A Lethal Defense?

This week’s Lagniappe cover story is an investigative piece that deals with the questionable practices of a local indigent defense attorney.

We decided that a model dressed in cliché prison garb and handcuffs would make for a dramatic photo.

Like some of our past covers, I went with the option of having our model be faceless (or at least have most of his face covered in shadow). I sometimes prefer to obscure the identity of the models so that they do not distract from the story itself.  My model also has issues with having his face on the cover of Lagniappe, so I decided not to make it too obvious who he was.

The first shot I set up wasn’t even the one that we went with for the cover, but I was still happy with the results.

I placed my flash up high and to the left so that most of the light would fall on his back, leaving the front of his profile in shadow.  I also lowered the color saturation a bit and gave it a blue-grey tone (dreary I know, but the story isn’t exactly a happy pick-me-up kind of thing).

After getting the look I wanted from the photo, I decided to cut the model out of the picture which I hate doing to no end.  I know most experienced graphic designers could do this in their sleep, but I only do this once or twice a year.  Since I don’t have a lot a practice with this, it takes me longer than it should to extract a subject from the background.  I went through all this trouble because I wanted a cleaner background than the gray backdrop I have.

Once I successfully extracted the model, I needed to create a background.  I created a gradient grey background thinking the bright center that gets darker as it moves outward would draw the eye to the prisoner.  Final touches included a vignette burn around the edges and a blue filter to help the background and foreground match.

I was really happy with this image, but I can see why the editorial board went with the second one for the cover.

The image fills up the frame better then the first photo.  It’s easier to recognize the image of a prison inmate from a distance when the black and white stripes are taking up most of the space on the cover.  While I enjoyed the dead space on the first image, this is the one that will move more issues.

Most of the changes I made to the photo in post were similar to the first photo.  The only glaring difference between the editing of the photos is the presence of the original background.  Since the model takes up more of the frame in this image, I didn’t feel the need to hide the background.  I also burned the model out on the process in the first photo and wasn’t in the mood to do it a second time.

P.S.: Oh, about that model that didn’t want to be on the front cover of Lagniappe?  It was me.  Due to time constraints I wasn’t able to secure someone to throw on the prison stripes for camera.  I put the camera on a tripod and used the in-camera timer so that I would have time to put myself into position.  I still think not showing the identity of the model is a good creative choice for this cover (whether it was me or not), but I also feel a little vain blatantly putting my own image on the cover of Lagniappe when I am the one responsible for it.

Questions or comments welcome below.

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A Broken String?

This week’s Lagniappe feature story deals with the city of Mobile’s investments into downtown and how much money it has brought into the city.  For more details on this, I invite you to read Pete Teske’s story in the latest issue.

The editorial board of Lagniappe and I both agreed that the “String of Pearls” metaphor  (a term coined by our former mayor to describe the diverse investments made in downtown Mobile) would be the best image to use for the cover.  The idea of a broken pearl necklace would  represent some of the economic “hiccups” the Mobile area has had over the past year.

We’ve actually used the String of Pearls image before back in our November 19, 2008 issue.

I thought about revisiting this image for our latest story, except with a broken pearl necklace near her chest and mascara running down her cheeks.  The editorial board thought this image would be a little too much and not be honest to the facts of the story.   They suggested that I should use a lone shot of a broken string of big white Mardi Gras beads (made to look like real pearls in post) on the cover.  I decided to go with a pure illustration thinking it would be a graphical change of pace for the cover.

I remember creating beads in Photoshop during one of graphic design classes back in college.  I created a close up of a string of pearls along with a background on the computer.  I also thought it would be cool if I put the logos for the Mobile Convention Center and Carnival Cruise lines on each bead with a broken string.

I really wasn’t sure about this image.  The reason there is no string attaching the free-floating pearls is because my editor axed my idea before I could put them in.  This concept sounded nice in my head, but was a little to confusing to work on paper.  I’m not upset my editor axed this image.  I went out on a limb with this one and sometimes you have to accept failure when you take a chance with creative work.

Several days later I went forward with the board’s original idea.  A small coffee table with books staked on top and covered with a red blanket acted as my backdrop for the “pearls.”  Two black t-shirts hung in the background to get rid of the window behind it.  Two lights stood on opposite sides of the table to give a good amount light to the beads.

After taking several shots, I wasn’t feeling any better about the image.  I felt so bad about it that I called my editor to tell them that this idea may not work out.  He told me to go ahead and email a few off so they could see what it looked like.

This needs to serve as a lesson to all aspiring photographers and many current shooters:  never fully judge your picture based off of how it looks on the back off you camera!   You usually don’t get a good sense of the picture until you have it pulled up on a descent sized screen.

Once I put the image into Photoshop I felt relieved.  Granted it need some work, but nothing 10 minutes on the computer couldn’t fix.

I ended up increasing the contrast and putting a slight vignette around the edges of the image to add a little more focus to the pearls.  I used the clone stamp tool to get rid of the seams in the plastic and delete the white hair from my dog the blanket had picked up.  The use of a blur filter helped give the beads the final smoothing so that they could pass as pearls on the newsstand.

The image is much more successful with conveying the story then I thought it would be.  Its also much better then the graphic monstrosity I had attempted earlier .

Questions and comments are welcome below.

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Thirty Years After Tragedy

This week’s Lagniappe feature story center’s on the lynching of Michael Donald in Mobile, Ala. in 1981 and how racial equality has progressed in the city since then.

This was a tough story to come up with an appropriate image for.  The violent imagery associated with lynching is not something we at Lagniappe wanted to put on the cover of the paper.  With not much left on the table, we decided to take a picture of street where Michael Donald was killed (the street was renamed after Michael in 2006).

I used a wide-angle lens (16mm for the gear nerds) so that I could capture the full name in the street sign with some of the street in the frame. The distortion from the wide angle also helped give the photo some depth that I would not have otherwise been able to attain.  I brought a ladder from home so I could get right up on it, which did present some balance issues while I was lining the picture up.

The shot you see above was the only angle that worked (and there weren’t many).  I created three different versions of this image in Aperture, altering the color of each one and adding a burn around the edges of all of them to help focus the readers’ eyes to the sign.

This sepia toned one is my favorite of the three I versions I turned in.  I have a soft spot for this and the black and white look.  My editors decided not to run with this image since it was seen as to dark.  Part of the story was meant to highlight the improvements in racial equality since the 1981 lynching and the cover needed to reflect that.

This image has warmer tones in it.  I also used a filter in Aperture to give it that aged photo look since the story dealt with the actions of the past.

In the end we went with the least tampered with image of the set, showing that sometimes the simplest solution is the best one.

I’m not 100 percent happy with how the cover turned out and part of that is my fault.  Primarily I think the original image could have looked better.  Preferably, I would have captured some of the sky instead of blowing it completely out.  Unfortunately due to a busy schedule and several days of overcast weather, I wasn’t able to capture the “perfect” image of the street sign.

I can live with it though.  One of the things you have to accept when you work as a professional creative is that you can’t let perfect be the enemy of good.  I didn’t have enough time to wait for the light to get where I needed it, so I had to settle for good.

Questions or comments are welcome below.

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