Here I have experimented with Adobe Photoshop and retouched an image of my sister Vicky. Below I have the before and after picture, to demonstrate the differences that I have made from the original.
I have learnt how to do a variety of techniques, including teeth whitening, removing freckles, blemishes and eye enhancements such as; whitening and sharpness. I learnt a lot of these techniques from Youtube tutorials and also trial and error. For example, when going through each retouching step, I learnt other tips and methods including; quick selection tool, opacity, lots of filters and also keyboard shortcuts.
Here are a few screenshots of new techniques that I have developed a skill in:
My FMP pitch overall went really well, as I kept the presentation really simple and did not look down at my notes throughout. The slideshow I created was very minimalistic, as the majority of the pages just had picture mood boards and photographs. This is because I wanted all the attention on what I was saying, rather than the audience reading off the board. This makes it feel more personal, especially when I make eye contact rather than speaking word for word off either the board or my notes.
Also I found that when I was presenting, the images jogged my memory on what to say next and therefore everything that I wanted to cover was mentioned. Something that I would improve about my presentation would be to have some sort of theme throughout the slides, sticking to a colour scheme and maybe one font, so that the overall pitch would come across more professional and organised.
The feedback given made me really think about the content of my magazine, as I needed a more definite idea for an article and a clearer theme for my photography. I have now got a 'Style inspired by nature' article topic, where I can interview the star {Imogen Cambridge}. I also need to decide on a structure at which I am going to stick to when designing the layouts of my magazine pages, as this would make the project look accomplished and would confirm my brand image.
I would also like to go back and write an introduction to my primary research infographic, so that the data collected and where I got it from is clearly stated. I also need to continue with the majority of the secondary research, so that I have enough knowledge on high end magazines for when I come to compare and critique. After that, I am going to write my reflection blog post on my research overall and how collecting information/data is very important and can be useful, before starting the production process.
As part of my secondary research, I have looked at a few magazines in the fashion/creative photography genre and generated ideas at which I want to pursue when creating my own magazine. The magazines included; Vogue, Dazed and confused, as well as fashion books such as the fashion memoir Yves Saint Laurent by Pierre Berge.
I took a lot of pictures from within the magazines to achieve an idea of the fashion photography used. I really liked the creative edits and unique layout choices of some of the adverts, as they are very different and therefore quite intriguing and eye-catching.
Below are a couple of images of inside Vogue magazine, representing the layout of the Vogue beauty segment. It is quite a busy composition, with almost a collage feel to it. However, this is broken up by simplistic full page adverts to break down the clutter and so the pages flow together nicely, instead of many busy images back to back. This would make the magazine look unprofessional and could come across quite over whelming.
Next I looked at 3 different fashion magazines and analysed the covers. Here is a link to a Google document with my textual analysis' continued.
Today I conducted a small focus group, as a part of my primary research for my final major project on fashion magazines. This allowed me to get more detailed responses to the questions that I wrote especially for this focus group.
Here is the video that is posted on my Youtube channel:
I just recorded this footage on my Iphone and uploaded in a low resolution, as I primarily needed this for the audio information.
The answers and opinions that I got during the focus group included a variety of responses. A lot of which depended on the individual and personal preference, for example what interests you and other opinionated questions.
The advantages of a focus group is that it can save money and time, as this could be a replacement for individual interviews with just one person at a time. It also gives them a chance to confer/exchange opinions and preferences. It also provides a broader range of information and useful material for primary research.
The disadvantages of focus groups are that they can be difficult to control/manage, as people could be talking over each other which is what happened in my focus group. Also irrelevant topics could come up and therefore time wasting on subjects which are not that useful. Some people could feel pressured to agree with the dominant response.
I found out during this focus group that not all of the audience that buy high end fashion magazines, are actually looking to buy luxury fashion. They instead enjoy the unique photography and read to help spark creative style choices and for in season trend inspiration.
On Friday 8th of April I booked to go to Bristol fashion week to get some inspiration and ideas on what trends are in fashion, and the style that I want to include in my own fashion magazine. Although a lot of the clothes displayed on the catwalk were from high street stores, it still gave me an understanding of the type of garments that are in season.
Unfortunately I was not allowed to take pictures during the catwalk, as photography was prohibited.
However, here are some images of the summer 2016 Bristol Fashion Week catwalk show, that I found on Google Images and the Cribbs Causeway website (https://www.mallcribbs.com/events-and-activities/bristol-fashion-week-ss16):
When it comes to the photography of my magazine, I now know the type of clothing I need to dress the models in, to ensure that all the fashion is current and up to date. I have also put together a few outfits that I want certain models to wear and the locations at which I want the photos taken. My idea is to completely contrast the clothing to the location, for example a really elegant, fancy dress in an urban street environment.
