Magazine Covers Part 2

Overview: Before we start to learn the basics of InDesign to make our Magazine Covers, you need to know a little more information about the types of magazine covers that have been used through the years. Here are the most common types:

Cover types
1. Early Magazine Covers
2. The Poster Cover
3. Pictures Married to Type
4. In the Forest of Words

Click the link below and read the descriptions and view some examples of each of these types of magazine covers:

http://longleaf.net/coverlines/ 

Assignment: Read directions below and create your magazine cover.

Step 1: Create a new blog entry, titled "Magazine Covers."

Step 2: Post an example of each type of Magazine Cover and provide the following information: Name of magazine and year of publication and a short (50-150 word) explanation of the main attributes.

You may need to do a Google Image search.
1. Early Magazine Covers (Try searching for: magazine cover 1700s or magazine cover 1800s.
2. The Poster Cover (Try searching for: magazine "poster cover")
3. Pictures Married to Type (Try searching for: magazine cover pictures and type)
4. In the Forest of Words (Try searching for: magazine covers)

Step 3: Most of you have already taken your portraits and self portraits. Please post the image (either self portrait or portrait) you intend to use for your magazine cover on your blog. Begin planning what's going to go on your magazine cover. It should include the following information.

A. Magazine name (masthead or flag)

Think carefully about the font you use. It says a lot about the tone of the publication.

You may use the name of a real magazine or make up your own

B. A teaser / cover line (headline type description) for the main story. If you choose to do a poster style cover, your photo must have strong composition and subject interest appeal to sell your magazine to your audience (the teacher). Get approval from your teacher before going ahead with a  Poster cover.

C. If you choose to make a "picture married to type" or a "forrest of words" type cover, create the following:

At least two teasers (Cover lines) for secondary stories. Be creative. Their should be a primary and a secondary Cover Line with the primary using a larger point size.

If you are creating a poster, you do not have to create additional cover lines.

D. Pricing and date information.

E. Inserting a bar code - Create another small photo box in InDesign and place a barcode that you download from Google Image. The dimensions should be realistic for a magazine cover. You should figure this out yourself, but it should be at least 10 picas tall.

F. Extra credit will be provided to students who follow the tutorial below to place the subject of their magazine cover on top of the magazine title.

http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/overlap-text/

I will show you some live versions of these types in class before we move on to producing our magazine covers.

During the lecture on InDesign. We will go over the toolbar, basic InDesign functions, and we will start your magazine cover together.

You will have at least 2 class periods to complete and turn in your magazine cover. I will tell you next class how to turn in your magazine cover, and you should NOT finish today. I expect you to think creatively and design a quality cover. It should take you at LEAST 2 hours to finish.

Photoshop Practice Directions

Overview: We are going to learn some basic Photoshop skills today. We will cover:

Options Bar

Toolbar

Adjusting Levels
Adjusting Contrast

Cropping
Setting Resolution

Directions: Begin by learning how to open up photos in Photoshop. To open Photoshop — look on your dock for the program that is colored blue and has the letters "Ps" in it. Click that and Photoshop will open up.

If you want to open photos in Photoshop you can click on File and Open or right-click a JPEG and then use the "Open With" option and then select Adobe Photoshop.

Open any THREE IMAGES (besides your PORTRAIT or SELF PORTRAIT) that you have taken this year.

IMPORTANT: The next step will be to "Save As" and Rename the file so that you do not lose your original image. If you don't do this you will never be able to recover your original if you make changes to it in Photoshop.

Rename your files Practice 1, Practice 2, Practice 3.

NOTES:

You will be taking notes while we work on this project today. I expect everyone to open up a new blog post titled "Photoshop Notes" to record specific Photoshop skills we will practice today.

You will be toggling back and forth so be prepared. Some of you may prefer to have them both open next to each other, the screens are certainly big enough to have both open if you want.

Once that is done, just wait for me. Please be aware that we will be working together for most of the period. And then I will ask you to practice what you learned in the time left before class is over.

Overview of Skills:

Basic Color Correction:

1. Open the photo in Photoshop (there are multiple ways to do this, use whichever way you remember)

2. The first thing we want to do every time is to SAVE AS and rename your photo and save it in the correct folder. For right now that folder is your folder on the J:drive, so don't forget to click the camera on your desktop and connect to the server. We do this so we always have the original file in case we make a mistake.

3. Go to - Image -- Adjustments -- Levels

A box should pop up on your screen. In that box is a drop down box that has RGB in it. Use the drop down box and go to BLUE

Move the black and white slider tools (the hershey kisses) and move them as needed to be underneath the mountain.

go to GREEN

repeat

go to RED

repeat

Adjusting Contrast (lighten for print)

Now go to RGB (still under Levels)

On this step you move ONLY the middle one which is brown (do not move the black or white slider) just slightly where the photo appears a little lighter than perfect. Photos print darker than they appear on the screen so you need to lighten photos a little bit.

Now - here are some new instructions: I will show you this quickly today, but I wanted to give you the instructions here as well.

4. The final step, go to Filter -- Sharpen -- Sharpen

You should only do this one time

5. Crop and make sure you have the correct resolution as requested. Today you do not have a specific Height and Width (that will change later). Remember you can enter the resolution setting when you make your crop.

6. To change a photo to black and white go to: Image -- Mode -- Grayscale

when the pop up appears asking if you want to discard the color information, hit yes or okay. Soon you will be asked to produce a Black and White image. Today two of your images will be in color. To make the black and white image, you should use the Grayscale feature.

Assignment: Edit and post your practice images to the following specifications:

Today you should post the photos that you color corrected and cropped onto your blog. Make a new blog post titled "First Photoshop Practice."

• One photo titled Yearbook should be saved at 300 resolution and it should be horizontal.
• One photo titled Newspaper should be saved at 150 resolution and it should be black and white. 
• One photo titled Web should be saved at 72 resolution and it should be vertical.

Choice Sheets

Soon many of you will be asked to start making choices for your schedule for 2014-2015. Seniors your clearly not going to be doing this for Akins High School, but I hope your planning for a post-secondary   education of some sort.

For the rest of you I want you to be armed with the best information possible about what it means to be  in the print journalism department.

You have three options next year: You can take Advance Graphic Design and Illustration for Newspaper, Advance Graphic Design and Illustration for Yearbook or a class called Commercial Photography.

The sequence looks like this:

Year #1 - Graphic Design and Illustration for Photojournalism or Journalism I (the class you are currently taking)

Year #2 - Advance Graphic Design and Illustration for (newspaper or yearbook) OR Commercial Photography

Year #3 - Newspaper 3 or Yearbook 3 OR Advanced Commercial Photography

Year #4 - Newspaper 4 or Yearbook 4 OR Problems and Solutions for Commercial Photography

You need to complete at least 3 of these classes to qualify for the major in the academy - meaning you get a cord to wear at graduation. For incoming freshmen and sophomores next year, your major would shift to the New Tech academy. If you are a junior, you would likely stay in the AHA academy if you have a journalism related major.

Here is a simple description and a rough explanation of the options you have in each class:

Newspaper: Publishes the Eagle's Eye newspaper once every 6 weeks. Typically the paper is 12 pages long, there are about 50 stories written for each newspaper and about 20 photographs published. Every newspaper student is expected to write at least one story per issue and some people write three or more. Photographers are expected to write, but if they attend multiple photography assignments the writing can be limited.

     There are multiple editors on staff and they are selected by current editors at the end of the school year. There are generally openings for students who enter the class at the beginning of the year. Layout and design is handled by editors, but there are assistant editor positions available for each section. They help with the creation of the pages.

     The Eagle's Eye newspaper is "The Voice" of Akins High School. Students in the class get to decide the coverage each issue and there are multiple opportunities for individual expression on issues that impact students at our school. Its the only place where students can share their opinions in first person and have it published for the school to read.

     One new aspect to the newspaper is our online version. We are always looking for talented people to work for the online version. It can be seen here: http://akinseaglespublications.com/

Mr. Doerr teaches the newspaper class.

Yearbook: Publishes the Aerie which is worked on throughout the year and publishes sometime in May each year. The book is about 170 pages long and students in the class are responsible for the creation of two-page spreads. You will learn more about these "spreads" later this semester where we will create some together. Students are responsible for all the content on their spread, including taking pictures, writing captions, headlines and some years writing a short story.

     There is typically a little room for creativity with a portion of the spread, but most of the lay-out and design is done ahead of time by a group of editors selected towards the end of the school year. Much of  that work is done during the summer or very early in the school year by a dedicated group of editors. Most of these people are picked in advance and have been in the program for multiple years.

     Advance Graphic Design and Illustration for Yearbook is a separate class from Yearbook 3 and 4, those students get a more detailed year of design, photography, and writing. Some students work on the actual yearbook, others work on aspects related to the publication of  the book. The book covers all areas of the school, but its primary objective is to record and summarize the highlights of the school year. The yearbook class is taught by Ms. Fleming.

     Here is a link the Akins Yearbook twitter: https://twitter.com/AkinsYearbook

Commercial Photography: This is the second year this course is being offered here at Akins. It is being offered as an alternative to newspaper and yearbook for students interested in learning advance photography skills. Students will learn more about the following types of photography and concepts: studio photography, action/sports photography, fashion photography, product photography, night/star photography, painting with light, lighting, make-up and hair, etc.

     Students who enroll in this class are highly encouraged to have their own camera. Individuals who take commercial photography will be required to participate in after-school projects and will have to be available to shoot after hours events like sporting events, theater/fine arts productions, night photography, etc.

     This is a serious class designed for students who are interested in pursuing a career in photography after high school. You can see student work by clicking here: http://akinscommercialphoto.blogspot.com/

     You will need to go to the blog list and click on people's names - you should see a lot of the photos they have taken. You can also see a link to their online portfolios.

Mr. Doerr teaches this course.

If you have questions about which class might be best for you, please talk with me privately and I will make a recommendation based on what skills I see in you. Each class has its strengths and weaknesses and we want you to be in the class that interests you the most and will better prepare you for the real world and you plans for the future.

On your blog today, I would like you to tell me which publication you think you might join next year and what aspects of that publication influenced your decision. Write at least a paragraph. I will be calling you back to speak with you individually and record what course you think you might want to take next year.

Second: I would like you to go to the following websites and look at various publications from around the United States. Pick one yearbook spread that you think is cool looking and link it on your blog and pick one on-line newspaper that you think looks cool and link it on your blog.

Yearbook websites:

http://www.jostens.com/yearbooks/ybk_advisers_cd_contests_adobe.html

Google the following: "yearbook spreads" as an image

Newspaper websites:

http://www.schoolnewspapersonline.com/clients/client-list/high-schools/ 

and

http://www.studentpress.org/nspa/winners/npm13.html

Photoshop Introduction

Only do this if you have EVERYTHING ELSE POSTED TO YOUR BLOG. That means the following:
Year in Review: 2013
Fixed Portrait Shoot
Single Portrait for Magazine Cover
Magazine Covers Preview

Overview: We will soon begin using Photoshop to color manage and crop your photos for your magazine cover. Before we begin using this software, we need to review some of its basic layout, functions and tools.

Photoshop and InDesign are the primary photo manipulation and layout and design programs we use to create both the newspaper and yearbook. I know some of you have experience with Photoshop, but I bet most of you don't know much about InDesign. I will spend time with the entire class teaching you how to do things in both programs. But, I am not a Photoshop expert, so I want you to learn how to teach yourself how to find tutorials and tips on the internet.

Assignment: Today I want you to get started by watching the video linked below:

What is Photoshop?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsnWY-Wtxeg&edufilter=605GUT66LbdJf6fbZXpM1Q

Answer the following questions:

1. What are the three parts of Adobe Photoshop?

2. What types of professionals use Photoshop?

3. What are the functions of the three different components of Photoshop?

NEXT, go to the following link and answer the following questions:

http://multimedia.journalism.berkeley.edu/tutorials/photoshop/gettingstarted/

Under the heading "Common Tools" describe in your own words, what the function is for the following tools.

4. Crop Tool 

5. Lasso Tool

6. Text Tool

7. What buttons do you push to "Undo" a mistake you made?

8. What can you open to "undo" more than one mistake? How do you open it?

NEXT, Go the following link and answer the following questions:

http://multimedia.journalism.berkeley.edu/tutorials/photoshop/croporient/

9. How do you rotate an image?

10. If you don't like the initial cropping box you drew, how can you change it before you make your crop?

11. Under the heading "Resizing while Cropping" when you enter dimensions as you crop, what are you telling Photoshop to do as you crop your image? HINT: it involves ratios.

NEXT, go to the following Web site and answer the following questions:

http://guides.lib.unc.edu/content.php?pid=122104&sid=1049942

Under the heading "For Printing" find where it talks about resolution or "Pixels Per Inch" (ppi). 

12. What is the correct resolution for newsletters and newspapers?

13. What is the correct resolution for magazines?

Preview for next assignment: 

During our next lesson, together as a class we will open up in Photoshop any THREE IMAGES (besides your PORTRAIT or SELF PORTRAIT that you have taken this year.

IMPORTANT: The next step will be to Save and Rename the file so that you do not lose your original image. If you don't do this you will never be able to recover your original if you make changes to it in Photoshop.

To open Photoshop — look on your dock for the program that is colored blue and has the letters "Ps" in it. Click that and Photoshop will open up.

NOTES:

You will be taking notes while we work on this project today. I expect everyone to open up a new blog post titled "Photoshop Notes" to record specific Photoshop skills we will practice today.

You will be toggling back and forth so be prepared. Some of you may prefer to have them both open next to each other, the screens are certainly big enough to have both open if you want.

Once that is done, just wait for me. Please be aware that we will be working together for most of the period. And then I will ask you to practice what you learned in the time left before class is over.

Magazine Covers Preview

Overview: We need to review some of the best magazine covers of the last year and the essential parts of a magazine cover before we begin to design your own. 

Directions: This assignment consists of two blog posts.

Blog #1 - Magazine Essential Parts

After you shoot your portrait, you will use it as the central element of a mock magazine cover design that will occupy a page of your InDesign document.

To get this process started, you need to learn a little about magazine cover design.

Go to the link below:

http://www.magforum.com/cover_secrets.htm

Step 1: List the parts of a Magazine Cover labeled on the image. 

Step 2: In your own words summarize what each of these 9 parts does.

Blog #2 - Best magazine covers of 2013 and the last 40 Years

Next, go here and look at some great designs:

http://www.magazine.org/asme/magazine-cover-contest/past-winners-finalists/2013-winners-finalists

or go to the link below to see the top 40 Magazine Covers of the last 40 years.

http://www.magazine.org/asme/magazine-cover-contests/asmes-top-40-magazine-covers-last-40-years

Blog #2 -- My Favorite Cover

Choose your favorite cover (with a portrait). Label it as "favorite."

Post an image of your favorite.

Copy and paste the description from the web.

Write a 50-100 word critique of the portrait on the cover.

Mention what is communicated about the people in the portrait and how this is communicated.

You may consider composition, lighting, exposure, and cover lines

Portrait Photography Major Assignment

Overview: You have reviewed some examples of good Portrait and Self-Portrait photography. Now it is your turn to demonstrate what you have learned and take a portrait of someone else or your self (with special permission from teacher).

Directions: You will take at least one portrait that demonstrates the following elements of quality.

• Subject = The subject of the portrait is interesting and captivating. The focus is on the person in the photograph and the background is plain or has a blurry effect to it.
• Content = The viewer can see an emotion and a story within the portrait composition.
• Light Values = A whole range of light and dark values can be seen in the photograph. There are rich darks and clean highlights. The shadows enhance the overall photograph.
• Composition = The composition reflects MORE THAN ONE Rule of Composition, such as evidence of simplicity, balance, cropping or another Composition Technique (Rule). There is the use of depth of field in the photograph to make an outstanding image. There is just enough background to make the picture interesting, but not so much that it dwarfs the subject.

Click on the link to view the full Grading Rubric here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1UFIVJD2sBzdWVuRXprSk5rdUk/edit?usp=sharing


If you need some last minute tips check this link:
http://digital-photography-school.com/10-ways-to-take-stunning-portraits

Fixed Portrait Shoot Submission

Overview: After you finish shooting your Fixed Portrait Shoot, you must post your best photos for each of the ISO settings.

Directions: On your blog make a new blog post titled "Fixed Portrait Shoot."

Part 1. Make labels on your blog for the following: 

ISO 100

ISO 400

ISO 800

ISO 1600

ISO 3200

Part 2. Post your best photo for each ISO.

Part 3. Go back and look at your data sheet. Under each photo, post the settings that you used to take each of your photos. 

Part 4. Answer the following questions:

What was the best ISO setting to use for your portraits?

What was your next best photo?

Were you able to create equivalent exposures to your best photo by changing the aperture and shutter speed?

What did you learn from this activity that you will apply to your real portrait shoot?

Fixed Portrait Shoot

Your challenge: Using a tripod and a camera set to manual mode, you must take a portrait of a classmate while recording the changes you make to ISO, Aperture and Shutter Speed.

Rules:

• Once you have found your location for the portrait, you MAY NOT move the tripod or camera. 
• The framing, location and framing all of all of your photos must look exactly the same. 

Directions:
Starting with and ISO of 100, you must select the correct Aperture and Shutter Speed to create an appropriate and eye-pleasing exposure. Remember that you are balancing light and shadows as well as the sharpness of the image versus blur.

On your handout, start out by recording your beginning ISO of 100. Then record your prediction for an appropriate Shutter Speed and Aperture.

Next, record how you think your photo will come out in the Prediction column before you take your photo. Then record your result.

Continue to make and record your predictions for ISO 100 until you get what you believe is your best exposure at this film speed (100).

Repeat this process for the following Film Speeds (ISO settings): 400, 800, 1600, 3200.

You must attempt to take a good portrait at each of these film speeds even if you think the ISO number is too high or too low. The idea is to see how you can create an equivalent exposure by adjusting the Aperture and Shutter Speed even while using different ISO settings.

Year in Review: 2013

Today lets get started with a fun little assignment.

Since its now 2014 I think its appropriate that we look back at the year 2013 and reflect upon the things that happened in that year.

Part 1: Best Photos of 2013 (40 points)

First, lets look at some photos.

Go to the following Web sites and look at the photos there. On your blog post the images of your THREE favorite photos and write a THREE sentence explanation for each photo that explains why it was one of your favorite photos of the year.

Your paragraph should address at least TWO of the following: 

• Subject matter (power, interest, emotion)
• Composition of photo (rules, techniques)
• Exposure quality (light, dark, sharp, blurry)

I have included links for several Web sites for you to look at. I suggest spending at least 20 minutes looking at these sites. You may have to wait for the images to load. You may need to search out the images on Google or use Grab (find in Spotlight, top right corner of screen) to do a screen capture of the image of your favorite photo. You should read the stories of those photos you find compelling.

http://lightbox.time.com/the-year-in-pictures-2013/

http://gizmodo.com/the-100-most-astonishing-images-of-2013-1486472299 (Not all of these are real so don't use them if they are Photoshoped or manipulated in some way.)

http://blogs.reuters.com/fullfocus/2013/12/01/best-photos-of-the-year-2013/#a=1

http://mashable.com/2013/12/19/powerful-photos-of-2013/

http://twistedsifter.com/2013/12/top-100-pictures-of-the-day-for-2013/

Part 2: Your Favorites (40 points)

Next, lets write about some things you found interesting this year. Below I have listed 5 prompts that you must complete.

You must find a photo that goes with each prompt and then write a paragraph about each. Answer the following in your paragraph:

• Why did you chose that as your main choice?
• What things attracted you to that choice?
• Why was it the best of 2013? 

To help you a little I have put a link below the prompt that may or may not help you. Time Magazine's Top 10 of Everything of 2013 Web site has lists to all sorts of lists so you could use it rather than the other suggestions provided below.

1. What was the best song of 2013?

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/100-best-songs-of-2013-20131204

or

http://www.billboard.com/charts/year-end/2013/hot-100-songs

2. What was the best movie of 2013?

http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/lists/10-best-movies-of-2013-20131210

or

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/yearly/chart/?yr=2013&p=.htm

3. What was the most important news story of the year?

http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2013/12/specials/yir-top-stories-vote/

or

http://nation.time.com/2013/12/04/top-10-best-u-s-news-stories/

4. Who was the most important person of 2013?

http://time100.time.com/2013-2/

5. What was the biggest sports OR entertainment story/person of 2013? You should Google what is appropriate for your choice. I leave this one to you to find a photo for, but many can be found on Time's Web site here: http://newsfeed.time.com/top-10-everything-of-2013/?iid=nf-page-lead

Part 3: Your Holiday and Hopes for 2014 (20 points)

Answer the following questions to tell me about your holiday and your hopes for the coming year.

1. Tell me what is the one thing that happened on your holiday that you will remember? It can be a trip, a family visit, a present, something fun.

2. What are your resolutions for 2014? If you need inspiration check this out: http://mashable.com/2014/01/04/new-years-resolution-photos/

3. What are you looking forward to in 2014?

Preview for next class: 

We will practice our Portrait photography this week so we can move on to our Magazine Cover Design project. So you should go back and review the Portraits Preview assignment to refresh your memory on what makes a good Portrait or Self Portrait.

See the link here: http://akinsphotojblog.blogspot.com/2013/12/self-portraits-and-portraits-preview.html

  I am looking forward to another fun semester with you all.