NOTEmusic
Photoshoot Pictures
To make my magazine look professional and something what people would actually read, I decided to have a 'model', or in this case, a new singer on my front page. As it was hard to find an actual artist that would let me use permission, I chose to use images of my friend to help me do this. Over the course of a few different days, I had set up a photo-shoot with my friend. A range of images with various angles came up when we looked at the results later on. Not all of them are on here, yet the vast majority of the ones in focus are. I asked my friend or the model in this case, to dress quite similar over the days when the photo-shoot will take place. By doing this, it made the images look as if they were taken all at once. I wanted to do this at first, but they photographs would look different on camera than they would on the small camera screen. I was also then able to see what other images needed to be taken.
To the right, you can see a video clip of me actually taking some of the pictures. I asked my friend to film me taking a few pictures, yet I only did this on the second photo-shoot. I didn't film the first photo-shoot as it was the first time I was there and I didn't know a lot about the equipment. I felt as if it was better to film second time around as I would be more confident and have a good idea of what I needed to do. The reason I didn't want to film a lot was that the process took quite a while, but with the shown footage available, there is
enough proof there to show I really did take the pictures. The pictures were taken in the college studio. When we got there, I changed the background to a plain white wall instead of various coloured curtains. Before deciding that I did want a white backdrop, I let the model stand in front of the various options to see what would look better. In the end, I felt as if the white wall would be better as it would be easier to change if needed to further along in the process.
As you can see to the left, those were the pictures on the first day we chose to shoot. As I didn't know how many pictures I wanted to have or even needed, this shoot was mainly to take as many in a short space of time. Also, this was the first time I was taking photographs in a studio so I didn't really know what to do. It got easier as time went on and photos were taken and towards the end I was already comfortable with it.
To make it easier for myself, I wanted to take a variety of different shots. By doing this, future photo-shoots would be easier to manage as I will be able to know what types of images I need. I took a few close-up shots, as well as medium long shots to get more of her body in the picture frame. As a result of doing this, there is more of her in the shot.
As well as the pictures looking 'indie', I need the model to look the part too. I wanted her to dress in black with a slight colour in specific areas. In this case, her colour is her red lipstick and the blue check shirt. On most indie magazines I have looked at, the person on the front cover doesn't seem to be going overboard on colour which is exactly what I wanted to recreate.
The pictures to the right this time are pictures from a different photo-shoot. I took this section of photographs just under two weeks after the previous photo-shoot. In the time in-between, I finished my research layout and added the text above. By doing this, I was positive and clear of my magazine target audience, as well as things being in the correct places.
There are a lot more pictures from this photo-shoot than the previous one which I didn't expect to happen. At first, I had a few technical errors which made the pictures darker as the flash wasn't working. I have still kept those images as I was going to darker some of them up either way. After the errors passed aside, I took a few more photographs with the flash working. Those are the first eight images to the left. I didn't take as many with flash as I had some previous pictures beforehand and the dark images looked perfect for my magazine.
It is easily noticeable that my model for my music magazine is wearing a similar outfit. I wanted the outfits to look similar when I put them all together. By doing this, it looks like I took them all at the same time. I didn't want a large percentage of my photographs to be a different style, or the model in a complete different outfit.
Also, I needed another picture of someone to be on my contents page as a new or an added artist. However, the image will just be on the contents page and no double page spread on the new girl. I did this because I wanted more 'celebrities' to be in my magazine. I didn't take as many pictures for this one as the image isn't going to be a main attraction, yet I still managed to get a good variety.
As I started to edit more through the process, I realised that I didn't like certain images that I used and in some cases I wanted there to be an extra image. I wanted there to be a picture relating to the competition that my magazine had to offer. I only decided to do this as beforehand I knew I would be going to Los Angeles. When I went, I decided to take pictures of well-known areas, which led me to using two pictures; the Hollywood sign and Santa Monica Pier from Venice Beach point of view. To the left you can see the exact two images I used and a screenshot of a collection of the pictures I took on the trip. More details about these images are on the Editing page on my blog.
I also wanted to change my one of the images on my contents page. I didn't think that the girl on their fit the magazines image, not the girl who was the main story. It was a risk to do a full on photo-shoot so late into the process so I rarely took any images and hoped they would turn out ok. The last image on the left is what I ended up using. Again, there is more detail on the Editing page of the blog.