conventions, as well as considering areas such as the mid line. I wanted my double page spread to be equal in terms of images and text, as I didn't want to overload them with too much information, or present too many images onto my DPS.

Construction Process & Reflections - Contents Page

Initially, I wanted my contents page to contain a large image of my pumpkin, in order to suit the seasonal theme of the magazine, and also because I thought my pumpkin shoot was successful and would appeal to the audience. I attempted to give my contents page an organised layout, to connote professionalism and high production values to the audience. This is therefore why the various images positioned at the bottom of my contents page are all in alignment with each other, and are all of an equal size. I wanted this to happen to act as a contribution to the professionalism of my magazine.

Construction Process & Reflections - Front Cover

This is my original image taken at the front of Lanhydrock House (before any editing) 

I experimented with adjusting the image with the brightness, contrast and saturation tools in Photoshop. I wanted my image to have a more faded appearance and consequently lowered the brightness and saturation of the image, therefore giving it a more atmospheric appearance. This was decided due to the fact that I wanted my magazine to have a Halloween theme, and giving my image a darker, more 'spooky' appearance represents the theme effectively. In the screenshot below I was originally wanting to use this image for my double page spread, so I also wanted the caption to relate to my featured image. However, when considering genre conventions and how the image and text would correlate with the midline, I decided that this image wouldn't work as effectively as I hoped it would for my double page spread.

Using this image for my front cover worked more successfully in my work, and ensured that I was representing my seasonal theme effectively. I ensured that the image quality was as high as I could make it, in order to follow genre conventions whilst simultaneously connoting high production values.

Photos post-editing

In order to capture the 'floating' effect in my edited images, I had Grace position herself horizontally across a stool, and I then edited this object out using various tools in Photoshop. Because this editing technique was unfamiliar to me, I studied various online tutorials to ensure I was editing my images accurately and successfully.

Problems when editing

One problem I came across when editing the images from my surrealist photo shoot taken at Lanhydrock was that the stool Grace was leaning on (in order to get the effect I desired) reflected off the white dress she was wearing, therefore making part of the dress appear blue. 

To rectify this problem, I highlighted part of the section in Photoshop using the Polygonal Lasso Tool and with using copy and paste, I replaced the section with a grassy area featured elsewhere in my image. Whilst this proved to be effective in removing the majority of the blue section, some still remained on Graces' dress. To solve this issue, I selected this affected area to edit using the Black and White adjustment layer, and experimented with adjusting the level adjustors until I felt that the result was successful. As can be seen in the image below, this correction improved my edit significantly and ensured that this issue didn't affect the quality of my work.

Lanhydrock Photo Shoot