Research into Photography...

Research into photography....

pho·tog·ra·phy

The art or practice of taking and processing photographs.

 

Photography is an art, science and practice of creating  images through  recording light or electromagnetic radiation, either chemically by using  a light-sensitive material such as photographic film or electronically by using an image sensor. A lens is often used to help to focus the light reflected. Photography uses different cameras, lenses, angles and lighting to create different effects.

A good website for photography includes: 

http://www.dumetier.com/photography/

I found this slideshow which has helped me with my research into Photography and has provided me with some inspiration and guidence when taking my photos.

Taking good Photographs for you Media Coursework from carolinebirksatwork


One photogrpaher which I have researched is Angus McBean....

Angus McBean was born in South Wales in June 1904. His Father Clem McBean was a surveyor in the mines and the family moved frequently around Wales with his job. Fascinated by the apparently "magical properties" of photography, Angus wanted to be able to take pictures of people and sold a gold watch left to him by his grandfather to raise the five pounds necessary for the equipment.

here are some of his photos which I particularly enjoy...

 

 

As you can see his perferred style is black and white potraits usually using a mid shot.

Circulation/ Readership figures

Internet Research - Circulation/readership Figures

Here is some research into circulation figures for various music magazines to analyse readership figures and rates of success for my own music magazine. By finding out circulation and readership figures I am able to see if there is room in the market for my magazine and whether that particular genre is popular amongst readers.  

Music (rock) magazine sales in the first half of 2012 (source ABC)

 Name of title : publisher ; per issue sale ; percentage change year on year

 The Fly (free) : Channelfly Enterprises Ltd ; 108,827 ; 8.4%

New Musical Express : IPC Media Ltd ; 23,924 ; -17.6%

Uncut : IPC Media Ltd ; 63,003 ; -4.5%

 Properganda (free) : Proper Music Distribution ; 76,339 ; 68.8%

 Q : Bauer Consumer Media ; 64,596 ; -19.7%

 Kerrang! : Bauer Consumer Media ; 40,203 ; -6.6%

 Mojo : Bauer Consumer Media ; 85,149 ; -2.4%

 The Stool Pigeon (free) : Junko Partners Publishing ; 54,588 ; N/A

 

From this evidence I have found out that most issues distributed are the magazines that are free. Also we can see that many popular Q and NME have decreased in sales by 19.7% and by 17.6% this could be due to the effects of the current economic climate, due to these reasons I have decided that in order to increase my readership figures I have to keep the price of my magazine as low as possible. This should help to increase my readership figures and generate a popular music magazine.

Some pop magazine figures that I found include:

 Top of the Pops : 78,352 - % change y/y: -20.1 - Sold copies: 78,352

 We Love Pop Magazine : 50,505 - % change y/y: - Sold copies: 50,505

 Mizz : 25,753 - % change y/y: -28.1 - Sold copies: 25,715

From the information I found it is clear that sales are decreasing in all pop magazines, the most popular of these three, 'Top of the Pops Magazine' has had a fall in sales of -20.1 in 2012. This is important as this is the same genre of my magazine however this could suggest that the readers of this particular genre are ready for a new, fresh pop magazine which ultimately increases the chances of my magazine being successful.

 

 

Source: http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/node/49867

Notes from the Textbook on Magazine

Notes from Textbook on Magazines

I did some research on magazines from pages 116-132 from Exploring the Media edited by Barbara Connell and published in 2008. It provided me with a good first insight into magazines, especially the construction and target audience of magazines.

I found out that magazines and newspaper arte in some ways similar yet a magazine can be split into many sub genres. When compared to newspapers they are a lot less factual and are not necessarily released weekly or even daily.  

The typical codes and conventions of a magazine include:  

A masthead - Tile of the magazine

Tag lines/strap lines - Captions to describe the magazine

Lure - for example a competition

Main image

Celebrity endorsement

Bar code

Date and price

etc.

These features show what genre a magazine is and it can change depending on the target audience.

What you can usually expect to see inside a magazine includes:

Editors letter

Contents page - like the front page the colour scheme, images, font and layout all depend on the genre/target audience

Advertisements

Double page spread - usually laid out in 2 or 3 columns with 1 large photo, normally related to the front cover.

Notable Publishers

2 most notable publishers are BBC Magazines and IPC.

BBC Magazines is an English company  usually producing synergies as the BBC is predominately a television institution. Their publications include:

Top of the Pops Magazine

Doctor Who Adventures

Top Gear

IPC is an American company, part of the biggest worldwide media conglomerate. Some of its most famous publications produced include:

NME

Sugar

Nuts

These global institutions often cater their publications to the stereotypes of which buy magazines for example boys are believed to buy car magazines and girls are thought to buy fashion magazine as this makes it easy to target a specific audiences. In addition to this, specialists magazines are targeted at a broad niche audience are also successful amongst specific audiences. These global companies were once thriving as the magazine industry was booming however; in recent years circulation figures for magazines have begun to decrease. This could perhaps be due to new technology as most magazines have apps and websites to keep their readers up-to-date causing them not to need to buy the physical copy.

Comparing Music Magazines!

My Music Magazine Chart! 

After I had looked at a wide variety of different kinda of music magazine, I chose 5 which i have commented and focused on. A few were quite similar but i did try to get as much variety as possible. I especially enjoyed looking at NME as it had a lot of focus on pop culture which is appropriate for the time, i will look again at it when creating my own music magazine. 

Research- Magazine Comparisons

Here is some research I've done and magazine comparisons