Shooting & Selecting Images

Before shooting my images, I researched the kind of images that are used in existing goth magazines. I found two images, one from Orkus Magazine, the other from Unscene. Their front covers are seen below:

Both covers use dark colours in the backgrounds and the clothing to portray the gothic lifestyle. This would be something I would use. I was influenced by both of these covers. In Orkus, I liked the way that the band are all close together, wearing the same style of clothing. And in Unscene, I quite liked the background. Both of these covers inspired me to take my images of a band in a graveyard

Firstly, I had to find a cemetery to suit my needs. I needed it to be quite creepy and dark. I found one quite close, but it didn't fit my criteria. So I searched a little deeper and found another one. I made my band wear dark eye make-up, so they looked like they haven't slept in a while (like vampires).

Once in the cemetery, I found a quit spot, where the gravestones looked quite old. This perfectly suited my dark and creepy theme. I found three headstones and placed the girls in front of the middle one. I asked one to sit on the floor and the other to stand behind her to take a few test shots:   



Image 1



Image 2



I then let them play around a bit and find some poses that worked for them. This worked well as some of the poses they used could work for the feature.



Image 3



Image 4



I then tried to figure out which image I would use for the front cover. I quite liked the test shots I used. I liked that there was the good vs. bad vibe with the girls. I decided I would use Image 1 for my cover image.

Firstly, I decided I wanted my image in black & white. I wanted to keep the dark and dead theme, so I edited the colours, tints and saturation in Fireworks:

I then decided I didn't want to fence to be too noticeable in the background. So I used the blur tool in Fireworks so I could focus more on the girls. I also blurred out the names on the gravestones:

I used the same concept for my feature spread. First, I chose a picture that I though would work well with the feature.

I thought this was a fun image to use, and to show the band's playful side. I then opened the image in Fireworks, and began to cut out the background using the Lasso Tool:

Once I took out most of the background, I used the Polygon Lasso Tool to cut around the girls, careful not to cut too near:

Once completed, the image looks like this: