The document discusses choosing photos for a CD cover. Four photos were considered for the front cover. The chosen photo showed the artist's full body and clear face making eye contact. For the back cover, three photos were considered. The final choice showed the artist's quirky facial expression and was fully in focus, making it easiest to work with.

1. Analysis of Photos for the CD cover After we had done all the photo shoots for the ancillary products, we had to narrow down our choices to a select few we believe would be best for our product. Here are the photos we have selected as the best for the CD cover and from these we will choose the one is best suited for the front and back cover.

2. Front Cover A conventional album cover has the artist(s) on the front cover as it is the quickest way of identifying the CD when its on the shelves. In order to make a striking front cover, a clear shot of the artist is a key feature as it is also the selling point. This was our aim when we were taking the photos and here were the results...

3. From other CD front covers we had seen, some had the artist sitting on an object. We used a stool however this shot doesn’t work as her feet are cut off which doesn’t give us a full body shot. The flash is also very bright which washes out the colour and features on her face. This image wasn’t ideal for the front cover of the CD. 1

4. Again using the stool, we asked the model to be spontaneous and fun and we had a series of crazy shots. This was one the best shots but as with the previous photo, we had a problem with the legs as they weren’t in the shot once again. This photo wasn’t appropriate for the cover. 2

5. We struggled to get many full body shoots with the model still seated on the stool so we tried doing upper body shots from her hips up. This time we tried a varying amount of facial expressions and this was one of the best shots from the set. The lighting isn’t to bright in this shot and yet it still highlights all her features which is what we are aiming for. However this wasn’t our final choice as she wasn’t looking at the camera and therefore was not making eye contact with the audience. 3

6. FINAL CHOICE We chose this photo as the main image as it was a clear and focused shot with both her face and body. The back drop however is very unprofessional so in order to improve the quality of this image, after cropping her out of the background we can play around with some graphics to suit the position she is sitting in. One of our ideas is to have her sitting on a boom box which relates to the quirky nature of the artist and acts as a musical reference. 4

7. Back Cover Although the front cover is the first thing that viewers will see, the back cover holds the most information as it consists of the album songs, price and other additional information such as the recording company and bar code. This cover must be equally as appealing and eye catching as the front cover for continuity reasons and for overall presentation.

8. 1 This was one of our strongest images as her face was in clear focus however the background was too our of focus for us to use. It does however give us a lot to work with in terms of editing and the addition of graphics. We choose to keep it as a back up image in case our final image doesn’t go as planned.

9. 2 We wanted to experiment as much as we could with different poses, lighting and angles. This was one of the images from our experimentation and we were very pleased with the result. However, this was a self titled album/ first album released and we thought it would be better to follow in the footsteps of other similar albums by sticking to a full faced image rather than this type.

10. 3 SECOND CHOICE Picking our final image proved to be a true challenge as we found that we had a lot of strong images which all could have easily been used. So as a group we choose 3 images which we would manipulate and edit and then at the end choose which one we would add to the final cover. This was our 2 option as like the 1 st one it is clear and focussed. The finger pointing is something we thought could be used as a starting point for some graphics (shooting stars, sparkles/glitter).

11. 4 FINAL CHOICE Overall, we found this image to be the one that we were most likely to use due to its quirky nature and facial expressions. Again the whole image was in focus which made it easier for us to work with. By far one of our favourite images from the photo shoot.