I went with two different kinds of designs for these picture stories to get the most varied spreads and to appeal to more spectators/readers. I went for a traditional newspaper spread taking inspiration from the photo story of The Midwife. I decided to go with this design as it looks really great and I like the idea of making it all black and white with text underneath each image. The second design I went with was a magazine style print which is a lot more modern and I do really like this type of design. I think that it will appeal more to a broader variety of people and age groups as a lot of people nowadays are in to reading magazines.
Newspaper Layout:
For the newspaper layout I decided it would be best to follow two double page spreads to tell my story like my style model as I wanted to develop the story a bit more and for the spectator/reader to be able to visually see as much as possible by adding in plenty of images for them to see and to add more context to the story and the text. I think that this works best as a professional layout and looks good in black and white as well as with all of the captions underneath the images as I think this really makes it that much more professional. I like this design as it is interesting to look at and will hopefully make the reader/spectator want to read on and look at more images. I do think that my title and the text needs to be changed as it isn’t as effective as I would want it to be. I want to change it to the same text as the magazine layout designs as this is the best one that I have written and I think that it works better with the images too.
I prefer this title as it stands out more and seems more interesting to read as it reflects how unpredictable babies are and how much care and attention you need to give them as a parent. I also like the images that I used as they are interesting to look at and give the spectator and insight as to what life is like as a parent having a crazy one year old. I also made the font size of the little captions a lot smaller as that is what it would have been like in an actual newspaper. I like the layout of this design and think that it works well. Overall, this is my favourite newspaper design as it looks the most professional and stands out to me the most. I like the black and white images as it is more like a traditional newspaper layout which I like.
Magazine Layout:
Here is the final layout of my magazine design. I moved the text and the title to the bottom left hand corner as this is where I had empty space with nothing going on and wanted the focus of the main image to be my niece looking up at her dad. I think that it looks a lot better like this and is more interesting to look at. I like this design as it is the most professional looking out of all of the designs that I have made and looks the most interesting to a spectator. I have also made the font size smaller as it took over too much space and I did want the focus to mainly be on the images rather than to focus in on the text. I think that this balances everything out and it is all evenly spaced out and shaped. I chose these images as I found that they worked well with my text and title showing how fast pace and manic children can be, you have to follow them around constantly to make sure that they don’t get themselves hurt or stuck anywhere. Overall, I am happy with this layout and think that it does tell the story well enough for the spectator to know the story and what is going on within it.
These are my final designs for my picture story, I experimented with many designs but came out with these two templates. I wanted the story to have a rough feel to it as my story was based around a festival I thought the theme should try to match the presentation. I kept the same font throughout the stories and a similar color scheme with red text and a faded picture for a back layer presented in all 3 stories.
The above story was the first I created, attempting a graphical layout I had to twist and turn the images as well as add in ones that were different sizes. Adding drop shadows to the images also made them stand out more and created a non flat look. with 2 main establishing shots and a few relationship and observing shots to create a picture story with 7 images all together.
The above picture story was the second I edited and when completed was my favorite also. This story is presented more as a double page spread, with no drop shadows or highly edited images. I increased the vibrancy in all of the images to bring out the colors. I felt this was a cleaner and less artsy layout due to the symmetry and images laid out all in line. My favorite part of this layout was the title text, as it was very bold and very different to usual titles I felt it fit well in this design. This design also had a background image, this image was a corrupted photograph from the broken camera and I felt it fit very well as a background as there is nothing important within the image apart from a few corrupted images and water marks. This design was the third and least favorite design, The same layout as design 1 but with different color schemes and effects. The text should have been changed to another color as i feel it blends too comfortably with the background. I feel this story looks more of a poster than a picture story, The story is far from what i set out to design when i started but was an experiment and directed me towards editing my other stories more as i could then see what they were missing eg: drop shadows.
For the text in this picture-story I wanted to explore what people thought of memories and their interpretations of these invisible sentiments. However, when I was researching I found it to be very difficult to find what people thought memories actually were. Most of the information I found was very scientific which is not the sort of thing I wanted for this particular project. I wanted the piece to be a poetic picture-story therefore the words I used needed to reflect this. So in order for the concept to work I decided to ask my family’s ideas of what memories are, what we need them for, what they are made from and whether they exist at all. I wanted to take a philosophical approach to this area of work because I think specific philosophers have some insightful ideas for example Sartre.
The headline for the picture-story is also very poetic. I wanted the title to explain everything about the picture-story as well as not giving anything away.
What is a memory? What do you think our memories made up of and why do we have it? Does everyone have a memory? Can our memories deceive us? Are they reliable?
Due to my first picture story being very poetic and artistic because I wanted it to reflect the haziness of the memories of my grandfather therefore, it was important the photographs almost merged together. The only image that is slightly separate in comparison to the others is the archival image on the bottom right hand side, because it is a memory of my mother, it made it realistic and truthful listening to her remember it so vividly. Therefore, the second picture story is more simplistic and only focusing on the images singularly rather than looking at them as a merged sort of collection.
I wanted to create a more interest set of picture stories that go more into a modern style magazine article as I find this style is becoming more popular and magazines are getting more and more graphic and visual. I want to use geometric shapes to make my picture story more interesting too and to make the images look cooler. I think I like the look of my professional/classic photographic style and will adapt my picture story layout to look sleek and professional too. I think that I prefer the style and layout of a magazine article but then again I am unsure whether or not my specific images will look right with this style, either way I am going to experiment and see how it goes.
Editing inspiration:
Title and text:
For my picture story I have found that my favourite title is ‘Keeping Up With The Baby because it is so true that as a parent you would be constantly running around and having to watch over your baby because they can get up to something the second you look away. I also like this as I took inspiration from the reality show Keeping Up With The Kardashians which is a TV show that follows round a family through their everyday life and the use of the play on words that I did for mine basically shows how as a parent the only thing you’ll be able to keep up with is your child. For the text I have been changing it around each time and find the more times I change it the better it gets so for now I am still just experimenting with what I’m writing and keeping to the third person story/not making it sound like a blog post.
Experimentation 1
I really do not like this layout as I find it just looks so cluttered and isn’t good enough. I am going to have to choose between colour and black and white because otherwise the images look too different to me and they kind of look like separate images and shoots rather than one big picture story. This is a lot more difficult than it looks as I just can’t seem to find a design that I actually like. I think the grey background also doesn’t look very good along with the grey triangles, it looks very basic and unprofessional. Through my next edit I will make it a lot better and work on which images I will be selecting to go into the magazine itself. I actually really dislike this layout and think that it looks majorly tacky and will have to have a rethink and make changes to make it a whole lot better.
More editing inspiration:
Experimentation 2
First edit
This picture story was inspired by one of my inspiration images above titled Isolation’, I found that this one looked really great and wanted to give it a go myself. I do think that this is a strong image and works well with the text on the left hand side, however I do think that I need to use more images and possibly change the position of the text to make it look better and more like a traditional picture story rather than one that just has one image explaining the entire story. I do really like this image and think that it all works well but I am going to carry on experimenting with this one and possibly some new designs to make the best picture story that I can.
Edit progression
I decided to carry on experimenting with this layout as I do think that it is an interesting one visually and looks a lot better for a magazine layout than any other ones that I have done previously. I think that I just need to focus on what I think looks good and makes sense to me rather than trying to follow a traditional template of what a newspaper photography article would look like. I added three more images down the right side of the double page spread as I thought it added more depth to the shoot and really works well with the title of Keeping Up With The Baby’ as there are plenty of images of the baby running and moving about and playing constantly. I do really like this edit as I think it is the best one that I have done so far. It isn’t visible in this post but I actually made a white boarder around the whole double page spread as this is what I have seen in my magazine style models.
Experimentation 3
I actually really like this edit as well. I think that I was trying to hard to make my picture story fit into the idea of making it like a newspaper which didn’t really work out well for me. I definitely prefer the layout of a magazine as it is a lot more visually interesting and is a lot nicer to look at. I took inspiration for this layout from another of my magazine layouts as I thought it was really interesting. I prefer these layouts and think that it looks good in black and white as it allows the reader/spectator to focus in on the images and the writing instead of being constantly sidetracked or distracted by the different pops of colour within each individual image. I also find these particular images look better in black and white as they were taken inside and the lighting isn’t really amazing and the colours around the house are very neutral.
Experimentation 4
I do like this edit although it is similar to the one above. I decided to make my key image one of my niece with her mouth open looking as if she is shouting and so I decided to duplicate this to make it look like an echo of her shouting, it represents the noise she was most likely making when this image was created. The text is the same as above and basically talks about life as a parent and how hectic it is. The three other images I chose reflect the title of my picture story with the one of the far right being my niece quickly running down the stairs as my sister is trying to jump down before her so she can watch out for her and try to keep up with her. The middle image is one of my niece in her nappy looking up at her dad with a dummy in her mouth. I thought that this image worked well within the picture story as it is interesting to look at and with her leg slightly elevated it looks as though she is ready to crawl away. The far left image is one of my niece drinking from the little medicine tube that my sister uses to give her any medicine that she needs, in reality it’s just sugary liquid. I do like this picture story as it is interesting and would make the reader want to read more and look at the images.
Experimentation 4
I decided to create another layout design for a magazine article. This one I added the page sides that you would usually find in the different sections of a magazine. I think that the text works well in the two columns and looks a lot better than just down one line. I also like that it looks as though my niece is looking up at the text too. I really like this background image as it is interesting and I like the position that my niece is sitting in. I do think that I need to work a bit more on this design and add images around the blank areas to create more of a story for the spectator to be able to look at. I think that this layout looks the most like a magazine article and I like how it looks so far. I think that I will continue editing to try and make it better and more interesting to look at.
I really do not like this second design. I think that it just looks like a bit of a mess. The original edit of this page looks a lot better as it is simple and looks a whole lot more professional than this page that I have added to. I don’t like the way the images look as they aren’t all an equal shape, usually that would look fine but I just think that in this page it doesn’t look good at all. I also do not really like the box around the text but it does help the text and makes it easier to read and stand out a bit more. I do like the image in the bottom left hand corner as it kind of blends in with the background image and looks as though it is part of the same photograph a part from having the boarders around the rest of the image. I think that it does work well with this page and looks good with it.
This is my favourite layout out of the three in this experiment as I do like the boarder behind the text. I find this a whole lot better as the text is easier to read and stands out a bit more and I like that the focus is on the one image of my niece looking up innocently at the text. I prefer this image in black and white as it stands out more as the colour version is really dull as there aren’t that many colours at all to make the image interesting. This one does look the most like a magazine layout and I do think that it looks professional but I don’t think that I will want to use it for a final as it isn’t really a picture story and doesn’t stand out enough for me personally.
Reflection
I don’t really like working with a picture story that I’m not 100% with in the beginning and if I don’t think that I can make it any better then I will completely start over and create a new one. I just find this method a lot easier and more effective. I want to create the best picture stories that I can without making them look tacky at all and I want them to stand out and look professional. I came up with the title/headlineof Keeping Up With The Baby and took inspiration from the reality TV program Keeping Up With The Kardashians where a camera crew follow the lives of one family. I thought that this was a good play on words and works well as my niece is always so manic and crawls around everywhere until she goes to bed. I came up with the caption by just writing generically about what being a parent is like and basically relating to my target audience of parents and how they would be able to relate to the text as well as the images as every parent tends to go through very similar kinds of things. Here is my caption: ‘Life as a first time mum can be difficult to say the least.You have no experiencebut the jobs still yours. Motherhood becomes a full-time job as well as your already hectic full-time job and keeping up with both can be a challenge. Don’t worry having a baby and a full-time job isn’t impossible. Becoming a parent can be the scariest and most exciting expeence of your entire life. You can have something that is totally unique and your own.The moment you hold that baby for the first time in your hands you make a neconnection and all the troubles and problems go away. Trying to keep up with your baby is a challenge but we have faith that you’ve got it covered and through the life of this baby, Bella Grace Evans, you will most likely be able to relate to every single image. Babies are often unpredictable and so are the things that they do. You never really know what a baby is going to do next, will they be running around chasing after a toy or lying down and taking a break. Sometimes the best thing you can do as a parent is just be there through all of those times and get to know your child and teach them through life.’ I didn’t really add separate captions to each of my images in the edits above as I thought that it looked better without as a magazine layout but for my newspaper articles I did add some captions underneath all of the images as it did look a lot better.
I have experimented with different picture story layouts and designs, with the photographs I took of my dad. My main focus was trying to transmit the story through a few photographs. I experimented with different photographs to find a combination which worked well together. I made more traditional photo stories by keeping the photographs straight and keeping the symmetry, similar to the ones by Eugene Smith. I tried to use a variety of different photographs such as detailed shots, portraits and environmental photographs to get a broader range. I also experimented with different backgrounds, I think the black background made the picture story look more professional however I think the white background works best. Although my first picture story is all in colour I chose to keep the photograph of my dad with his medication in black and white to emphasize that it’s the negative part of his life which is holding him back.
These are the first few designs that I have come up with for my picture story, in Photoshop I have focused on more ‘classical designs’ and have experimented with different layouts, designs and font types to find which design looks best . Through out the photo designs I have kept the symmetry and not experimented with rotation or backgrounds because I think adding these features will make it look more like a magazine spread. I like all three of these designs although they are not definite and I’m still working on improving the designs and coming up with new ones.
For this task I decided to use images of my niece. I think that this is my most interesting story so far and think that the other stories that I have are’t as developed as the ones of my niece. I’ve been experimenting with different images and wanted to create the best possible picture story for my shoots. I took a lot of inspiration from the newspaper article on the ‘Nurse Midwife’ by W. Eugene Smith.
Tips: – write the text in third person – talk as though you are a journalist – add different sized images
– make sure images tell your story
– don’t make text like a blog post
– fontspace.com for differnt font types
Experiment 1
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I am not too keen on this layout as I don’t think it looks very good and doesn’t really seem like much of a newspaper article. I think that with my next experiment I will try a different layout and change it around to make it more visually appealing. I do like the colours in my images and think that they stand out and look good as part of a newspaper article. I also think that the text can be improved a lot more.
Experiment 2
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I prefer this layout to the first experiment as it looks well put together [compared to the other one] and was more inspired by the work of W. Eugene Smith with his paper article of Nurse Midwife. I made these images black and white to fit in more with my inspiration newspaper and I do think that it looks good. Through my next experiment I think that I will leave the images in colour and start to create a text in columns and more suited to the newspaper style.
Experiment 3
Here is an unfinished experiment that I have done. I plotted where I wanted the text to go and have filled it in but not with the actual text that I am going to be writing. I do think that this experiment is more newspaper like but I think the images that I chose are too much as it looks as though there is way too much going on and the spectators eyes wont be able to direct to one part of the image, I feel like it is bombarded with different colours and images where a lot seems to be going on. I need to focus more on finding images that create on larger story and that work well together and compliment one another rather than images that feel cluttered and not very good.
Over the past half term, I have been working with the Societe Jersiaise Photographic Archive implementing key ideas to developing the Archive to my own personal project. These skills have made me develop various creative perspectives involving Archive extraction, research, experimentation and documentation. Exhibition and presentation design.
Some of the skills, which I have been contributing to my Archive experience, consist of:
Scanning & storing images
Image manipulation, resizing, creating composites
Producing teaching materials for Photo Archivist’s Workshop
Re-purposing images for Jersey Projection Gallery –(Ex. Skip ton Arts)
Archive Searching database
Outputting digital prints, labeling and marking images from the
Understanding copyright policy
Retrieving original images from vintage collection in strong room
Working in secure areas, safe practice in the archive environment
Appropriate handling of original archive materials
My personal project has allowed me to evolve, as with help from Gareth Syvret, I’ve been able to manipulate photographs which relate to the history and period of my new house and how I can contrast the changes and traditions in everyday life today.
Here is the final layout of my magazine design. I moved the text and the title to the bottom left hand corner as this is where I had empty space with nothing going on and wanted the focus of the main image to be my niece looking up at her dad. I think that it looks a lot better like this and is more interesting to look at. I like this design as it is the most professional looking out of all of the designs that I have made and looks the most interesting to a spectator. I have also made the font size smaller as it took over too much space and I did want the focus to mainly be on the images rather than to focus in on the text. I think that this balances everything out and it is all evenly spaced out and shaped. I chose these images as I found that they worked well with my text and title showing how fast pace and manic children can be, you have to follow them around constantly to make sure that they don’t get themselves hurt or stuck anywhere. Overall, I am happy with this layout and think that it does tell the story well enough for the spectator to know the story and what is going on within it.
