Preliminary task

The Preliminary task was to produce the front page of a new school magazine featuring a photograph of a student in medium close up, plus some appropriately laid out text and a masthead. Additionally we also had to produce a mock-up of the layout of the contents page.

To do this, on Thursday 30^th September, Alex Walton; a former photographer for the Herald, spent a day at the Kings School with the A level media studies students. The day consisted of a two hour induction about how to use a camera, general photography skills and techniques. This was then followed by 3 hours of preparation time before creating any front cover specialising in school education. This was made by taking photographs around the school grounds of anything which would attract consumers, using the techniques which had been previously explained. The photographs were edited using Photoshop, in order to create the final piece providing us with experience in producing our own magazine.

Before deciding upon a front cover idea, me and my partner brainstormed and came up with the idea of an art based school. We took many medium close up shots in the art room at our school, with bright colours included to appeal to students. We used mainly blue and pink as our house colours to conform to both genders.

The day was beneficial to me in many ways; such as to help me understand the concept of photography, to experiment with Photoshop, and learning how to entice customers to buy your photographed products.