Photo editing research

editing

photo editing includes things like getting rid of 'undesirable features' of somebody ie: getting rid of spots or stray hairs. it's often used on women in the male gaze to make them more appealing, making their legs thinner, removing cellulite making their eyes bigger etc.

photo magazines edit photos to make them more appealing to viewers.

companies use softwear like Photoshop to make the edited photos still look realistic.

this can also mean getting rid of red eye in photos of editing out things in the background, like buildings or signs, or wires on those who have them. 

for example: 

http://www.boredpanda.com/photoshopped-celebrities-before-after/?image_id=photoshopped-celebrities-before-and-after-9.jpg

Photo lighting research.

lighting

Broad lighting is softer than narrow. for example a naked bulb versus one with a cover, while the naked one makes a lot of a room bright the one with a cover will only light up a specific part, just like a spot light.
the connotations a photo brings can be reliant on the position of the light or the temperature of the light (colour).
for example: red, orange, yellow lights would make the photo look warmer, soft  and more comforting while blue, green, purple lights would make the photo look cold, abrasive and sharper

lighting position:

http://www.diyphotography.net/portrait-lighting-cheat-sheet-card/

as seen in the picture the position of the light gives different meanings to the picture. a light which is straight on to the face or not angled away reduced shadows on the face, while angling it up or down could change the model from looking friendly and approachable to looking scary and evil. changing the position of the light from the front to the side of the model creates more shadows on their face, adding atmosphere, the further behind the more dramatic.  

main image research

All of the magazines I've seen, or most of them at least, have a lot of things in common.
For example:

• close ups, focused on their faces.
• a lot have flat on views of the person, with direct mode of address, some have a slight low angle shot of them looking slightly down but not enough to be really noticeable.
• the have quite plain backgrounds, some have gradient colours, while others have simple backgrounds that don't have much going on in them, probably to focus attention on them. 
• the lighting of the photos are usually high key. although a few have natural bright lighting.
• while most are posed looking straight on to the camera, I've seen quite a few with their bodies facing away or with their hands by their face.
• their costumes seem pretty normal, or cultural in some cases, or maybe slightly strange or out of the ordinary but in the way that some one was stuck in the past.
• from the ones i found today a lot of them focused on singular artists, but previously an indie magazine i found focused on groups.
• quite saturated colours or natural colours.
• 
  

TreatmentPlan Magazine

Hand drawn layouts

Although they do not have colour, I think I would try to make the background the lightest colour if the person is darker and make the title the darkest colour, and viscersa if the person is lighter. 

Audience research

From my audience research I can gather that most people prefer the masthead "droplet empire" but there is an even split between font preference

And the prefered colony scheme was 

And that the masthead should be in the top middle

Front cover, Contents page and double page spread layout ideas.