Contents Page Step by Step

I have created a contents page as part of my project for AS Media. I have created my contents page in photoshop. The first thing I did was open up an A4 page on photoshop. Using a reference from a Magazine named Vibe, a followed the process in my own way. I added the letter "D" to the background of my contents pages to represent "Drive". I used the black and white colour scheme and made the "D" a greyish colour. I then added the contend title, using font from dafont.com. I changed the spread of the font, the thickness and the closeness of the letters. I used black too make the title stand out. I then used a photo I took of my model who is wearing a different outfit and I used the magic wand to cut out the background. I also used the rubber and turned down the opacity to create a smoother effect around my model. Then to edit my model, I used a blue outer shadow to add an effect around her. I used the adjustments of brightness, contrast, vibrance, colour balance and saturation to adjust my model and make the photo look more professional. As I made my model a black/white/red colour, I decided to make her lips stand out and I used the paint brush tool to colour in her lips. I then added the text/articles and page numbers where I have used similar font to the font on the front cover. I at first made it black to make it stand out more but I decided that I wasn't fully happy with the way my contents page looked. Therefore, I changed the size of my font and made it blue to link back to the colour scheme but I stills as unsure about the way it looked. I then decided to make the font thicker using the font options, I added a drop shadow and made the page numbers a larger size. I used a dark grey on the nu,her, a light grey on the article descriptions and a light blue on the article titles. I also added a 'features' in curly font as that is what was on my reference contents page but again I was still certain that something didn't look right. I tried a different approach where I added a black block around my articles, made the page numbers bigger, made the article titles big, and made the article descriptions small; I made all of these white. I also added a red and black gradient to the title to represent the gradient on the title of the front cover. I again, still felt that there was a disadvantage in my contents page therefore I decided to change the contents page reference form the magazine Vibe and used a different contents page reference from the same magazine. As I started to use this reference I instantly noticed a massive difference. I made the background a red gradient with a darker red at the top. I made the "D" bigger and also added a gradient of a dark red and a darker red blending into black. I used a different font but not to different as it was still similar to the last font. I made it white, made the page numbers bigger, made the article titles big and made the article description small. I also added more articles and I added it to the left side spreading it out more. I also changed the font of the 'featured' to make it more clear and appropriate for the R&B magazine. I cleared all the effect I made on my image and started again. I used vibrance, brightness contrasts and colour balance to change the image. I added a release date and the title of my magazine to the top right of my page as that what was not he reference. I kept the title contents and the font I used but I changed the colour to white to make it stand out more. I was instantly pleased with the improvement I had made. However, I had used the same model throughout my front cover, contents page and double page spread. Therefore I decided to change my model for the contents page. I used two images in which I took of my model for my Contents page. With both images I used the magic wand to cut around the images and then I used the rubber and turned the opacity down to create a smooth edge around the surface which became successful. For the first image I used a wide shot to create his full body in the image however when I added the other image it turns into a mid shot. For the first image I turned the opacity down to create a sutle effect in the background. I then added the second image where I made the image black and white, I also changed the brightness and contrast of the image. Then with the first image I blended it into the background and change the colour of it so it was the same colour as the background. I then used the spot healing tool to create softer skin on my models face as he was not wearing makeup. I then added exposure to the first image to create a darker shadow.  For the final process, I added more stories to the article stories and spread them out more to use up composition, made the page lighter and added a stylist and photographer credit.