front cover process

Ideas for front cover

i have decided I would like my front cover to be portrait style, with the artist name and single title in capital letters, very simplistic.

This portrait style promotes solo artists the best way in my opinion and according to Andrew Goodwin, helps build "star image" needed for mass sale. 

Raw photos

1.2.

3.4.

5. 

I like these mid shots because they have very simple backgrounds and direct address in the shots where I am looking directly at the camera, creating a feeling of involvement with the audience.

My favourites are 4 or 5 because there is a lot of brick background in my music video setting, so these 2 photos would make the most sense to use for my album cover. 

I will be editing these 2 photos on VSCO cam app and also Phonto.

Editing process of front cover 

First I uploaded the photo onto the VSCO cam app, where many photo editing tools are easy to use.

I then straightened the image so that the bricks in the background were completely straightened, for the most professional look.

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Next, I cropped the image into a square so that it is now the perfect size for an album cover.

I raised the contrast and lowered the exposure for a moodier, more saturated image and so that my features stood out stronger.

For a subtle professional touch I added vignette around the edges of my photo.

I applied exactly the same settings to the second photo, and shown below is the completed photos at this stage of the process.

Next, I uploaded the first photo to Phonto and added my title. I chose this font named "Damion" because it was the most similar to the font used for my title in my music video.

To make the text stand out better against the brick wall I applied a shadow.

The positioning of my text looked the best in the upper left hand corner, since this is the side we read from first. With this photo, it didn't look as good in the centre of the cover. The size of the song name is larger than the artist name because that is usually how album covers are, and the song is what is being advertised not just the artist.

I applied exactly the same settings to the second photo but since in the second image, the camera was slightly further away from me and I was looking straight on at it, I preferred how the text looked directly above my head.

I am choosing to use the second image for the front cover of the album, and the first photo I will incorporate into the back cover somehow, possibly closer up and faded out a little bit.