Editing Main Cover Image In Photoshop

After my peer review on my two chosen front cover photos,
I decided to use the both I and my fellow peers preferred.
I then edited the image. Before I inserted the photo into Photoshop I decided to edit out blemishes from the models faces and I want to make them appear fresh faced, attractive and appealing to my target audience. It is also an ideology for models to have perfect skin when featured in a magazine.

I then used Hue/Saturation in Photoshop to drain and decrease the saturation of certain colours to of the models which is a typical convention in music magazines. I also increased the lightness of the photograph to add to the achieved look and effect i did this both with curves and Hue/Saturation.

This how my page looks with my photo newly edited. I may slightly alter the colours but I will be keeping the overall look of the photograph pale and drained like I found when researching alternative music magazine front cover conventions. 

Using The Lasso Tool In Photoshop

I placed my front cover photo in the position on the page in which I was happy with, however, It did not fill some of the page on the right hand side. In order to fix this I used the 'Lasso' tool in Photoshop and selected 'content aware'. This action filled in the white space on my page. 

Chosen image and reason

Chosen photograph from front cover
photo shoot.

I have chosen this image as this was the most popular choice from the results of my peer review. It is also my preferred photograph from the shoot as I feel their body language and facial expression reflect alternative music magazines conventions and ideology's of representation of alternative bands on their front covers.

It also reflects the individual personalty's of the two band members as I positioned the model on the right slightly more forward which shows he is more open with his audience and fans connoting he will be more willing to reveal his personal life, his mouth is also slightly open which anchors this idea.

I placed the second model behind to show he is slightly more reserved however his blank facial expression connotes his slight attitude and passion for his opinions and views. He is placed behind his band member to also connote that he is reliant on his band mate even if he slightly too arrogant to realize it. However overall their brightly coloured checked t shirts and fresh faces connote to the reader they are friendly, their causal clothing shows they are 'normal' and 'down to earth', it does not appear through their dress code they have anything to hide although their facial expression is not giving much away to the reader, this is another element of this photograph which intrigues and attracts the reader and alternative music genre fans. 

Their direct eye contact also draws the reader in. Their blank facial expression and position reflects the typical conventional way in which alternative bands are represented in alternative music magazines. 

Peer Review on Cover Image Choice

First photo choice

Which  photo do you prefer for my front cover?

Second Photo Choice

Front Cover Contact Sheet And Evaluation

Above is my contact sheet for my magazine front cover shoot. This Photo Shoot took around ten to fifteen minutes to set up, take and complete. I only took 17 photographs as I knew exactly what I wanted my photograph to look like; my models also understood what poses and positions I wanted them to be in. I used natural lighting for this shoot because unnatural lighting would cast a vivid dark shadow on the wall behind, using natural lighting has also made the pictures bright with white lighting instead of a unnatural dim yellow.  

 As you can see, I made sure there was enough blank space at the top, where my title will be placed, and to the right of the models, where I will be putting my cover lines. I chose to use a plain white background as this is a conventional alternative magazine look and background, I also learnt from my prelim task that it is difficult to place cover lines around images if there is a busy background. I also took all of these photographs in a portrait orientation as I made the mistake of taking my large cover photo for my prelim front cover in landscape. Overall I feel this photo shoot went well, purely because the photographs turned out as I hoped and visualized. 

Double Page Spread Contact Sheets And Evaluation

Above are my double page spread contact sheets of photographs taken from my double page spread photo shoot. This photo shoot was taken in two parts, first I took photographs of my models in an interview set up of them sitting on leather seats against a plain wall. Next I took photographs of my models against the same off white wall that I used for my front cover photo shoot. 

As seen above, for the first part of my photo shoot I took at total of 87 photographs of the models who make up my band that will be featured on all of my magazine pages. The reason for this number of photographs for this particular part of the shoot was because it was partly spontaneous as I wanted their facial expressions to be varied and natural, not posed. I also asked the models to look past the camera at a certain spot which represented where the 'interviewer' would be. To make sure the photographs looked as natural as possible I asked my friend, Josephine Hearn, to sit in the spot of the 'interviewer' and she asked them a number of questions relating to their 'band', this allowed me to take photographs of the models in mid speech. 

For varied facial expressions I asked my Josephine to talk to the models about personal subjects that related their own personal lives, this therefore would mirror the facial expressions that they would pull if this was an actual band interview, and if being in a band was a part of their personal lives. Because of this set up, I managed to take photographs of varied facial expressions such as anger, deep thought, laughter and also more relaxed positions. This therefore took a lot more time than the posed shots as I wanted to capture the best natural facial expressions and poses during the 'interview' that I could; as a result the models look as if they were in actual mid-conversation and their facial expressions look as natural as possible. A number of these photos will be placed within the interview article on the second page of my magazine double page spread. 

For the second part of my this double page photo I placed my models against an off white wall. This part of the photo shoot took a lot less time as I visually knew exactly what I wanted the photographs to look like and what poses and positions I wanted the models to be in, similarly to my front cover photo shoot. One of these photos will be used to fill the first page of my double page spread. For this image, I wanted the the poses, body language and facial expression to anchor what my double page spread interview will be about. I therefore asked Henry to have a direct eye contact at the camera with his arms folded and Sam to be positioned slightly in front of Henry and to have an emotionless facial expression, facing at a turned angle away with a non-direct eye contact with the camera. This Position reveals more of the bands 'image' and personality, the pose itself also looks 'alternative.

Overall, I am pleased with how all of my photo shoots went and I have taken a number of successful images from them. I will now narrow down what photographs I will be using for my magazine pages and edit them to  fit the 'alternative' music magazine 'look'.

Completed Photo Shoot

I have just completed my photo shoots and they went successfully! I will now make a number of contact sheets of all the photographs I have taken today.