LO4 - P5: Post Production

Post Production Process:

In terms of post production, I used a variety of applications to achieve the end goal: The main software I used during the post production process was Adobe Photoshop. I decided to use this software as it allows me to add various special effects and edit images freely, with options to rearrange images and text using layers. As well editing the photos themselves, with adjustment options to change the lighting, colours, visual effects and more.

Considering that I have access to Photoshop, I also get access to the variety of tools available and can put them to good use. For this contents page, I used the rectangle tool, text tool, lasso tool, masking and blending options.

Effects used: Contents page

For the contents page, and as mentioned earlier I used a variety of objects, images and effects to achieve what is seen here.

I used the rectangle tool to create rectangular white backgrounds for each image I used. I did this to make the images more visible. I added white rectangular shapes using the rectangle tool provided by photoshop and arranged the collage of images on top of the rectangles using the masking tool. I then added the page numbers on top of each image to preview that page of the magazine.

Above the entire contents page, I used a range of overlays to tie all the layers together. I did this by adding a VHS overlay and another self-made layer created with the airbrush tool.

Here is the layer I used to create one of the overlays to the entire contents page. I chose a solid light red colour and used the airbrush tool to use a darker red in the middle. I then changed the blending mode to pin light and set the opacity to 13% so that the page isn't covered up too much, or else it would be too overwhelming and would take away the main focusses on the contents page. I set the blending mode to pin light, as the brighter colours offer a bright and vibrant overlay whereas the darker colours do not show up too much, making the overall contents page contrast well together.

As mentioned before, the other overlay I used was an image of a VHS static effect on a plain black background. I used this to follow on the neon and VHS theme of my magazine, and set the blending mode to Overlay and the opacity to 20%. I chose overlay, as it is essentially the screen blending mode at half of the strength, making the VHS image only just noticeable.

Without the overlays and VHS image over the contents page, it looked very dull - the layer that uses the pin light blending mode offered a bright and luminous lighting for the cover, making it stand out and look more vibrant.