For this penultimate project in my 'Illustrative Imaging' class we were tasked with taking a series of photos that expressed our individual identity as a designer. As noted in my previous post, my design process is varied and draws inspiration from various sources. After consideration and at the suggestion of both my peers and teacher I decided to focus on the third image out of the trio as my 'self promotion' image. As part of the assignment we were asked to edit our chosen photo in 4 different ways. They were as follows: Color effects, Hollywood effects, Lighting effects, and the fourth was a dealer's choice if you will.
We were then asked to select the edited image we felt was the strongest and use that as our self promotion postcard image. I happened to choose my 'dealer's choice' as I felt it was truly my strongest in terms of composition as well as conceptually.
The first image is the original unedited image. (NOTE: The final postcard looks a little muted and too light, this is an issue with how the image is translated into web format. I have since adjusted the brightness/contrast so that it will look darker)
to start off, my color fx photo was created by adjusting the brightness and contrast of the initial image as well as it's exposure. I wanted to accentuate the green hue of the grass. So after I got the light levels where I wanted them I adjusted the hue and saturation several times until I got the color just so, I even had to go into the color balance to adjust the highlights and midtones.
The second image was the 'hollywood effects' I was not entirely sure what this meant exactly so I decided to go with a hand made 'vignette' style shadow around the image, high lighting the books while darkening the outer ring until there was more or less a visible ring around the books. This I believe is by far my weakest, mainly because of the uncertainty of the concept itself.
The third image is by far the most playful of the four. It was the lighting effects edit. For this I created a new layer on top of the original image (after adjusting the image's properties until it looked the way I wanted it to look) and proceeded to select the 'color dodge' mode in the layers panel for the new layer. After that I selected the brush tool and switched the black/white swatches to where the white was in the foreground and bumped up the flow and opacity and began to create a 'glow' effect around the books. Once the parameter was established I the got playful and decided to create a whimsical starscape out of simple brush points of various sizes to fill up some of the extra negative space surrounding the illuminated books. While this is probably the most creative piece, it was a little too playful for me, which is why it was not selected to be the final postcard image.
Finally, we come to the chosen piece. For this I already had the concept in mind as well as the tagline I wanted to use. I first obtained a free image of dried and cracked soild off pixabay (link here: https://pixabay.com/photos/mud-dry-earth-cracked-drought-431774/), and placed it beneath the image of the books, I then created a layer mask of the book image and played around with the tolerance so that there was a nice gradual, almost wispy transition between the grass and the cracked mud. After that I added my tag line which I had come up with prior to downloading the image. Due to how this concept was already pretty much established before initiating, it fell into place pretty quickly. Finally I added my signature through the use of my drawing tablet to replicate my actual signature. I then shifted the signature into a more aesthetically pleasing and harmonious place (echoing contours) and thats that!
I chose this particular concept to be my promotion because it truly resonates with me. I get some of the worst creator's block imaginable and it often feels like I am in a veritable creative desert. I can be lost in this wasteland for days sometimes weeks before I get inspiration, but as I say in my tagline, inspiration can be found in the most unlikely of places. This is why I chose a desert like background and the tagline.
