Album cover process

1. To begin creating the cover for my digi-
pack, I firstly had to open up Photoshop
CS6. Once I had done this I then selected
the tab called ‘File’ and then ‘New’ which
would open a new document that I would
be able to begin working on.
Once I had selected ‘New’, this pop
up box appeared and I was then
able to choose the dimensions of
the document I wanted. I decided
to put the width at ‘1800 Pixels’
and the height at ‘1600 Pixels’
which would be around about the
dimensions for an album cover.
Once I had written in these
dimensions, I then changed the
name of the document to ‘Album
Cover’ and selected ‘OK’.

2. I then needed to put the image I
wanted to use onto the document
I had created and to do this all I
had to do was clicked on the ‘File’
tab and then select ‘Open’.
Once I had clicked ‘Open’, my
documents then appeared on the
screen and I had to find the
location in which the image I
wanted to use was in. Once I had
found the image I wanted, I then
selected it and clicked ‘Open’.

3. After the image had been put onto my document I
then needed to make it smaller to ensure that I
would have the image in the position I needed it to
be in to begin editing. So to do this all I had to do
was click on the ‘Edit’ tab that is located at the top
of the screen and then I selected ‘Scale’.
After I had selected ‘Scale’ I
was then able to begin
making the image smaller, but
while making it smaller I had
to hold down the ‘Shift’
button on the keyboard and
this was to ensure that the
image wouldn’t go obscure
and would stay the same but
would just be smaller. On the
left is the image that I had
made smaller.

4. One of the first things I wanted to edit once I had opened this image was the
colour of Laura’s eyes. In the original image you are able to see that she had
red eyes so I needed to get rid of this and to do this all I had to do was select
the ‘Red Eye Tool’ and then just click on the parts of the eye that are red. Once
I had done this, the redness had gone and you are able to see that the pupils
went back to black rather than being red.

5. The next thing I wanted to do was begin editing the colour of
the image, but before I did this I wanted to duplicate the image
to ensure that I had a copy of it in case anything went wrong
while I would be editing it. To duplicate the image all I had to
do was right click on the layer that the image was on, then I just
had to select ‘Duplicate Layer’ and then a new layer with the
same image appeared which was what I wanted to occur.
Once I had made a duplicate
of the image, I was then
able to begin editing the
colour of the image. The
first thing I did was click the
‘Image’ tab, then I selected
‘Adjustments’ then
‘Vibrance’.

6. Once I selected ‘Vibrance’, a pop up box then
appeared and I was able to change the vibrance and
saturation of the image. When editing the image I
actually only decided to change the vibrance as
there was no need for me to change the saturation
of the image at that time. Once I had changed the
vibrance to what I wanted it to be, I then selected
‘OK’ and in the image on the left, you are able to
see how the image had changed once I had added
this effect.

7. I then wanted to continue editing the colour of the image and the next
thing I did was again click on the ‘Image’ tab and then I selected
‘Adjustments’ then ‘Selective Colour’. Once I had done this a pop up
box then appeared and in the drop down box next to where it says
‘Colous’, I selected ‘Neutrals’ which would enable me to change the
majority of the colours that are presented in the image. Once I had
done this I then changed all of the features to what I wanted them to
be to ensure that the image looked the way I wanted it to look.

8. Once I had edited the image in the way I wanted it to be with the ‘Neutral’
colours, I then wanted to change them in relation to the ‘Red’ colours and to do
this, again all I had to do was click on the drop down box next to where it says
‘Colours’ and then I selected the option called ‘Reds’. Once I had done this, I
then again changed the features in the way I wanted them to be to ensure that
the image looked the way I wanted it to look and once I had changed everything
I wanted I then clicked ‘OK’. In the image below you are able to see what the
outcome of the image was with all these added effects.

9. When editing the colour of this image I noticed that the background
was the perfect colour that I wanted, but the colour of Laura was
odd and I knew that I would need to change the colour of her. So to
only change the colour of Laura and not the background as well, I
had to click on the ‘Quick Selection Tool’ and once I had done this I
just then outlined around Laura’s body and in the image on the left
you are able to see that there are dotted lines around just Laura and
this means that only Laura will be edited and nothing else will be as
she is the only part of the whole image that has been selected.
After I had selected Laura, I
then decided to change the
brightness and saturation of
her. Once I had changed the
settings to what I wanted
them to be, I then clicked
‘OK’ and you are able to see
what the outcome of the
image looked like once I had
done this in the image I have
presented.

10. Once I had made this edit I then wanted
to edit the image more to make it look
the way I want it and this meant that I
again selected ‘Image’, ‘Adjustments’
and then ‘Hue/Saturation’.
Once I had selected this, a
pop up box then appeared
and I was able to change
the features to ensure that
the image looked the way I
wanted it to look. Once I
had made the changes I
wanted, I then clicked ‘OK’.

11. Once I had edited the image to look the way
I wanted it, I then wanted to get rid of some
of the shining parts on Laura’s face which
would have been created from the flash of
the camera. To do this all I had do to was
select the ‘Spot Healing Brush Tool’ and
then I just selected all of the areas of Laura’s
face that were quite shiny. Once I had done
this, you are then able to see that all of the
shiny parts had gone which made the image
look more professional looking.

12. The next thing I wanted to do was add a rough white
border around the image to make it more Pop Punk, but
also to relate to some parts that occur in my music
video. So the first thing I had to do was actually get a
rough white border and I was able to do this by going
onto Google Images. Once I found an image I liked, I
then right clicked on it and clicked ‘Save Image As’.
After I had selected that, a
pop up box then appeared
and I had to choose a
location that I wanted to save
the image in. Once I had
found somewhere I wanted
to save it, I then changed the
name to ‘White Border’ so I
would easily be able to find
the image when I need it.
Then I clicked ‘Save’.

13. Once I had saved the image, I then
needed to put it onto my album cover
and to do this all I had to do was go
back onto Photoshop and then select
‘File’ and then ‘Open’.
After I had selected this, a pop
up box then appeared and I was
able to location the image I had
just saved. Once I had found
the image I wanted, I then
clicked ‘Open’.

14. Once the image had been placed onto my document I then
needed to enlarge it to ensure that it would fit the whole of
the document. To do this all I had to do was click on the
‘Edit’ tab and then select ‘Transform’ then ‘Scale’. Once I had
done this you are able to see that the image had then been
enlarged to the whole of the document which I have
presented in the image below.

15. I then needed to add a layer mask to the image to enable me to
begin editing it. To create a layer mask for the image, all I had
to do was select the layer that the image was on and then I just
had to select the ‘Add Layer Mask’ button which is located
underneath all of the layers and is the second button which can
be selected which I have highlighted in the image on the left.
Once I had created this layer
mask I then selected the
‘Eraser Tool’ and began to
move the tool around on the
image and you are able to see
that once I had done this, all
of the black parts of the
image had disappeared as I
had erased it all and the main
image was then visible again.

16. Once I had got rid of all of the black parts of the
image, I did notice that the rough white border
was appearing a bit too much on the image, so I
decided just to enlarge it so that only a small
amount of the rough border was visible which
looked more appealing on the cover.
I then wanted to add another
feature to the album cover and
this time I wanted to add some
patterns to the edges of the
cover, so again this meant that
I needed to get an image which
I would be able to use for this.
So I went onto Google Images
and tried to find an image I
would like to use. Once I found
an image I liked, I then right
clicked on it and selected ‘Save
Image As’.

17. Again, I then needed to find a location in
which I would be able to save this image in
to ensure that I would easily be able to
locate it when I need it. Once I had found
somewhere to save the image, I then
renamed it ‘Flowers’ and selected ‘Save’.
Once the image was
saved I then opened it up
onto Photoshop so that I
would be able to include
it onto my album cover.

18. Before adding this image onto my album cover, I firstly wanted to edit it
to ensure that it would look appealing on the cover of the album. So I
decided to click on the ‘Magic Wand Tool’ and once I had selected this I
then get rid of all of the black parts of the images and made the image
transparent so that I would only have the white patterns that would
appear on the cover of the album.
Once I had edited the image to
look the way I wanted it to look,
I then added it to my main
document which included the
album cover. Once I had done
this, I then needed to change
the size of the image I had just
put onto my document and
again I was able to do this by
clicking on ‘Edit’, ‘Transform’
and then ‘Scale’.

19. Once I had made the image smaller, I then
placed it into the position I wanted it to be in –
when doing this I didn’t actually show the
whole of the image and I did this because I
think it looks more appealing and less messy
when I don’t show the whole of the image.
After I had got one of the
patterns into the position I
wanted them to be, I then went
through the same process to
add another three patterns to
the album cover and I put them
in the other three corners of the
image. When doing this I made
each of the patterns different
sizes to make them look
different and again more
appealing rather than it all being
the same thing on every corner.

20. I then actually wanted to edit these
patterns as they stood out more than I
wanted them to, so to edit them all I had
to do was select the ‘Layer’ tab, ‘Layer
Style’ then ‘Blending Options’.
Once I had selected this, a
pop up box then appeared
and in the image on the left
you are able to see that the
options I chose to use to edit
these patterns were called
‘Satin’ and ‘Drop Shadow’.
Once the patterns had been
edited in the way I wanted
them, I then clicked ‘OK’.

21. Once I had edited the patterns, you are
able to see that in the image I have
presented on the left that I made the
patterns a lot darker and faded them a bit
so they would fit in more with the image
rather than standing out from it.
After I had done that, I then wanted to
add the artists name to the album cover
and when doing this I decided to choose
the font called ‘Palace Script MT’. Once I
had selected this font, I then wrote out
the artists name and put it into the
position I wanted it to be in.

22. In the image I have presented on
the left you are able to see the
text that I have added to the
album cover.
Once the text had been added to
the album cover, I then wanted
to add some effects to the text
to make it stand out more and to
do this all I had to do was click
on the ‘Layer’ tab, ‘Layer Style’
and then ‘Blending Options’.

23. After I had clicked on this, a pop up box then
appeared and I was able to add the effects I
wanted to the text I had written. The effects I
decided to add to the text were called ‘Inner
Shadow’ and ‘Drop Shadow’. Once I had added
all of the effects I wanted I then clicked ‘OK’.
Once I had finished editing the
artists name, I then needed to
add the album name to the
cover and again when doing
this, the font I decided to use
was called ‘Fairydust8’.

24. Once I had written this text I again
wanted to add some effects to it to
ensure that it would stand out and
again to do this all I had to do was
click on the ‘Layer’ tab, ‘Layer Style’
and then ‘Blending Options’.
Once I had done this, again a
pop up box then appeared and
I was able to choose the
effects I wanted to put onto
the text I had written. The
effects I decided to add to the
text were called ‘Bevel and
Emboss’, ‘Contour’, ‘Stroke’
and ‘Drop Shadow’. Once I had
added all of the effects I
wanted I then clicked ‘OK’.

25. Once I had clicked on this a pop up box
then appeared and when saving the
image I needed to change the file format
to ensure that the album cover would
save as an image rather than a Photoshop
document. To do this all I had to do was
click on the drop down box next to where
it says ‘Format’ and once I had done this I
then just selected ‘JPEG’ and this would
mean that the document would be saved
as an image rather than a Photoshop
document. Once I had made these
changes I then clicked ‘Save’.
When I had completed my album cover I
then needed to save it as an image to
ensure I would be able to post it on my blog.
To do this all I had to do was click on the
‘File’ tab and then ‘Save As’.