Creative Critical Reflection

Final

Table of Contents Progress

      I took the photos for my table of contents over the weekend and I just finished editing them today. I've never tried so hard to make a mess. Overall I think they turned out well but I'm not sure how it'll translate until I add the actual page numbers and descriptions. Here's what the photos looked like before and after editing in Adobe Lightroom:
Before:                                                                        After:

I was trying so hard to get it to look natural while still following what my layout plan. I was playing with the coco powder for so long trying to get it to fall in the right direction. I think I finally got it right and I'm really excited to see how it'll look with the table of contents over it. In photoshop I'm going to crop it and flip it because it is upside down right now and I'll also make cut and shift any necessary ingredients so that it fits he dimensions.

Editing

I imported the cover photo into photoshop and I think it's looking pretty good. I was able to do the different changes to the colors that I wanted to but I'm still not sure that it's enough. We're breaking into groups tomorrow so I'll get some feedback there and decide out if it's a good idea. When I first imported the masthead onto the photo I was torn on what color I wanted it to be (between black, gray, and white) but eventually decided that the white made the colors pop the most. Here's what the masthead looks like on the cover:

I'm still concerned about the color of the yellow making the white text hard to read but I think the white font is worth putting in the extra effort to made it more legible. Next I added the coverlines including the main coverline. I spent some time deciding on whether I wanted the main coverline to be on top of the other two or below it. I think that even though it seems like logical progression to put it on top, putting it on the bottom helps to fill up the negative space as well as to make it stand out more from the other coverlines. Here is the cover with the coverlines added:

I still think that the coverlines are hard to read when they pass over the yellow but I'm not sure how to fix it. I'm going to present it to my group tomorrow and see if they have any suggestions. 

Cover Image

I took the photos for my cover page yesterday. To make the spice gradient I took a piece of scrapbooking paper and laid out the spices in lines of rainbow order. Then, to add texture and make the photo more interesting, I took a chopsticks and pushed the spices so that they looked more rustic. Then I sprinkled a little extra spice below the main column to create a slight gradient effect and make the edges look less harsh. Here's how it turned out:

I then imported the photo into Lightroom and raised the contrast, saturation, and exposure as well as slightly changed the hues to create a warmer tone. Here's the edited version:

Once I import it into photoshop I'm going to rotate the spices so that they are vertical and I'm going to try lowering the exposure of the yellow slightly because I'm worried about how it will look with letters over it. I'm also going to use Photoshop to make only the second half of the colors more saturated since they are looking pretty dull in comparison to the first three colors. I'm going to put it in to photoshop tomorrow and play with the different font placements and colors.