Help with magazine cover mockup

[MooreDynamic]

I am designing a magazine cover for a school project, I would rather use Photoshop instead of canva and basic programs to achieve this.  Does anyone offer live help, I can pay for maybe an hour or two if anyone can provide some guidance, I am not a total novice but I am hardly a professional either lol

Thank you 

[D Fosse]

Photoshop is actually not a good tool for a magazine cover. It's possible that the other programs you had in mind would actually produce a better result. Text handling in Photoshop is not suitable for final output, except for special effects and maybe big headlines.

Any professional would use InDesign for this.

[MooreDynamic]

That's fine, I only have limited experience with InDesign, I am just making a cover image it doesn't need to be printed, this is what I have so far but I can't seem to make it fit correctly, but if I had someone to guide me that would be great

,

[MooreDynamic]

This is what I have been able to do so far, any feedback?

[JJMack]

You should be able to make a  Mockup Template for a simple design like that. That uses a smart object layer transformed and distorted to that perspective.    What is important is all replacement covers must have the sames aspect ration as the magazine.  And if your plan is to update the mockup template using Photoshop smart object feature replace content.  The all replacement object need to have exactly the same aspect ratio, size and Print resolution as the original Object in the mockup template because of hoe place works.   You also can not edit replacement covers with different Aspect ratios into the cover because the image and text will distort badly into the different aspect ratio even if you user content aware resize. The distortion will be unacceptable.

There are Batch Photoshop scripts that can update mockup templates available for download on the web. There should be magazine cover mockup psd on the web also.

magazine cover mockup template psd 

[MooreDynamic]

That was the design, I used a magazine cover template and just edited the text and picture then used a magazine mockup PSD file and inserted the cover as a smart object, 

Then I placed it in the mockup as a smart object but I had to resize it a little to fit.

and this is what I have so far, i originally used a wood background but I may change it

This is the very first time ive done anything like this I am surprised it turned out as good as it did, but I still need to get better with making it more realistic and probably better font and article ideas

[JJMack]

From the small image you posted I can not tell if you did a good job or not.  From the two Image  you posted the Straight on cover image looks like it has a wider aspect ratio than the blank perspective magazine picture.  So when you scaled and distorted the cover to the magazine picture.  The cover perspective is most likely incorrect.    Because the difference between two different aspect ratios is not a large difference  you may find the narrowing distortion acceptable.    I feel you would learn a lot if you download some of the more complex free magazine mockup on the web an look at how the creator created their template.   Your first try is OK IMO.