In my talk I will demonstrate how by using spin and angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy we can perform band mapping and make Fermi surface contours to study the electronic and magnetic properties of materials with emphasis on nanostructured films grown on various metallic and semiconducting substrates. I shall discuss some of my representative results starting from quantum confinement effects of electrons in 2 dimensional, 1-dimensional and 0-dimensional systems and the influence of substrate bands on the surface over layers, selectively tuning the hybridization and tailoring spin gaps. Some results on the technologically important concept of lifting spin degeneracies even in the case of nonmagnetic systems in the absence of an external magnetic field will be presented. I will conclude my talk by showing how microscopy can be performed in conjunction with photoemission spectroscopy as has been demonstrated for the first time in investigating the phase separation phenomena in manganites.