When I started my editing and retouching process, I started with the portrait that would be on the cover of Vice magazine. I had two that I particularly liked, they were very similar with the models position being very close to the camera, head tilted and her hand holding the pink circle glasses. I retouched them both in Photoshop to see what one I preferred once they were edited. I chose the one used in the final magazine because it was much more in focus, the focus was on her eyes whereas the other one was focused more on the glasses, and since it’s very close up, I thought it was vital for the eyes to be sharp and in focus. As for retouching, I decided to cool down the tone of the entire image, I felt it made the glasses pop more and was a better tone for the whole image. I darkened the background slightly to make the model really contrast against it, and I also made the glasses really vibrant and saturated with colour, as I wanted the pink to really stand out and be the focus of the photograph on the cover.

As for the spread, inside the magazine, I also had a few photographs I liked, so I wanted to retouch them both and see how they looked in the InDesign layout and also how well they went with the cover image. The first one had the model facing front, sitting on the box, she had her legs quite wide apart as she leaned forward with her elbows on her knees. I liked this pose because it really reminded me of 90’s shoots, the attitude and mood it brought to the photograph. For the retouching of this, I again made the grey backdrop darker to create more contrast against the model, and I brightened the model’s skin as well. I brought out some of the colours in her face, like her eyes and lips, saturating them more to be more eye catching as this photograph is further away compared to the cover. I also added a cool tone over this photograph to match the cover, as it was quite warm toned to begin with and I think the colours pop more with an overall cooler tone. For the second photograph, I really liked the pose because you can see more of the models outfit, she’s facing her right, with one leg tucked under herself and one up, so this allows the audience to see her mom jeans and also the boots she’s wearing, which I think is quite important as they complete the outfit. I did very similar retouching for this one as the previous one; I made the backdrop ever so slightly darker, not too much because the right side of the image already has quite a dark shadow. I brought out some of the natural colours more, like her eyes and lips, and I also made the glasses more vibrant.

When using InDesign, I put the cover portrait on both of the templates, with the black and white options to see what would look best. I initially thought the black would be best, however the small writing at the bottom completely disappeared because the model has a dark jumper, so when I tried with white, you could see it much clearer, so I went with white. For the spread, I put both images onto the template to directly compare them. The first one fit a little better onto the template without being cropped much at all, however it didn’t look as sharp and clear compared to the cover, which was much more in focus. The second one required a bit more cropping to make it fit onto the template in a way that didn’t cut off anything in the image too much. I went with the second one because the tones connected better with the cover, and I also really liked how the model is looking straight down the lens, giving the feeling she’s connecting with whoever is looking at her.