Photoshop Print Screens: Album panels and Magazine advert.

Inner Panels:

My original photo of the plastic flower has appealing back lighting, which can also be seen within the opening of our music video. However, whilst the back light added definition to the petal edges, the inner circles of the flower are consequently dark. Therefore, with Photoshop I adjusted the brightness and contrast, in order for the orange tones to appear more vibrant. Then, I added a slight sepia filter to portray the organic and ‘nostalgic’ tone that our genre and music video expresses. Furthermore, these filters add a sense of continuity amongst all the panels; a warmer, inviting colour scale.

I then used the burn and dodge tool to add definition to the middle of the flower; ‘burning’ the individual circles made them darker, and more of a focal point within the image. Using the torch tool then highlighted the edges of the dark circles further adding definition.

Despite initially deciding on two separate images for the inner panels, the plate image I was intending to use, didn’t compliment the flower image at all as the overall package lacked continuity inside. The flower also captures what acoustic music is all about; beauty and nature. Therefore I decided that the inner panels were to be made up of one image. Because of this, the circle of the flower reflects the shape of the CD even more so. In order to achieve ‘one’ image, I lined the two separate halves. These ‘half’s’ were created by cropping the original image into two sections. I then dragged one image onto the other, in order to work on both (in terms of curves, and brightness level) at the same time. 

Front Cover:

My background image for my front panel consisted of many parts, or ‘layers’ of other images to create one image. This was due to unwanted foliage within certain shots. Therefore, with the layers I either cropped, used the eraser tool or, created a ‘mask’ which allowed me to erase one image using the brush tool, to reveal another image underneath. This enabled me to layer images on top of each other in order to each the best results. By doing this, I also achieved a sense of symmetry with the trees, intentionally creating a clearing to insert an image of my protagonist. 

I then used curves to achieve warmer tones, as the original images had a lot of green tones, which would have contrasted with the orange inner panels.

Once I was happy with the woodland, I inserted the protagonist as a new ‘layer’. Using the magnetic lasso tool, I was able to remove her from the background. Re-sizing the image was needed in order for the overall panel to look realistic. I also adjusted the brightness and curves as the original photo was slightly dark. However, in order to adjust just this layer, I manually set the effects such as curves and contrast to the layer directly below it. Because of this, no other layers were affected, creating overall continuity in terms of colour and lighting. After exploring different protagonist angles and positions, I decided on this photo, because her positioning captured a sense of intrigue that she has within the music video; almost as if she is in awe of the woods, much like a fairy tale location.

After downloading my chosen font from Dafont.com, I moved the song title and artist’s name into the desired position (centre top and bottom). However, because the font is white, they seemed to become unreadable, especially the artist’s name which is situated within the canopy of the trees. Therefore, I added a drop shadow. This created an outline shadow which then enabled the font to be easily read, as well as creating emphasis and credibility upon the artist and song title. This is because, as I have researched, acoustic music is very much focused on the authenticity of the music, therefore referring back to that point.  

Upon the final background image, I used the patch tool erase the fence which could be seen in the background. The fence created a sense of confinement and to an extent ‘reality’ or ‘normalcy’ which contradicted our ‘fairy tale’ like music video and theme. 

Back Panel:

The same techniques were then used upon my back panel, such as curves for continuity, as well as inserting a font and adding a drop shadow. However, the need for constructing several layers was not necessary as this was one whole image that I took. Also, for this panel specifically, the focus is more upon the tree in the foreground; referring to the technique of a focus pull which was largely used within the music video.

Magazine Advert:

For the magazine advertisement, I saved my background from the front cover panel as a jpeg, then inserted onto the magazine template. I then inserted text using the same techniques as previously mentioned. 

After exploring text positioning, I decided on the artist’s name and song title to remain in the same position as they are on the front panel. This was to keep the ‘music’ as the main focus, as well as creating creative continuity between the album cover and advert. I then inserted the protagonist (I had saved her as a single layer, so that all effects were already applied). I then resized the image in order to correlation with the longer, more slender trees.