Magazine Front Cover.

Photoshop Editing.

Image.By doing a photo shoot I was able to have a range of images, so I could choose the most suitable for promotional material for my horror film. By taking a profile image like this I think really works, which is why I chose this images to develop further. The profile image is suitable as it gives a connection between the audience and the image as the model is looking down the lens, hence, looking at the audience. I believe that the image needs to be edited as at the moment it doesn’t look professional and nothing like an image for a magazine cover or though it does have some elements for a conventional horror image and magazine image. Also by editing, it will mean that certain parts of the image will be highlighted making it look sharper and to a much higher quality looking more professional.

Crop.

I wanted to crop down this image so that straight away the main focus would be the face and the eyes. It is typical of a magazine cover to have a profile image of a character/person, and so by cropping it there isn’t as much for the focus of the audience to change their focus too apart from the main image. Also by having less body in the image it takes away less of human like features ready for further editing, the image will fit more into the horror genre. Also further down the body you can see more patches of the face paint again making it look less realistic.

Brightness/Contrast.

By adjusting the contrast to +100 and the brightness to +36 it makes the face glow more disguising the fact that it is white face paint. It also darkens the make up around the eyes make the white part and the pupils of the eye stand out more making his face look scary. Also by applying the makeup on the cheeks, when using this effect it enhances the cheek bones giving a more chiseled effect to the face and although having visible cheekbones can be seen as a beauty feature in this image it adds to the effect of making the face look scarier. The contrast and brightness effect also makes the eyes look more hooded which again makes it fit within the horror genre.

Colour Balance - Midtones.

When adjusting the midtones to this image it gives it a slight blue/purple effect, taking the warmness away from the image. By making it look colder the eyes are standing out more and the darkness around them enhances this. The stare becomes even more of the main focus to the image and makes a connection with the audience as it is as if he is looking straight at the audience/reader.

Colour Balance – Shadows

By adjusting the colour balance of the shadows it makes the image have even more of a blue effect. This takes away even more of the warmness from the body making it look colder and almost lifeless, which fits within the horror genre and the film in which this character will be placed in. The make-up around the eyes is also starting to look less like make-up and more like an effect of being lifeless or part of the paranormal world.

Brightness/Contrast 2.

After all the adjustments I had made so far I decided to go back to brightness and contrast this was to sharpen the image and to try to make the eyes look even more hooded and darker making the eyeballs actually stand out more, I believe this was successful by reducing the brightness to -21. Also during this stage it darkened the background image making it look less like it is taken in a room and more as if it is in the darkness and in the night, this setting you would stereotypically see a character like this. Also by making the background darker it lifts the image of the model making him stand out and forward even more as the contrast is greater between the facial colour and the background.

Final Image.

To create the final image I used the brush tool and the colour black to make the whole background an even colour so that the pattern on the ceiling cannot be seen. Although the film is filmed in a house environment for the front cover of a magazine it looks more professional for this to not be seen. Again by making the background completely black increases the contrast between the model and the background making it stand out more and closening the impact of the stare towards the audience/reader.

This image has become highly appropriate for a magazine cover as it draws in the attention of the reader straight away and is also fairly simple not making the magazine cover look too full and cluttered.