Front Page Image Development

Stage 1 - After identifying the photo I wanted on my front page I needed to manipulate it to a get the required look - afterall this is the most important image of a whole magazine. As you can see I took the photo against a lovely creamy wall which actually looks hideous in downlighting. Not to add my shadow showing on it from taking the picture. To eliminate this I took full advantage of the magnetic lasso tool as I am not the most confident in my freehand lassoing skills. I then dragged it onto a blank white background like most music magazines are from my research.
Stage 2 - Now I had a nice pure white background I needed to locate my model. After much deliberation I put him slightly to the right of the centre with the intention of his head to be over the XLR logo. I cleared all blemishes using the spot healing tool and then lightened the contrast to make it clearer. I also free transformed the image to make it larger and dominate the page.
Stage 3 - With an ideal picture I needed a few finishing touches. To give it more depth and perspective I added an inner and outer shadow to define the outline and his features