Cover Chaos

Hello guys! I am officially on spring break and I’m having difficulties: I’m happy to be on break, but I’m also a little stressed out because my magazine is always in the back of my mind. Since I’m with my family every day, I don’t really have time to take pictures or brainstorm. I really want to do a little bit every day so that I don’t have so much to do on the last day of the break when I come back from Argentina.

Anyways, I had been a little iffy about my cover image, and I thought it was only me. I looked at it so long that I didn’t even know exactly what I thought about it. So, last Wednesday in class, I decided to ask my two friends Pearse and Raul what their opinions were about the image. They both said they really liked the model’s pose, but they really weren’t a fan of the little artworks in the background. I wasn’t a fan of the artworks either, so I was glad I had another perspective on the matter. I also asked Mrs. Stoklosa, and she told me that the problem wasn’t the lighting or the color of the wall, but the artwork. So, after having three coinciding opinions, I decided to either take a new cover image or alter the picture by taking out the weird artworks.

You might be wondering: “Malena, why don’t you just take a new cover image?” Well, the problem is that right now I don’t have the time or a nice background to take the picture! I might be able to snap a few photos here and there when I have the chance, but I want to make sure I have a Plan B, which is me altering the already-taken picture. Plus, I really like how the model looks in this picture, her pose, and how the jacket appears.

So, I relied on the trusty internet to give me the answers: how do I edit something out of a picture? I found a website called PicMonkey, and I tried out their “clone” feature, where you can clone a part of the background onto another part of the background that you want to cover:

Here's me working some background-disappearing magic:

                                                       

I was doing all fine and dandy until I encountered the same problem that I encounter while taking selfies: the dreaded lighting.

 As you can see, on the left it looks pretty normal, but then, the colors do not merge together naturally. In other words, I couldn’t blend the color of the lighter background (where the light was hitting) with the darker background (where there was a shadow).
So, being the stubborn person that I am, I tried again:

So, I came to a conclusion:

Since I can’t create the perfect blending effect that is created by the lighting, I might just have to make the entire wall that light grey color, as you can see above. I’m still not finished with it, but I still have some doubts: it might look fake or unnatural, or I won’t be able to make the area of her hair perfect with my blending tool.
I still have hope, however, but if this doesn't work out I will take a new cover image.

Well, this was my dilemma, and I’ll keep you guys updated with how I’ve progressed.
Stay tuned!