After conducting some extensive periods of feedback featuring opinions and views from both my lecturer and my peers it was suggested to me that to occupy the blank space present on my third page of the double page spread an image of some sort would be required. I was then offered the idea from both sets of individuals to use a photograph of the writer for the un-biast viewpoint over the content of my adocumentary. It would also aid in personalising the entire piece as a whole as the reader would be able to directly connect with the author of the review, being able to see what they look like in real life brings about personal qualities and the audience will identify with them more coherently as an individual with their own perceptions, likes/dislikes if they can engage with them as a human rather than a simple piece of text. As I believed this suggestion would massively benefit the overall look of my article I was prepared to put those words into context.
My classmate Taylor offered to give her input into aiding me create the image for my review by posing as the author themselves 'Holly Learie'. Obviously I was under massive time constraints by this stage and didn't have the frame to book in another studio shoot at the Shiney Row campus so I opted to take the photographs in the media classroom itself. This wasn't a major concern as I only desired Taylor and not the background to be incorporated in the final spread as I would be soley focusing upon the writer and not any unecessary background that may divert attention from the reader. All of the image were captured on a DSLR camera so they were all of professional studio quality which I had no concerns over.
The first image I took was in a landscape fashion as an experiment to see how it would appear as a difference from the traditional portrait. I have no identifiable worries over the quality of the image, the lighting is perfect with no shadows or distractions that could influence the look of the final photogrpah. However as this was basically a 'test' shoot, taylor was not prepared so her posture is not as straight as I would like it, the body language is majorly significant to me as i want the writer to appear confident and edgy so a slightly slouched posture is not compatible with my inital perceptions of them. Finally I want them to be friendly and enaging, so a kind act like a smile could look inviting and open for the audience to look at and they will be more inclined to engage with the article if the writer appears a friendly person. Taylor was as I stated caught off guard so did not capture the expression I desired at the time. Therfore for the reasons printed I will not be using this image.
On the second take I rotated the camera back to a portrait style so as to capture the image in a straight fashion, this would make editing and removing he background in later stages more easier and a less stressful procedure. I warned Taylor before the photograph was taken so she was prepared in advance to what I required her to do. We captured the friendly open expression more efficiently this time, despite that the body posture is still slouched and not as abrupt and held well as I would have considered so this image is also to be discarded.
On the final take I successfully captured the image concept I had intended from the initial beginning. Taylor's expression was perfect - she had a classy sophisticated if yet cocky look to her, to me that gave the impression she was confident and proud of her article, whilst also being friendly looking in that respect as to not deter the reader from viewing the article. This attempt we obtained the correct posture as she holds her back in proportion and straight to emit that sense of confident which I had been aiming to achive. Regarding these in consideration this will be the photograph to depict my writer 'Hollie Learie' in the final production of my writer review for the double page spread.
Now that i had successfully chosen the image I would like to display as my writer for the review box, I followed up by opening the adobe photoshop software and imported the photograph directly into the programme so it loaded up as a new document. From there I selected the 'magic wand' tool which allowed me to remove the background of the image. Ss you can see in the screenshot above, I discarded the classroom environment from behind Taylor ensuring she was the only focal point to view, this would prevent the audience from being distracted from other elements in the shot whilst also emphasising that Taylor herself is the main interest therefore there is no other aspect with her to compete for that attention. I then used the 'eraser' tool, this aided me in removing the rough jaggered edges that I had been left with on my image due to the rough cutting out by the 'magic wand'. Smoothing the photo down as a whole improved the overall appearance, it gave a very slick and sleek edge to the quality of the image giving it a highly authentic and professional quality rather then looking like the work of an amatuer as this could deter the reader from viewing the article.
Above is the final completed edit of Taylor to be dragged immeditelly into the construction of my double page spread. Her image will sit nicely above the review box, there is no confounding aspects (such as an unecessary background) that could potentially distract the audiences attention. Her expression looks inviting yet confident which is essentially what I desired her to be as a 'likeability' factor to the audience. Most importantly I believe I have followed my initial concept perfectly as this is the type of image I was hoping to create as an end result, for that reason I am pleased with the final design and am looking forward to including it in my double page spread.
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