Ian Lee

Media Studies
Preliminary Exercise

Making the magazine cover

To make the magazine cover, I took several photographs of a student to use as the
cover image. I decided to take the photos in front of the Brampton Road Campus in
order to make the magazine’s subject matter more obvious.
This is the final image that we decided to use. It is composed of a student wearing
casual clothes and a bag in front of the Campus.

However, this image is not completely perfect and needs to be adjusted.

To do this, I used to program Photoshop.

The image needs to be at an appropriate measurement so that it can be used as the

magazine cover. I decided to use A4.
In order to make the image this size, I had to make a new document and input the
following measurements.
Ian Lee
Media Studies

These are the standard pixels used for A4. 300 is the standard resolution used for
magazine covers.

Enhancing the Image

To enhance the image to make a clearer magazine cover, I had to first Isolate the
image. To do this, I used to quick selection tool to only select the student and not the
background.
Ian Lee
Media Studies

I needed to save this selection so I can quickly use it again later in my work. I could
then refine the edge so that he stands out from the background more.
I could also select inverse to add effects to the background, such as adding lens blur it
out to bring more attention to the student.
This created the following effect.

This increases the quality.

I then needed to change the colours of the background. To do this I clicked

adjustments and then Hue/Saturation to bring up the colour options. I then adjusted
the saturation to bring out a more warmer tone
Ian Lee
Media Studies

Most magazines have borders, so I needed to add one to my cover. I used the ruler
tool to make measurements so that I can select these areas and add colour to them.
The selected area had to be 3mm wide and around the entire picture to be a border.
This area is known as the bleed and is used in professional magazines so that if the
trimming is slightly off, it won’t effect the entire magazine. This is the resultant
border.

I then decided to add the text to the image. I used the text tool to add the text B. Road
with the colour 41a993. To make the text appear to be more attractive, I used different
Layer Styles around the text. This includes adding a Gradient, Drop Shadow, Inner
Shadow and Outer Glow.

This created this text.

It is common magazine technique to put the magazine’s text behind the person of the
cover. To do this, I had to turn the student into it’s own layer. I had to load my
Ian Lee
Media Studies
selection of the student before and copy + paste the selection so that it becomes it’s
own layer. This makes the layer selection appear to be this

I had to change the order to bring the student to the front of the text. To do this I
simply dragged and dropped it above the text.

I could then drag the text underneath the student.

This creates the following effect.

Ian Lee
Media Studies

I then needed to make the subtitles. My first title would be for the student, explaining
who he is and why he is on the cover. For this, I used yellow text with no effects in
order to differentiate itself from the main title. I used a slight shadow on the student’s
name to give it a slight boldness, making it stand out.

A common technique in magazines is to create a stamp showing a special feature.

Here is an example.

In order to create one of these, I used the Eclipse tool.

Ian Lee
Media Studies

This created a basic circle using the ellipse tool. Effects needed to be added to it to
make it look attractive. I first added a grandient of a similar colour and then added a
Contour to create a 3d Image.

This created this effect.

Ian Lee
Media Studies

I then added text using the text tool. I gave it a white colour to make it stand out from
the badge and added a shadow to make it appear 3d.

This is the final magazine cover.

Ian Lee
Media Studies