MUSIC MAGAZINE Double Page Spread Main Image

Here are the possible images i have taken for my double page spread. Form looking into the Hot Press magazine i have decided to go with two double page spreads. One with an article written on it and one that is mainly an image with a title.

Out of this selection of photos these two on the right really stands out to me in particular.


I think i will use the first one on my main DPS as it fits in with the title and theme i have chosen as i think a mid close up is appropriate to use as the audience will be looking up close and personal into their life and lifestyle. I also like the framing of the shot and i think if i cropped the right in to her shoulder the image would be even more striking. Thinking of the layout of my Double page spread I like the way this image would fit in taking inspiration from these images that I have found.

This second image for my second DPS is my favorite out of all the pictures I have taken. The angle, composition and framing of the shot is perfect for a large title in the top left hand corner. I'm thinking a title or even a 'quote' from the artist would be apropriate here.






To make these images fit in with my theme I have went through the exact same process as I did on photoshop for my front cover and contents page, changing no processes to keep in with the fluidity of the house style and came up with these.

MUSIC MAGAZINE Contents Page Main Image

Here is the possible images I have taken of my model for my music magazine contents page main image.

From thoroughly looking at all the possible images i have narrowed it down to two images. I have chosen these images bearing in mind that it has to match in with my flat plan as well as the house style of my contents page. These are the two possible images.

MUSIC MAGAZINE Target Audience Feedback

I asked my peers in my class to look at my first draft of my music magazine and write down the feedback on a piece of paper. I then Analysed the feedback given and made the changes to my front cover to complete my second draft.

Here is my initial Feedback..

1.No issue number or date.
2.Need social media, Masthead is hard to see with models dark hair.
3.Different font for cover lines.
4.Need social media icons and make it look more music magazine related.
5.More colour needed in coverlines.
6. Own image, different font for mini coverlines.
7.Not black Masthead.
8.No skyline.
9.More colours, Price, Social Media.
10.Own Photo needed.

Based on the feedback from my peers in my media studies class, I have furthered my first draft and applied the changes to make my first draft of my front cover to convey my second draft. I think this draft with the changes applied looks far more realistic than the first, thanks to my target audience feedback.

MUSIC MAGAZINE Cover Page First Draft

Here is my first draft of my music magazine front cover. I felt i have achieved the look I wanted very well but yet I know it has a lot of flaws. Which is why I will get my peers in my class to asses it from their point of view, so that I can have a clear understanding of what I need to change on it.

MUSIC MAGAZINE Masthead & Font Styles

Regarding my music magazines Masthead, I couldn't think of a name that fitted in with my rock/pop genre so I decided to research into the greatest one word album covers of all time, to get a rough idea or inspiration into what to call my music magazine. To narrow down the results further I only looked at 50 greatest one word hits.

Clicking on the first link that came up I went on to the Billboard website, which brought me to five pages of the 50 greatest one word titled songs. After scrolling through these five pages several times and writing down which ones I like best I eventually came down to two names. One being 'Radioactive' and the other being 'Kryptonite', closely considering that I had already thought up a slogan, 'ROCK THAT POPS', playing on the fact that my magazine is a rock/pop magazine.

I came to the conclusion then that the title Radioactive would suit my magazine more, as it has nicer imagery than kryptonite as well as looking better on the page and being of a slight reference to music as many artists use the word Radioactive throughout their songs.

At first I wanted my Masthead to be big and bold so that it would really stand out to the reader ahead of others so I started looking into different font styles in conjunction to this, but after experimenting with these fonts I eventually realized that less is infact more in my magazines case, and that having a harsh bold title would heavily contradict with my softer image. However to ensure the title would still stand out, I have kept it in all Capital font.

From this I went on and mainly got inspiration for my Masthead by looking at different magazines, not just music magazines. As I want my magazine to have a more classy font than older, more bubble like writing styles I looked into fashion magazines like ELLE, VOUGE and BAZAAR.

I went through all the fonts on Photoshop and eventually found one very similar to these classy fashion magazines called Elephant Regular, then by stretching it i could make it more like the ones previously shown.

The final result being a classy, stand-offish font, highlighting the one word masthead in order to stand out to the reader, and draw in the preferred target audience.

MUSIC MAGAZINE Front Cover Artists Name & Font Styles

After searching on the internet and looking up dozens of short snappy names as well as surnames I finally came to the conclusion to call my artist Becca Sparks, as I quickly realized that short snappy names and abriviations are easier to remember and say, as well as being more visually pleasing.

So with my artists name chosen I started to select different fonts. Something that showed the artists name off, as well as keeping in line with the genre of the magazine which is an edgy rock pop theme. So I decided to use a brush font, searching on 1001 fonts online, which has 18 pages full of different brush fonts. this is what I came up with.

After a lot of deliberating I finally decided to use the last font shown, as I like the composition, how the font seems to spill out longer than the others, creating a more filled and unique look. So to make it fit on my main image I cut it into two, filling more of the page up by doing so, and emphasizing the surname by making it larger, as more and more artists these days are being recognized by their unique surnames.

MUSIC MAGAZINE Front Cover Main Image Photoshop

Still undecided between the two images I went throughout the following steps and processes to help me choose one picture to use on the front cover of my music magazine.


I cropped both images down to an A4 like size so that I would have the main outline and and composition of the photo to work with.

To then make the image the actual size iI selected image, then image size, finally cicking on A4 international paper size.

To make the
images black
and white I selected images, adjustments and then levels, clicking on the monochrome button (as well as the orange filter on channel mixers, which I found smoothed the skins complexion out more) and then further adjusting the levels of dark, light and medium tones to create the perfect balance of black and white. I did this on both images so I would have a better understanding which one would look better in the tones that I wanted. I also realized that if you move the medium tones higher as well as the dark tones the image became very pixelated, especially if I moved the white balance up. By having such a harsh contrast of the tones the images immediately became very fake looking, which I definitely didn't want so  I worked hard to create the perfect balance.

 I finally decided that out of both images I would choose the first one, on the left. I feel the composition and lighting for this image is better for the front cover because of the composition. I would be easier to put a title at the top of this image as it is a straight image, making the text and font look better placed around her. Further more, I like the way the image is more curved around the edge, which in some cases looks too harsh for a front cover.

Continuing on photoshop i then decided just to really perfect my image i would zoom up close and correct any tiny blemishes the model had using the blemish tool (which was quite easy to use once I adjusted the brush size), or even blend where the light caught her face in places.

MUSIC MAGAZINE Front Cover Main Image

To create the front cover of my music magazine I have decided to use photoshop as I feel more comfortable using it than in-design. Since creating the front cover of my school magazine I have started practicing more with photoshop so that I would be experienced enough to use the wide range of tools and settings to create my image and front cover of my music magazine. I also asked my sister for help with photoshop as she is now completing her final year of a Higher National Diploma in photography, meaning she was able to show me some of the tools and functions that I didn't already know how to use to to improve on my image.




My image of Lucy initially started out in full colour. I had good bright lighting with use of an industrial light in the shoot to make the image as bright as possible, increasing the amount of higlights by using the flash on the front of the DSLR camera. I did this because I know that whilst using photoshop it is easy to tone down the lighter tones into a darker shade, but when it comes to the darker tones it is not so easy to make them brighter if you have no light tones to begin with.

From the shoot I narrowed down 33 front cover poses and images down to these two shown. I was seriously unsure of which to use as the main image on my front cover as I thought both of them were really strong images with a lot of potential to convey the Rock/Pop kind of edgy look that I was aiming for. So with a little thought I took both images and decided to edit them both properly, so that it would give me a real view of what either of them would look like as a finished music magazine product.

Other possibilities from the shoot for my main image: