Adobe Photoshop

During the past few weeks we have been learning how to use several Adobe products which will help make our magazine look professional and efficient. The first editing software we were taught how to learn was Adobe Photoshop, we used the CS4 edition, which isn't the latest available but is easiest to use for beginners like myself. Adobe Photoshop is the photoshop software which is used right across the magazine industry and with 100% of what we see in fashion magazines now being retouched, the software will be an important tool in helping our magazine look as professional as possible.   

One of the first tools we learnt how to use was the
'The Spot Healing Brush'.
 It can be found by clicking on the icon, which looks like a plaster. If you make your tool size slightly larger than the blemish you  want to zap and then click the blemish. Then the amazingly clever Photoshop blends the area you clicked with the surrounding pixels. This tool will be useful when we are creating our Magazine front covers and double page spread.

We were then taught how to 'Colour Correct'

our photo, the tool can be found under the filter tab at the top of the page. This is going to be useful when wanting to make our cover model more attractive, giving them some extra glow or when wanting to give them a bit of a tan.

The last feature we used was the 'The Clone Stamp',the icon where you can find this tool looks like an old-fashioned rubber stamp. This tool is so useful and can be used for many different things, because instead of blending pixels together, it copies part of an image to another spot. This means you can make two of something in a image, or restore a old family picture or even completely remove something from a picture. This will be useful when I making my magazine to make my pictures more interesting.

Photoshop is such a professional programme, which made me really struggle with getting my head around all the new tools and features available to me. When you become so used to a certain type of layout, such as the microsoft office programmes it is hard to adapt to something more complex. I had to practice the basics, such as opening a new picture and creating layers on a picture, but practising is going to really help my magazine look very smart and professional.