The final back of our draft CD case and our new idea plus how we made it.

The final back of first draft for our draft CD and our new idea.

This was our first draft, however, there was an issue with plagiarism as these images were collected on the internet, however, Poppy thought that by editing them to change them completely would make it acceptable for them to be used.

Poppy changed the rose to gold from red and added more petals, she then completely re-drew the bottle over the existing one and changed the colours and position, nevertheless this didn't allow us to use the images as there is rules such as copyright.

We had to change the background as this is created by replicating an image of a rose which wasn't an original image.

We then have to change the bottle and the rose as these aren't our original images either despite them being recreated in Photoshop.

Photo-shoot for our new CD case:As a photography student I tried to re-create our first idea in my photo's however controlling the light and capturing a successful image was very hard to do as the wine bottle was very dark which meant it was hard to see in the images which ruined the clarity.

This is the wine bottle photographed using the flash on my camera as the room had been completely controlled to make it dark. This is unsuccessful as it is too bright despite the dark location and controlled lighting.

This is the wine bottle with just a lamp on, this is very unsuccessful as it created an orange tint which looks very unprofessional.

This image turned out better as it had better shadowing due to the lighting, nevertheless, its not the best photo to use for our project as i feel we could do better. However, i'm pleased with the lighting as it was very hard to control and capture in the images. I captured this image by getting a torch and shining it in the area of half the photo so that the contrast of light would show in the image. 

These are a selection of the shots I took of the wine bottle, i knew these couldn't be used as they were too plain and simple therefore i used them as a way to test my lighting and improve my angles and camera position. They were useful as they helped me determine how to capture the images that would replace the internet images on the back of our CD. This made my task harder as i had to try and re-capture an idea and image in a successful way to ensure it looked as good as the ones Poppy had used already. 

 My attempts:

These are my attempts, taking into consideration the difficulties i had with the lighting and the focus i am proud of them, however, they aren't the best images i have taken therefore i don't think we should use them on our ancillary task as i have produced better.

This means i would have to change the whole design, however, i would rather change the design for a better quality photo that has captured a better concept.

I feel despite controlling the lighting the photo's still need to be darker and more ominous yet this couldn't be done without corrupting the quality and clarity.


My second attempt:

This was my second attempt as i tried to control the lighting further. i put a black background behind the vase and rose so that it would be surrounded by black, i then held a lit candle next to my lens so that it would only slightly be illuminated.

This technique wasn't entirely successful as it overexposed some of the images and was too dark in the others, i had to hold the candle closer to the bottle to illuminate it enough so that you could see it clearly however this affected the clarity and quality. The darker images were captured using the candle light close to my lens yet the bottle can't be seen very well due to the dark background which was necessary for the album cover therefore i don't feel these images will work.


The new photo's for our second draft:

I had to think of a new idea as we had limited timing and needed to remake our back cover, therefore i worked with the props i had to create a successful image that was eye-catching, interesting and used a ray of mise-en-scene which linked to our music video and message.

I decided to use the rose and candle as the bottle wasn't photographing successfully within the lighting and background we needed for our tone. Therefore i needed something which would show up and be completely surrounded in darkness as this was our main idea for each of our ancillary tasks.

I aimed to capture an image which wouldn't need much work therefore the photo had to be successful and professional.

I chose to photograph the rose and candle as the colours would stand out against the black background. i held the candle at a set distance from the rose so that it illuminated it while leaving it surrounded in darkness so that it appears to be floating, this is so that it can be placed anywhere on a CD cover and wrote around as it is mostly empty space.

The candle is successful as it represents a glimmer of hope as some people light candles for those that have died, they also throw red roses on the coffin. By using two things that link to death it creates the right tone and message as our video which ensures it relates. The candles and roses could also be used to symbolise romance and love as roses link to valentines day and candles are lit for romantic lighting. This therefore links to the love between our models Connor and Lilly.

I feel this image will be more successful than the original idea as these photos are better quality and a better idea as they link to the video specifically the tone and mood and they photograph well in the necessary lighting.

I'm proud of what i managed to capture as i had to overcome many problems with the lighting and the camera's focus lens as the camera would focus on the light and overexpose the candle light therefore i had to be very precise when photographing which highlights my skill and knowledge of photographic techniques.

I feel i managed to create something that will work very well and be effective despite having limited time and resources.

Our new back CD case:

Drawing our plans:

These drawings helped us as it allowed us to visualise our ideas and create a back of the CD which includes our favourite things from each drawing.

By drawing out our plans and ideas it helps us see how they will look so that we don't waste time trying things we now know we don't like through our drawings.

As our first draft we chose to try and keep most of the variables of our original idea the same by putting the writing at the side of the image.

We tried this in Photoshop to see how it looked:

I feel the space looks too cramped and the whole CD looks quite unprofessional as it is too full of text.

This is unsuccessful as the text for the songs is too big and the space it is being put in is too small.
The text is touching the spine which looks unprofessional.

We tried to keep most of the design the same from our original idea however with the new layout and images it doesn't work as well therefore it needed to be changed to improve it visually.

The research that helped us change our design:

Creating our Final Product:

We moved the image up so that it would be in the centre like the Weeknd's is on his album.

It is very similar in terms of the background and the features being illuminated by a single light so that they are visually engulfed in darkness in certain areas. This makes it look quite eerie and depressing which links to our tone and message of our music video and the rest of our Digipak. 

When adding the text it was too close to the spine therefore we had to move it other to cover some of the candle, we was worried about this as our gold font might clash with the candle colour, however it had to be gold as our planning incorporated this throughout as gold is a sign of wealth which most artists in the r&b genre use in their products.

















This is our design once the text has been moved over to be further away from the spine. The spacing is much better now as there is less information and text on the CD case as we decided the executive producer information wouldn't fit without making it look overcrowded therefore we just used the record label information and ensured we used the exectuive information on the rest of the Digipak products.

Final back of our CD:

Reasons why this is more successful than our first draft:

- The area is less squashed which means it looks less cramp which makes it look more professional.

- The image relates to our research more as there is a direct link to the lighting and background colour scheme.

- The final piece can be visually seen to be influenced by our research yet our own ideas show how we have changed it to suit our Digipak and music video.

- The rose links to our tone and message and they have connotations of death as they are thrown on coffins.

- The candle links to our music video footage with the burning of the photos and also links to our tone as it is resembling his flicker of hope as he is slowly becoming self-destructive.

- The gold text stands out and looks different from our research, it links to our genre which will attract our target audience.

- The font size makes the titles visible without overpowering the whole case like it did on our draft.

- The record label logos make it look professional as this is a common convention of CD cases.

- The spine fits with our case purposely and the text colour and size stands out without being overpowering or distracting. It is successful that it fits with the rest of the album as it ensures people recognize what artist this CD belongs to as the colour scheme and images are very refined throughout to ensure they relate.

- The text doesn't affect the image at all and still stands out despite the similar colours of the candle which it is placed over.

- The bar code is successfully placed as this is where our research showed most of the barcodes were placed and it doesn't ruin any of the images or text.