print production concept

Having the roses above the girl in the bath relates to paintings of Ophelia drowning in the river; an intertextual reference that frequented my music video, and influenced quite a few of my shots.

I like the vibrancy of this design, and the contrast between the two images. I feel that the darkness of the bottom image really offsets the colours of the top image, and portrays a sense of surrealism to the viewer. I considered colour correcting the bottom image so that the colour of the petals in the bath matched those at the top, but I think the slight orange-y tint to the picture gives it a dark, slightly demonic feel.

To create the image, I first faded the photos into one another. This was done by positioning the others where I wanted them, then applying a white layer mask to the bottom image and using an airbrush tool in low opacity, colouring in black on the layer mask until I achieved the effect that I wanted.

I next went into the exposure settings and increased the Offset to around 0.0306 to give it a faded look, which I think is a lot more coherent as it neatly ties in both images and prevents one from being too bright comparatively. It also makes the white text which I planned to apply, look far more aesthetically pleasing against the backdrop.I also think that having it faded makes it seem hazy and dreamlike, relating to the content of my piece.

I added the text next; the font I decided on was Baskerville Old Face, as I felt it gave a soft but fairly professional vibe. I chose white because it ties the two images together; accentuating the highlights of the sunlight in the top image, and the reflection of the light in the water of the bottom image.

I considered having the text in the bottom left corner, but I felt that it looked like a poorly edited amateur movie poster. Having it central also covers the blur between the two images, which, because of the dimensions of the two photos, wasn’t as large a transition as I’d planned. The central text hides this a bit, while still looking sleek and clean.

I also considered using a curlier hand-writing style font. I do think that that idea could work if it were actually handwritten, but using a windows typeface doesn’t achieve the same effect.

Lastly, I added a subtle vignette, to give the image a slightly more 3D look about it.