Software Packages - Dreamweaver, Adobe Illustrator

Dreamweaver is an Adobe program which is designed in order to help you write HTML code for the creating of web sites. HTML means 'Hyper Text Markup Language' -  the code you type in order to insert text and images onto a web page.
We created a basic webpage in college using a template supplied by our tutor John and had a go and changing fonts, font colours and inserting images. I created a basic web page to help promote my photography and book cover. The first screenshot is the front page which by clicking on the image take you to the second page with all the contents listed.
I added my book cover image (without the text) as the main image then added images down the right hand side of the screen to go with the relevant text. In order to do this I opened up the template in Dreamweaver and typed in the HTML code such as -

sam johnson

. The

code tells dreamweaver that the line of text ends there. As this was my first time EVER writing in HTML code I found it a little bit confusing to start with. In order to change the colour of a font you can use the swatches codes from photoshop which gives limitless options when deciding on what colour to go for.

Fig 1.

Dreamweaver makes things easier for novices such as myself to create a web page. As photographers it gives us a fantastic tool to get our work out there and online that can give anyone access to all over the world. Self promotion is a great way to start when your just starting out as no one else is going to do it for you!
Wix.com and Weebly.com make things even easier by allowing you to adjust templates using a drag and drop process. I decided I would use weebly for my web page.
Fig 2. shows the edit page on weebly. As you can see the option to add pictures and paragraphs etc are just a drag and drop tool.

Fig 2.

If I wanted to change my URL (uniform resource locator) from the weebly one http://samjohnsonphotography.weebly.com/ I could buy a domain name such as www.samjohnsonphotography.co.uk (if not already taken) costing anything from £3.99 to £20 per year. Sites such as namesco limited allow you to buy the domain name then 'rent' it off them for a annual fee.

Another software package you can use to help with your web design is Adobe Illustrator. Adobe Illustrator is a vector based program which means you can re-size images and text without losing quality. Illustrator also allows you to turn a bitmap pixel based images into vector images using it's live trace function - a digital version of tracing paper.

One of the main advantages of using Illustrator Dreamweaver and Photoshop is that they are all made by Adobe so the you get software synergy.

images courtesy of http://software.productwiki.com

Final Evaluation: Book Cover - completed dust jacket

Below is my final book cover image for the dust jacket. The theme being red riding hood but changed to petit chaperon rouge which is french for red riding hood.
Petit chaperon rouge is a french spy during WWII and is looking for revenge after her family was murdered by nazi werewolves. I remember the nazi werewolves in the film an American Werewolf In London which helped in the look of the wolf - see Fig 1.

Fig 1, image courtesy of http://robsmovievault.files.wordpress.com/1981/08/werewolf-london_l.jpg














I wanted to replicate the grindhouse look of Quentin Tarantino's inglorious basterds so I gave the book cover a grimy look to it in Photoshop and light room. I edited the RAW file in light room using the cross process tool and then using a plug-in, in Photoshop I enhanced the greens and small details further giving the image a HDR feel to it. I also changed the book dimensions to 51.9cm x 22.3 cm. This will wrap perfectly around another book I have chosen and will cost much less to print out than the original size! That was the overriding factor in changing book dimensions.

Overall I am happy with how the cover has turned out. It is pretty much how I saw it in my head. The difficult thing always being getting that vision of of your head and into print.The book cover was saved and printed at 300 ppi and as a 16-bit TIFF file.

In order to publicise my book I have created a web page using a template from weebly.com. I used the front page to advertise my book then created another click able link page which directs visitors straight to my blog. The link to the web page is below:
(please not my celebrity and journalistic endorsements are nothing to do with the actual persons!)

http://samjohnsonphotography.weebly.com/index.html

Final Evaluation: Zoetrope - sin city

After amending my zoetrope original idea slightly I have finally finished and saved it as a GIF file for viewing online.

The original background image I wanted was that of an advertising board but when I went to shoot it it had gone unfortunately. Undeterred I found a new backdrop - that of a black metal shed at the side of the canal near to where I live. I decided instead to use this as my background for the GIF and and my plan (using Photoshop) was to have the black metal doors open up the reveal the animated GIF inside.
For the image inside I found myself becoming more adventurous and used a toy figure from the film sin city of the character 'Gail' played by Rosario Dawson (fig1). I thought this would look much better that using someone in a skull mask to represent the painting by Edvard Munch's the scream. I have still taken inspiration from the PEN advertisement though by using a public space and then placing the animated images into in order to give it a base and background to work in.

(Fig 1 image courtesy of http://img2-1.timeinc.net/ew/dynamic/imgs/100505/Rosario-Dawson-Sin-City_400.jpg)

The digital zoetrope was quite an undertaking as not only did I have to edit each movement of the Gail figure I also had to then place the figure into the background picture.





Fig 2 shows the background image I will be using for the zoetrope

Fig 2

Fig 3










Fig 3 shows one of the images I took of the figure. I took each shot on a plain white background and moved the figure slightly each time in order to give the illusion of movement when put together to form a GIF file.

Below is the finished GIF after saving it for web & devices in Photoshop.
I changed the resolution to 72 dpi from 300 so the images moved along faster creating the persistence of vision. Being a GIF it did not need all those colours as it would be viewed on a monitor and not printed out.
All together there are 36 images all layered on top of each other in order to create the GIF you see below.