Digital Photography Coursework Essay Example for Free

Digital Photography Coursework Essay For this coursework we had to design a book cover on a theme of our choice that comprises of our own original digital photography. The theme I have decided to base my book cover on is â€Å"Poverty†. I wanted to make a book cover with a visual integrity, which means that I wanted the reader to get the theme of the book by just looking at the cover. I wanted a simple but elegant piece of work. In order to make a great book cover I had to first of all has a great photography based on my theme. Luckily, my father organised a trip to India during the Christmas holidays. I decided to use this opportunity to bring my camera and take some pictures. I have a Canon 600D camera with the 55-70mm kit lens. I am always passionate by photography. I like taking pictures during my free time and upload them on my social page. During the trip I went to a small village called â€Å"Kichocha† in Lucknow, New Delhi. It is a really poor village with people living in huts. I then took a Cycle Rickshaw also known as a â€Å"Pedicab† and ride through the villages taking pictures. In order to get good pictures while in a vehicle I used the sport mode on the camera, because the sport mode uses a higher shutter speed to help stop fast actions. I took some great photographs during the trip that shows the true lives of the Indian. When I was back from my trip, I went through all the pictures I have taken and chose the right one suitable for my book cover. I have chosen that particular pictures because, it was one of my favourite and also was the most likeable by my friends on my social page. It also has a lot of spaces to input my texts. I also wanted a picture that the people will notice and remember. The reader always remembers powerful images on a book cover. I think this picture has done the job based on the likability of my friends. I then started editing the pictures. The software that I have used is Adobe Photoshop CS6. The reason I have chosen this software is because I am very familiar with this program since I have used it several times for previous works. I find it a very professional image-processing tool that is easy to operate. During the editing phase, I first of all had to crop the image since the work should be submitted in A4 layout. I have cropped the image in a way that I get the interesting part of the pictures in focus and also leaving space for the texts and book spin. I then did some research online of book covers of how they place their titles, subtitles, authors etc. I then created my title. I based my title from the theme of the picture itself, named â€Å"The Little Indian†. I wanted the book to look like a novel based on the life of that little boy climbing the wall. For the title, I have decided to place it at the top because there was nothing interesting to show the audience from on top of the image apart from buildings. For the font I wanted a typography that are clean, readable and that match with the theme of the photography. I have used Lucida Black Letter for the word â€Å"India†. I find it a bit like Indian style fonts. I then used different fonts for the word â€Å"The† and â€Å"Little† to make it look like a logo instead of a basic one-line sentence. For the colours I have chosen colours that make the texts pop out from the image, since the image is already very colourful. I find that green, red and yellow work well together for the title. I also applied stroke and shadow to the text to make it more easily for the viewer to read. I then designed the subtitle. I firstly did some research online to find a good phrase for my subtitle that reflects my theme. I then came up with â€Å"A true story of Poverty and Wealth†. I think subtitle is important in book cover, because it reflects the tone and emotion of the book with just a single line. I then came up with the idea of making the subtitle perspective with the wall. In order to attain this effect, I used the Vanishing Point Filter with the help of some tutorials online. I think it makes it look cool and interesting to read. This will keep the viewer interested with the way the text is attached to the picture. I then made the author name, using white impact front. The reason I have chosen Impact front is because I find it popularly used by designers and also it is easy to read and grabs the attention of the viewer. For the spin, I made the background in black colour so that the title on the spin is readable. I have used impact as font for the title and author name. I made the title on the spin same colour as the original logo title on the book cover to make it look more attractive on the shelves. I additionally add a publisher logo on the spin to make it look more realistic for a book cover. What I have learnt during the design process is planning and time management. I think both are important in making projects efficient. I have also improved my Photoshop Skills. I have learnt how to use the Vanishing Tool with the help of some tutorials online. For the camera, I could have much better pictures if I had a Zoom Lens for my camera instead of the kit lens. I could also have a better title logo if I knew how to use other software like Adobe Illustrator, which is more specialised in creating logos. I also feel that I lack some knowledge in using the correct colours for the fonts. However I manage to make it look good with the help of some friends’ feedbacks. Overall I am satisfied with the project.