album cover insert/leaflet

This is my final design sketch for the insert of my album, as mentioned before it will include lyrics, band info and quotes relevant to the album. It will be made using a photo of the guitar featured on the front cover shot against the surface of the car park. I may slightly blur the photo and have it out of focus so the text on top is easier to read...

The front and back of the leaflet will be the front and back cover of the album, the back cover will not however have the track list on it.

files types

As part of this project i am going to look into the various file types for digital images and their advantages and disadvantages.


JPEG: Possibly the most common file type, JPEG files are small, good quality and compatible with pretty much every peice of hardware and software in the world. JPEG files are compressed to make them smaller and easily stored or transferred, however this compression causes some loss of quality depending on the level of compression.


Advantages -

• small files size
• good compression/loss ratio
• most popular for displaying/sharing online
• universal compatibility

Disadvantages -

• compression can lower quality
• does not preserve layers
• limited to maximum bit depth of 8-bits per channel

                    
TIFF: TIFF files are larger than JPEGs but as a result they are higher quality and feature lossless compression, which means they can be reserved as many times as required and not suffer quality degradation. TIFF files can also be saved with layers created in photoshop preserved, so when re-opened all the layers are still separate and editable.

Advantages -

• high quality
• lossless compression (smaller than original file, yet not as small as a jpeg)
• preserves layer information

Disadvantages -

• larger file size
• not supported by all software/hardware
• any bitdepth supported (restricted by software/application)

BMP: BMP or Bitmap files are generally uncompressed and retain all the image information of the original. However it cannot preserve layers, is not universally compatible (it was created by Microsoft) and is generally obsolete due to the TIFF file format having all of BMP's pro's plus more, and less of the cons.

Advantages -

• preserves all the file data (unless software compression is used)
• compatible with all Microsoft-friendly software

Disadvantages -

• limited bit depth
• larger file sizes than jpg
• does not preserve layers

PNG: PNG files were created for internet display and transfer and are capable of storing alpha channels and therefore the transparency contained in an image ( 8 bits as opposed to GIF's single bit of transparency). Like TIFF they feature lossless compression and so have larger file sizes than jpegs, and like GIF files (which PNG was created to replace) can store animation information.

Advantages -

• can store 8 bit alpha channels
• saves animation data
• compatible with most web browsers
• lossless compression

Disadvantages -

• larger file size than jpeg
• does not preserve layers

RAW: RAW files are saved when taking the actual photograph, and as the name suggests it saves the raw image you have just shot so during editing blown out highlights or too dark areas can be recovered as the data in those areas have been saved even though they are not visible at first. RAW files are much larger than jpeg, i have had them as large as 20mb (whereas the largest jpeg i can remember having is about 3mb). Special software is required for opening and editing RAW files, such as photoshop or Capture One.

Advantages -

• captures all the data in the scene, whether exposed correctly or not
• large overhead for editing (can change the white balance etc AFTER shooting)
• maximum quality/size

Disadvantages -

• maximum file size (very large compared to jpeg)
• can only be opened in special software
• comes in many different formats (1 or more file extension for each manufacturer)
• cannot be uploaded or displayed online without conversion to other format

For most of my work and for this project i will be shooting in RAW, saving as TIFF or photoshops native format PSD for the duration of the editing then either saving as a TIFF or JPEG for final presentation depending on what is being done with the image (internet? printing? monitor?).

location scouting

After exploring the various car parks in basildon and essex i believe i have found the best location for my shoot... behold the Asda car park in Basildon:

If possible i'd like to feature a painted arrow in my cover as it's known to be a strong visual symbol, but that is dependent on being able to shoot in the middle of the road. I will try and ask for permission but regardless on whether i get it or not, this shall be the location of my final shoot.

some more sketches and ideas

Here's a few more sketches for my album cover project. This first upload is my final idea for my back cover; keeping to the urban theme of the original album and my front cover i wanted it to be more simple in contrast to the front cover which is heavily photoshopped and has a lot going on. It's basically a photograph of a painted line on a road surface which will probably be shot in the same car park as my front cover...

This next sketch is of the insert/leaflet that will feature notes on the band, selected lyrics and quotes. It will be an accordion-style fold out piece of card. For the design printed in the background i am going to go for either a top down view of a double yellow line in the road, various restrictive road signs or a top down view of my guitar placed on a road/tarmac surface. Again these are all urban themed and i will use post processing in photoshop to give them all a contrasty, edgy look similar to that in the screenshots from the Bittersweet Symphony video i posted earlier on my blog.

ideas no. 2

After sketching some more ideas while listening to the album i have come up with a refined idea for the main cover! here it is!

As it's pretty rough i will describe it. The scene is a carpark, probably a multi-story somewhere in Basildon.  I will set up a tripod and take photos of me in different positions and outfits and pose as if i am interacting with each copy of myself. The two in the center will be fighting each other while the rest watch, either cheering it on, ignoring or trying to break it up. This basically will describe the internal conflicts of modern life, a common theme of the album.

Now to figure out how to do it...

more lyrics

 The Drugs Don't Work lyrics

All this talk of getting old
It's getting me down my love
Like a cat in a bag, waiting to drown
This time I'm comin' down

And I hope you're thinking of me
As you lay down on your side
Now the drugs don't work
They just make you worse
But I know I'll see your face again


Now the drugs don't work
They just make you worse
But I know I'll see your face again


But I know I'm on a losing streak
'Cause I passed down my old street
And if you wanna show, then just let me know
And I'll sing in your ear again


Now the drugs don't work
They just make you worse
But I know I'll see your face again


'Cause baby, ooh, if heaven calls, I'm coming, too
Just like you said, you leave my life, I'm better off dead


All this talk of getting old
It's getting me down my love
Like a cat in a bag, waiting to drown
This time I'm comin' down


Now the drugs don't work
They just make you worse
But I know I'll see your face again


'Cause baby, ooh, if heaven calls, I'm coming, too
Just like you said, you leave my life, I'm better off dead


But if you wanna show, just let me know
And I'll sing in your ear again


Now the drugs don't work
They just make you worse
But I know I'll see your face again


Yeah, I know I'll see your face again
Yeah, I know I'll see your face again
Yeah, I know I'll see your face again
Yeah, I know I'll see your face again


I'm never going down, I'm never coming down
No more, no more, no more, no more, no more
I'm never coming down, I'm never going down
No more, no more, no more, no more, no more

Another top song off the album, The Drugs Don't Work has helped me further the design for my album cover. The solemn lyrics and drug references further my desire to create a grungy, gritty theme to the cover and all it's parts.

creating custom text effects

i wanted to learn how to create a grungy urban style text for my album covers so i decided to give it a go using the eraser and some images of splatted paint. I started off by creating a new canvas and giving it a background colour (orange), then created the text i was going to edit. Before i could go any further the text needed to be rastarised so it could be manipulated, once that was done i selected the eraser tool, picked a brush to use and set about cutting into the text to created the grungy effect.

 After i spent absolutely ages doing this to all the letters i used the rotate tool to make it look more dynamic and added paint splatters which i found on the internet. These splatters were pure black and white to make it easier to blend into any scene. I simply added the photos, scaled and rotated them and set the transfer mode to screen.

^ Before setting transfer mode

^ After setting transfer mode!

Done! I am planning on creating something similar to this for use on my final covers

cutting out things in photoshop

to practice some photoshop before i begin work on my album cover i created a test image to experiment with techniques i will use to create my final work. I started off by opening one of my photos in photoshop!

I then found something to add to the image to practice extracting elements and blending them into other images. I found this nissan micra to stick in the mud, which will give the result some meaning by portraying my hate for these cars.

The first step was to extract the car from the image... i did this by making use of the lasso selection tool and the eraser and then used the levels editor to match the contrast. When deleting with the lasso selectrion tool i feathered the edges slightly to make sure it didn't leave any jagged edges. I also used the transform tools to scale and deform the car to get the perspective looking right, although the perspective could only modified to a certain limit so i placed the car carefully in the scene.

I then added shadows and reflections to blend the car into the scene better. To create the shadows i made a shape with the lasso selection tool then used the blur filter and eraser to make the shadow similar to the other ones in the scene. I made the reflection in the water by cutting and pasting a section of the car and using the transform tools to put it in the right place and lowered the opacity.

Then in a similar manner i added jesus.