Project Northwest – Cover Reveal

This is cover for Melange Books.

Had a bit of fun with this one, since I’d done something similar with the numbers effect before, and it gave me a chance to work with more of a “movie cover” style image. 😀

Photoshop CS6.

Stock Photos from Dreamstime:

http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-photography-man-holding-gun-image24841327
http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photo-seattle-skyline-sunset-washington-state-image16298240

For my bits of insight on this one, I’d say that this is one that reminded me of playing with style and effects with lighting. I got really lucky with the stock image of the man, which is extremely sharp. However, when I was first creating the image, the draft felt a bit dull and lifeless. For whatever reason, I couldn’t figure out why it wasn’t looking like the earlier covers I’d created.

This was the final proof I’d created, before we’d decided to use the stocks. Problem was, it wasn’t popping.

So I went back through my old portfolio and looked to see what was different. The one that really stood out to me was a cover I did for my 1000 Words project: http://sbibb.deviantart.com/art/The-Magician-Cover-297327050?q=gallery%3Asbibb%2F33403924&qo=4

Then it hit me. I went back to the Project Northwest cover, and applied the same type of lighting techniques (using overlay to dodge and burn, as well as the high past filter for sharpness). It made a world of difference. I guess the moral of the story is, sometimes it’s good to look back at what you’ve done in the past to see what did and didn’t work, and lighting can make a scene completely different. 🙂