Photoshop: My product and reflection

Overall I think I really struggled with coming to terms with Photoshop and the different tools. However as we went through the terms and process of creating a Photoshop piece it came to me, and I believe my skills gradually improved as I got an idea of how to use the tools and put them to their best use.

 

My final piece is by no means perfect but I do feel I have learnt a lot trying it out for the first time. I think the more time and practice I spend on Photoshop hopefully by the time I come to creating my final Digipack and website my skills will be good enough to make a good product that would sell and advertise well in the stores and in the music industry.

The process of Construction

Photoshop Design Process

To create my first photo shop piece, I had learnt that it is not a programme it is actually a skill that takes time learning to be able to improve. To begin before I started working on my product I had to brainstorm my idea. The most important lesson here is to use paper and split the page into boxes, without overthinking I sketched down any ideas or images even colours that I was thinking about and from there I started using the software. I then used basic tools such as Lasso and move my image and create a starting point.

I used the select menu to choose different tools and then image and filter menus that allowed me to merge the pieces together. I then moved on to font and used the text tool with layer formats by right clicking this gave more options and allowed me to change my text and font to what I wanted. I then changed the image size and adapted the resolution to what looked best.

Introduction to Photoshop

Photoshop is digital editing software that enables you to change photos and merge them together to create a new unique product for example a piece of album artwork. The actual software itself is made on the purpose any new beginner can learn how to use it well therefore the different labels and tools are clearly labeled.

There are a few crucial tools that you pretty much are bound to use when editing for example the Lasso selects a bit of an image or the whole thing letting you copy and paste or and change it around.

The select tool enables you to take the whole image.

The layers tool enabled me to choose which layer I wanted to use and when this was important as it meant I could create different things and elements of various layers.  

The undo key was crucial as it was the first time I had used the Photoshop software therefore it was important as I made mistakes and fortunately this tool meant I could go back a step or two and correct myself.   

I think when using Photoshop it is really important to remember to go at a slow pace and think before you go ahead editing, the more you think about each stage the better the final product will be. 

Lip Sync

My class and I took part in a lip sync day. We filmed, choreographed and edited the song Megan Trainors ‘All about that Bass’. In groups we all took part in the different stages. First of all I started by taking part in front of the camera and lip sinking myself to the song, this was really good as it meant I got to experience how hard it really is to get the timing of the song and your lips moving together to make it look realistic. This was a good lesson for when I get closer to making my actual music video, as I know that it will be hard to get our singers to look good and professional. Despite being a very bad dancer I did find I improved as we retook each shot and this again will help in the future as I learnt its important to redo each shot and things to happen first time around.

Secondly I had a go behind the camera which was a Sony FS 100,  Sony FX3 and then the Cannon 5D and shot a few takes of my fellow peers who were lip-syncing. Being behind the camera shooting myself was good as I had to make sure the camera was in focus fully as well as using varied creative shots which meant the end product was not boring. I did struggle initially as there was constant movement from the dancers and props being moved around therefore I had to be carful where I positioned the camera and how this looked. On top of this we took turns to have a floor manager who was essentially in charge of shouting directions such as “rolling” so we knew when we were to start filming.

The last stage was the editing which was when we moved to the editing studio where we had time in the playback to sync all our shots and video with the music, enabling us to edit them together. After matching the video and getting the timing right we had to choose which takes to use and when, using the snipping tool we were able to shorten and expand shots. After this we had a final video of the song with lots of different people involved.

The role of a music manager

To be a music manager you have to have a good understanding of today’s industry and be organised, together and good with interacting with people. It is down to you to organise the artist/band meeting deadlines working with both them and their record label. You will do things such as negotiating contracts and fees, finding and booking events and most importantly publicity. They help keep the artist/band relevant and a lot of their success is dependent on how reliable the music manager is.

It is by no means an easy job; therefore some managers start their careers by managing the careers of friends, or entertainers themselves. You often have to start in a junior job and then from there go on to earn your success working with the top artists and bands in the world. The salary varies depending on the scale to which they are working for. For example if their client is extremely well known then they will usually receive between 10 and 25% of the overall fee of work they secure for them.

WIX Design

I used Wix Design to make a website to help advertise a chosen band of my choice. As a software it was really helpful in showing you how what works. 

First of all I had to choose a good template to use that showed off the style of artist/band. The software had lots of choice therefore I could choose the correct format.

 From there it gave me the opportunity to edit and change the font as I went, meaning I chose the ones that looked the most likely to suit the genre of the band, following this I had to change the pictures. The pictures became an issue as I didn’t take them my self it meant I was limited to what choice I had, however this was good as I know when I complete my real website I can adjust it to make it more suitable. I also added a video of one of their most recent music videos this meant I could show how the artist performs by using youtube enabling the fans to appreciate their music.

On this particular website design I just made a home page, despite this I got a really good idea for what the website allows you to do this means I can perfect my final product hopefully making it look as professional as possible. 

The only thing other then the pictures I struggled with adjusting the size of the images, however I then worked out a way to change the sizes this meant I could make my website look better. Overall I think having a practice to use the Wix software meant I can now use it and get the most out of it when I need to make my official website.