Editing my album cover using ‘Pik Monkey’

I decided to use this editing website, because I am aware that it is an alternative to Picnik.com, which was closed down early this year

Front Cover

Firstly, I uploaded the picture onto the ‘Pik Monkey’ website. This is the image without it being edited yet

I firstly started with the ‘teeth whitening’ tool just to brighten Temi’s eye whites. In addition I also used the ‘Eye brighten’ tool. Moreover by doing this this improves contributes to the quality and sharpness of her eyes, which immediately directs attention straight to Temi’s eyes

I decided to use the ‘Lip Tint’ tool to enhance the colour of Temi’s lips. I am aware that pink lips connotes femininity and love. These features are often what solo female R&B/Soul singers, base their songs about, especially love

By using the ‘Clone tool’, this enabled me select an area of the picture and ‘clone it onto another area of the picture. I selected the silver background, and cloned it onto the black bag that Temi was holding. I did this, because the bag has no relation to the image, and therefore was pointless. Evidently from the second image the hand bag has been removed.

From my audience research it revealed to me that my target audience wanted to see simple italic font, however I am aware that my font ‘mancelle script’ is a bit on the swirly side, this is because, I felt that the mise en scene was very elegant and glamorous, and therefore this font was the perfect match.

Next I included the name of the album ‘Stranger’ which is also the name of song, in my music video

I also selected ‘stranger’ to be the same font as ‘Lola Cruz’ (mancelle script) this is because, in my secondary research, most album covers such as ‘Beyonce’s I AM SASHA FIRECE’ album, had the same font throughout.

I was just playing around with the photo effects, just to see which effect I best suited the style of the album cover. I rejected them because I felt that they lacked realism of a real R&B/Soul album cover.

I decided to use the ‘Dark edges’ tool, however, I decided to create a ‘White edge’ because I believe that a white misty edge, very much relates to the name of the album ‘stranger’, moreover the mistiness suggests that something is there however at the same time is not there, which moreover relates to the album name ‘stranger’

I decided to use the ‘Focal zoom’ tool because It produced an effect where it looked like the focus was primarily on ‘Lola Cruz’s’ face, which I believe is very important for a Solo artist, and a Portrait based album cover

I decided to crop the image, because as my sister was looking at my work, she verbally told me that the involvement of her hands looked ‘un-needed’ and ‘uncomfortable’ therefore I decided to remove her hands.

I used the ‘Tranquill’ effect tool, because I believe that it gave the picture an air brush finish. Moreover I previously decided to ‘overlay the text ‘Lola Cruz’, and the Tranquill effect, allows the text to be acknowledgeable. I believe that the effect of the text ‘lola cruz’ connotes a sense of something that you know is there however can also be identified as not there, almost as if it fading into the background of Temis laced dress, which heavily relates to the name of the album ‘stranger’

BACK COVER

This is the image that I have chosen to use for the back cover. I intended to use one of the pictures from the Saturday photo shoot, however I believed that they did not capture the silhouette of an album back cover. I like this image because it is as if she is looking at possibly the song titles, which is what I intend this image to produce.

I firstly decided to use the ‘air brush’ her skin, as her imperfections were very noticeable. I noticed that artists on album covers that focuses on portrait based covers, always look flawless. I intend to follow this convention.

As previously said, I decided to use the ‘Lip Tint’ tool to enhance the colour of Temi’s lips. I am aware that pink lips connotes femininity and love. These features are often what solo female R&B/Soul singers, base their songs about, especially love

Next I decided to use the ‘clone’ tool again, to remove the shadow of the camera on Temis shoulders.

I then used the ‘Tranquill’ effect tool, to brighten up the image, and brighten her skin, however it did not produce the same effect as it did compared to my front cover. This is because it darkened the edges instead of creating the ‘ white misty effect’

In addition I then used the ‘Focal zoom’ tool, to enhance the focus of Temi’s face. However it still did not produce the exact same effect. I went back to my album cover research, and saw that the back cover were never exactly the same as the front cover. As it is meant to be the front cover that captures the attention of the audience

Lastly I used the ‘frost’ effect to create the ‘misty’ effect instead of the darkened effect.

To ensure that my the size of my image was the size of an album cover, I used Pik Monkey collage, which allowed me to choose from various collage template. I saw this collage above which consisted the two rectangles I inserted my front and unfinished back cover. Because when my edited images were too large, I had to crop the images in order for my images to acceptable in an approximately 15cm to 11cm (this was what I found out this in my secondary research about the dimensions of an album cover)

Next, I included the text. I followed my album cover plan draft, where I intended to include chronological numbering first, and then the song titles on the right hand side of the cover.

The song titles I have recommended, have been taken from original R&B/Soul songs. For example the song title ‘trust and believe’ is an original song of Keyshia Cole who is an is an American R&B/Soul singer-songwriter and record producer.  DAVID GAUNTLETT argues that in contemporary society, gender roles are more complex and that the media reflect this. He points out that female role models today are often glamorous as well as successful in a way that previously they were not. He states that much of this is due to the rise of ‘girl power’ and ‘women independency’ in the media, through identities constructed by music artists such as Beyonce. By taking David Gauntlett’s point into consideration I have purposely decided to include song titles that promote ‘girl power’ to encourage a positive representation of females in the media rather than a negative representation which is widely employed in the media.

I have now changed the font of the text, to ‘Mancelle Script’ which was also used in my front cover. This will be a convention that I will be carrying out throughout my album cover

Due to verbal feedback from my class mate Funmi, she explained to me that my song titles should be spaced out downwards. I took her point into consideration, and moreover It revealed to me that the distance between each title, can connote the idea that song titles are of strangers to each other, therefore which is why they lack proximity.

Evidently from my secondary research of album covers, I noticed that there was small text written on the album back cover. This involved mentioning the names of the managers and producers, who were involved in the making of the album cover I assume. This is why I have decided to include this convention in my album cover back.

I then decided to reduce the size of the font, to create an effect where it is ‘unreadable’ (to exaggerate), this is because I gathered from my album cover research that this part of the text was extremely small, which automatically decreases the relevance of it to the audience, therefore the ‘producers, managers, record label’ (these were included in the text) do not remove any attention from the artist on the album cover.

In addition I followed the same scheme I used in the front over, where I applied the ‘overlay effect’

After Audience Feedback

I decided to include the Record Label which Jhene Aiko is signed onto.

Inside (left)

Firstly I used the ‘clone’ tool, to clone the silver background onto the white back ground of the first image towards the left. I have done this because the image will be placed behind the front cover of the digital, and it will be sensible to carry on with this convention. The clone tool allowed me to ‘clone’ a section of the image on the right, and pasting it onto where the image onto the left.

Then I used the ‘air brush’ tool to smooth out the imperfections on her face. I have done this because evidently from my album cover research it presents flawless skin of especially the female solo artists, DAVID GAUNTLETT argues that in modern society, gender roles are more complex and that the media reflect this. He points out that female role models today are often glamorous as well as successful in a way that previously they were not. Therefore presenting her as ‘glamorous’ will be very appropriate in our modern society

Using the ‘eye brighten’ tool, this enhanced the whiteness of her yes, and more over sharpened her eyes. I believed that it was ideal for me to touch up her eyes, as she has direct eye contact with the audience, and moreover her eyes connote a sad expression, therefore I enhanced her eyes, so that the audience can actively see the emotions she is expressing. Her emotion in this image also relates to he narrative in my music video,

I decided to use the ‘Lip Tint’ tool to enhance the colour of Temi’s lips. I am aware that pink lips connotes femininity and love. These features are often what solo female R&B/Soul singers, base their songs about, especially love, which is also what my music video is about.

I was just playing around with the photo effects, just to see which effect I best suited the style of the album cover. The ‘Orton’ effect I used brightened up the colour of Temi’s skin tone

I decided to use the ‘Focal zoom’ tool because It produced an effect where it looked like the focus was primarily on ‘Lola Cruz’s’ face, which I believe is very important for a Solo artist, and a Portrait based album cover

I then cropped the image, to an album sized cover size

Next I copied the lyrics to ‘Jhene Aiko – Stranger’ online onto ‘Pik Monkey’

To follow the previous step, I then changed the font to ‘Mancelle Script’ as this convention has been used throughout the production of my album cover

Ideally I wanted to position the lyrics of the song towards the left of the case, however due to the verbal feedback of my teacher, she explained to me that the font was too small, and moreover the colour was dull, and did not stand out at all. Then…

… I decided to split my lyrics into two columns, increase the size, and lastly change the colour of my font to white. Due to verbal feedback again, it was revealed to me that by placing the lyrics over her face, reduced the ability for the audience to connect with her, and therefore they may lose interest in the cover

I then placed the two columned lyrics further apart on the case, so the that Temi’s eyes was not hidden, as her facial expression was ideal for the narrative of her music video, where she is sad. Moreover I also included the title of the album stranger above the left hand corner

Next I then aligned the text from the right, to the centre

I then sharpened the entire image, in order for the texts to stand out against the background

Following the conventions of making my front cover and back cover, I carried on the same convention, where I ‘overlayed’ the text.

Lastly I then used the ‘exposure’ effect to brighten up the entire image.

Due to verbal feedback, my friend suggested that the text ‘stranger’ should be red, to match her hair

Inside (right)

I firstly decided to use the ‘air brush’ her skin, as her imperfections were very noticeable. I noticed that artists on album covers that focuses on portrait based covers, always look flawless. I intend to follow this convention.

Using the ‘eye brighten’ tool, this enhanced the whiteness of her yes, and more over sharpened her eyes. I believed that it was ideal for me to touch up her eyes, as she has direct eye contact with the audience, and moreover her eyes connote a sad expression, therefore I enhanced her eyes, so that the audience can actively see the emotions she is expressing.

I decided to use the ‘Lip Tint’ tool to enhance the colour of Temi’s lips. I am aware that pink lips connotes femininity and love. These features are often what solo female R&B/Soul singers, base their songs about, especially love

Next I decided to use the ‘clone’ tool again, to remove the shadow of the camera away from the white background

Next I used the ‘’exposure’ tool to brighten up the entire image, as I noticed that the complexion to the other images that I previously edited (front cover, back cover etc…)

Next I used the ‘Tranquil’ effect to follow the convention I had previously used in making the other covers. However it did not produce the same effect as it did compared to my front cover, I was quite disappointed. Therefore I had to compromise and use a variety of more effects in the aim of achieving a similar effects.

Next I used the ‘focal zoom’ effect, to allow the focus to be primarily on her, however I noticed that it made her hair look fuzzy, and her hair is quite an important asset, so therefore her hair looking blurred was unacceptable. Therefore I removed this effect.

Then I used the ‘dusk’ effect

Next I used the ‘exposure’ tool, just to brighten up the entire picture.