The final image in this assignment is a thumbnail, click on the image to show the full size image
This assignment is an exploration of technique and also ethical choices when it comes to editing and altering images. The object of the assignment is to produce a photographic image to illustrate an imaginary book or magazine cover.
Concept: For this assignment I decided to produce an imaginary cover for a Thai travel/airline inflight magazine. The article would be a historical look at how Muaythai developed from the battlefield into a modern day sport. I wanted to make a juxtaposition showing in some way the origins and the final image of a modern boxer.
I took the first image inside Wat Phra Keaw whch is Thailand’s most famous temple. I was built in the 18th century and murals depicting the Ramakien decorate all the way around the compound inside the temple. The Ramakien is the Thai version of the Indian epic the Ramayana. Several of the classic techniques of Muaythai take their names from some of the characters in the Ramakien such as Hanuman and several of the scenes depicted show battlefields and armies. I decided to use a picture of this and blend in a photo of a boxer today, with it not really being possible to actually take a picture of them in front of the actual mural.
Background image: I walked around taking many shots of the mural, looking for something with the right depictions and enough space to fit in the boxer and text area.
Boxer image: I took several images in different action poses of a boxer, with a plain background
Then using the quick selection tool in photoshop I removed the background of the image and adjusted the edges a little after to clean it up.
I darkened the image a little using curves adjustment before combining with other image.
Combining images: I dragged the image of the boxer onto the background image and then added a layer mask, using the brush tool I then moved around the outer edge of the image, I lowered the opacity of the brush first and with it set on black was able to blend the images together, changing the brush colour to white whenever I went too far with the edit, to restore the image.
After the initial blend edit, I created another layer using the colour balance tool and tweaked the colour balance a little.
I then added a warming filter mask, just to warm up the image slightly, with the mask adjusted to a low opacity.
Final: After that all that was left was to add the text to the image. I used a English font that uses a Thai style script to make the title heading and a more regular font for the description of the article inside.
Regarding for the ethical justification for this mock magazine cover. I feel that in this instance and the context that there is no problem with this. I believe that there is justification depending on the purpose of the image and what it is trying to portray. In this instance it is purely illustrating the content of an article and is a juxtaposition of two parts of the article, the start and finish of a historical piece. It is not attempting to show a factual event, its merely there to attract the reader into looking further at the article, whether it works on that level obviously depends on the person looking at it, but in something like this I don’t think the reader expects it to be a truthful portrayal. If on the other hand it was an article on a specific event, a piece of photojournalism, then of course this level of manipulation definitely goes too far, but I don’t feel this is the case with this image.
RobCox 