Page development 2

I have become more comfortable within the software Bookwright now allowing me to experiment further with designs of photographs and placements of texts. Photographs have become bigger on pages such as 12/13, along with making photographs the whole background image on pages such as 16-19 under 'culture.'
When making a photograph the whole background, it must pass the red dotted line in case of cut off. This is indicated on the pink borders - these borders at the edge of the pages are 'safe print areas' - the book may be printed on or near the red dotted line, therefore the border warning not to add any important information as it may be cut off. Making the photograph fill the whole page will ensure it gets to end, no matter where the page will then be printed -

In terms of text, I have changed the font from American Typewriter to Futura. Though not the final font, Futura is more aesthetically simplistic and leans towards what the final font would be. Experimenting with text has allowed me to expand my knowledge under fonts and has ensured I will apply these in the creative process of finalisation.
Content and photographic wise, both elements including writing and photography for the nature theme have been completed to my current desire, with phrases written by myself from personal feelings and experiences, along with inspirations by Connor Franta's 'Note to self' and Rupi Kaur's 'the sun and her flowers' as conducted in pre production of this project. Quotes using speech marks are taken from said inspirations, for example on page 17 - from film 'Call me by your name'

Moving into the book, I have added both portraiture photographs on location and in the photography studio as planned along with wording produced in production documentation of mind maps under the post 'free verse writing'

colour

In terms of design awareness under the culture theme, for aesthetic purposes, I had the desire to match the photograph with the background, this being a photograph that accompanied (e.g page 22/23) or a background colour.
As I developed within the book with this practical idea for this theme, I personally found that there were some problematic issues. The grid for the background colours is quite simple (labelled colour) without a visible gradient map depending on the colour chosen -


Preferably, I feel that this gradient colour picker is more visual and precise. Bookwright also does not have an eyedropper option, in exampled times where the page may be aesthetically pleasing if the background colour is the exact same colour as the background in a photograph on the page. I found this an issue on page 20/21 of my book under the 'culture' theme

An eyedropper tool on page 21 to accompany the colour on page 20 may have made the entire spread visually pleasing, though no planning beforehand for this issue as I was unfamiliar with the software,
I adapted to skills I hold within Photoshop, therefore importing the photograph on page 20 into Photoshop, using the eyedropper tool and painting a new page with the same colour.
Concluding, I will further plan ahead in Photoshop using the eyedropper tool, and ensure that I stay familiar with the tool if required for other pages.

Reflection - week 7

Voice recording reflection -

Silhouette photography

Photography studio: setups, good and bad photo outcomes - 
Using the photography studio with the 3 light key setup, I have taken photographs for the 'fellowship' and 'culture' themes within my book.


Lower aperture - more light
Higher aperture - less light

Beginning silhouette photography, the setup included a chair and a light box, set to the highest setting of 6 as I did not want any details of the model to be visible, only the outline. The camera settings included a high ISO and low aperture, and vivid colour. The results are as shown.



Initially, I found that the models face was still visible and the whole photograph held bright exposure, though a desired white background. Photographing this, I realised the camera settings must be adjusted to monochrome. At this current moment I did not change the ISO or aperture, and photographed again.










As this result was not successful, I proceeded to change the aperture to a higher amount allowing less light through the lens, along with the shutter speed around 1/8  and an ISO of 100. I also found that the model was too close to the light box and had to be moved forward. The results include more of the models outline without the features in a darker, silhouette manner though a blurry, dragged out exposure, I found this was due to the low ISO and shutter speed.



Further developing and attempting to get my desired images, I increased the ISO to 250+ (under 500) and increased the shutter speed by 2-3 fractions.  Certain details of the model are more visible than the previous picture, such as the reflection on the glasses. The aperture remained low, this being a possible reason for the pictures slight blurriness. Though the case, I found these settings most suitable for the silhouette and continued to photograph with the same settings.











The low aperture, f6 and below, allowed shallow depth of field in the photograph of the glasses, giving the desired result of glasses in clarity, however, I had some issues with wanting a bigger background. Reflecting back, I realise I could have used two light boxes to create the wider backdrop.





On location with silhouette, I had photographed for the fellowship theme whilst practising heavily with white balance -









Direct sunlight - golden, sunny colour
Photographing mostly with a direct sunlight white balance due to the outdoor environment, I found that the golden sunlight reflected well, and fully portrays the time of day that the photograph was taken. It provides a sense of warm feeling, like a summers evening.


Incandescent - blue, sky colour
After photographing with the sunlight white balance, I felt that the vibrance may be too high and wanted to view the difference if changed settings. The blue, more grey type vibe from selecting incandescent contrasts with the sunset and meaning behind the photograph, this being a female figure holding a rose representing emotions associated with fellowship and love. Incandescent WB may be used in settings suited more to a capturing blue sky environment at midday, or create a vibe in contrast to meanings I have behind these taken photographs.

Whilst experimenting more with the lighting, for the meanings behind my theme further props and symbolisation's were photographed - the glasses, rose, hands, etc.  Photographing in vivid with the direct sunlight white balance filtration provided the light-box to be an yellow, vintage paper colour. Intentions of this included integument as to how the backdrop colour could be changed in Photoshop.


Finalising adjustments of the studio lights and camera settings, there has been successful results following silhouette photography. Shooting on manual throughout, for experimental purposes I changed settings to auto flash, however this did not work and was too bright, therefore continuation of shooting on manual and manual focus. Concluding, I feel I still require help understanding shutter speeds affect with ISO, however my knowledge of ISO and aperture, with depth of field and some white balance filtration has improved in comparison to the beginning of the year and the first time photographing, both in the studio and understanding filtration (WB) on location.

Page development 1

Developing from the beginning use on the software, I have added some photographs under the nature theme with wording, as I have thought about the wording for the nature category first. Adding the photographs in colour has been interesting, experimenting with what photographs look aesthetically good together and which link to the story line development. Some photographs under the culture theme have been added, though no wording. Portraiture photographs of individuals representing various cultures have been taken on location. Suggested by my mentor, portraiture photographs in a photography studio should also be added for aesthetic continuity - having the same backdrop. I have come to the conclusion to balance this out - 2 portraiture photographs on location and 2 in the studio.

The page count has increased, with photographs such as the ocean/ underwater photos on page 12/13. I had discovered a challenge with the underwater photograph, this challenge further becoming noticeable the more I developed the pages. This being pixelation  - the software warns you when the photographs pixels are too low for printing, therefore gives you an option to ignore or select the most suitable size, recommended by the software. Though this may be an issue, it will help me consider and expand my ways of placing imaging, occurring in future situations actually making the book better quality wise - switching photographs for higher quality ones (making sure they still tell the storyline with clarity)

After photographing on location at a country park, I have embedded the photographs and experimented with the layout section of Bookwright. Further adding text in the font 'american typewriter' with  sizes of 20-24. Timings of the poetry had been included, though not logically thought about in consideration of what time the dream ends with page counts yet, purely for design purposes. I found that the layouts were useful and good to experiment with. 

As I had taken an amount of photographs on location, I found the timing of editing and selecting them quite time consuming and stressful - editing in Adobe Photoshop being time consuming, However, I feel I have developed skills such as using the selection tool adjusting certain parts of an image in terms of vibrance and hue along with the sharpening and blur tool- though not advanced, developing the smaller skills has allowed me to understand the layering of images and placement of tools on the software as a whole. 

Bookwright

From conducted research of websites, I have concluded that Blurb would be most suitable to use, due to its advantages such as a plug in for Adobe Lightroom and InDesign, and its own software titled Bookwright. The time for shipping being 4-5 business days and good pricing for the selected GSM paper / hardback paper option, I feel that using Blurb will be most sustainable, along with an understandable software, in which I am using to produce the pages. I plan to use the plug-in for Adobe InDesign to produce the front and back cover of the book, though due to the timing, this may not be possible.

Beginning the production, I have searched and experimented with the software Bookwright, this including the pages, layouts, masters and photograph options the software has.
As stated in pre production, the first photographs are in black and white to represent the before time of the dream, furthermore, developing within the software I found that background page colours can be changed (ALT+SHIFT+B)

I therefore decided to make the background black with white text, adding an aesthetic to the beginning but also contributing to the clarity of the story line. 

The left management of pages is the first draft of all pages. The initial count was 20 pages, the themes I had gotten photographs for being nature and culture. Fellowship photographs accompanied after being in the photography studio, this documented in the post 'silhouette photography'
No text besides wording at the start of the book had been included, along with simple photographs at small sizes on most pages.

Other introductory aspects I had when using the software was the application of text and borders. page 2/3 have experimental white borders, along with the content of my photographs and word phrasing.

Options for borders are creative and good for use, including sizing /thickness, colours and different types of bordering lines. As my plan is to gather all content first within the book, I am currently unaware of whether bordering will be including, however I have found experimenting with the application on these pages insightful and will consider throughout the pages, depending on the aesthetic and timing left to complete design and finalising to print in time.

Reflection - week 6

Voice recording reflection -

Production documentation - Layout

As part of developing further past the research conducted between websites, I have decided to use Blurb and downloaded the software 'Book-wright,' discussing the attributes that the book will have such as the GSM paper, dusk jacket and paper or hardback with my mentor. I have learnt attributes about the book through these discussions, e.g -

GSM paper - Standing for 'Grams per square meter,' the quality of paper used for printing. As discussed with my mentor, I will be using Proline Pearl Photo paper, in comparison to using others such as Proline Uncoated, and Standard Layflat. The paper being a good choice for contrasting colours, this further being an advantage as my photographs are high in saturation and vibrance, the full quality and detail also being a crucial contribution to the story in shots of close up and shallow depth of field photography. The end paper consists of a semi gloss texture.

Dusk jacket covers - The outer, detachable cover of a books front and back cover, usually consisting of an introduction and 'about' of an author or the book. My book will consist of a dusk cover as selected, with further planning required as to what information will be provided and styling of this.












Hardback - A book with a stiff, protective cover, made to last longer than paperback.
Paperback - Book with a softcover, all pages including the cover made out of paper and less protective.

Hardback being more long term friendly, I have selected this option and further believe that the texture will feel more professional.
Lastly, my product will be sized as a Large landscape (33x28cm.) As discussed with my mentor, I have chosen this option due to the flexibility of both A4 and A3 photographs able to be placed within the book, this avoiding issues when selecting photographs and photographing generally on location.  A range of A3 and A4 photographs alongside word phrases seems visually pleasing, alongside storytelling - the broken up structures of words and placements of pictures representing what I want the page to show, depending on the content of that specific element, exploring deeper messages making audiences think / making them consider the structure more rather than what appears first to the eye, a range of sizes allowing me to do this. To photograph, I will be using a Nikon D7200 and occasionally an iPhone 7. Though avoidance of using a mobile device due to pixelated issues when zooming in, especially when printing, the process of capturing whenever possible within landscape photography is an element that I find important and have learnt when personally photographing and have practised, therefore wanting a symbolic representation within the book about the personal photography process, leading upto this final project.