My Newspaper Photographs - Before & After Editing

In this blog post I have decided to show my chosen newspaper images, documenting the before and after stages of editing, to show how I made changes to my photographs in order to create effective advertisements.

Front Page

Holiday Advertisement: 

Here is my image before I made any changes to it. I chose to use a photograph of sunglasses on a beach, as these are recognisable, stereotypical things that can be related to holidays. I thought that by using a pair of sunglasses, the reader would be able to tell that a hot destination was being advertised. I also felt the image needed to be brightened up in order for it to catch the attention of my target demographic, and to really highlight the quality of the layout of this photograph. The red and blue prominent colours in this photograph were good features to begin with, as blue is the colour I later chose to feature on my front page. 

This is my photograph after I edited it on Photoshop. I decided to increase the brightness and the contrast of my image, in order to define the colours and brighten up the overall effect of my advert. I used an eraser tool with blurred edges to change the shape of my image, and to allow me to later have my text surrounding the new curved edge. I was pleased with the way the curve worked with the image, as the person's figure in the background was still able to remain visible with the sunglasses on the towel which added an extra element of interest to my picture. 

Houses for Sale Advertisement:

This is my photograph of a house for my advertisement for houses for sale in the local area before editing. I decided to feature a plain, modern house, and chose to capture my image standing straight in front of it to eliminate any uneven shadowing that may mean my image looked unclear.  I was pleased with the timing I chose to take the photograph, as there was clear blue skies making lighting easy to control by standing in certain directions away from the sun. As the image was captured on a clear day, I did not have to spend too much extra time editing clouds or other weather-related obstacles out of my image.

This is my selected image after editing on Photoshop. 

I firstly cropped my image, so to get rid of the road and pavement that was detracting attention from the house itself. I then also changed level of brightness and contrast in order to make the outlines stand out further, and make the image easy to see from a further distance, which I felt was important if it was to be pictured small along the top of my newspaper.

By choosing a semi-detached house on the end of a row of houses, I was able to use an eraser tool to blur out the edge of my photograph without cutting out parts of other houses joint onto the house in my image.



Marina Boat Trips Advertisement:

This is my photograph of Portishead Marina before I did any editing. I wanted to create a vanishing point in my photograph and this helped when later layering my text over the top because I was able to have the writing tiered to get thinner as the boats became further away. I used a high quality photograph that I planned on not making too many changes to later on, as I felt it was already crisp and clear, with the water seeming still and peaceful. This was to connote an idea of calm luxury to the boat trips on offer, instead of the expected choppy nature of the sea that is usually incorporated in adverts for boat trip companies such as the one I am aiming to advertise for.


Here is my finished advert after editing on Photoshop. I used the eraser tool to rub out some of the masts over the sky of the boats, so my text could be layered over a plain white sky background without anything obscuring the text. It was important that the text was made as clear as possible, as I planned on using thin lettering to go with the classy, luxurious theme I wanted to apply to these kinds of boat trips I wanted to advertise for. 



Car Specialist Advertisement:

This is the photograph of a car I used in my advert for a local car specialist before any editing took place. I thought carefully about what position the sun should be in, in order for the car to have even shadows on it to make the paintwork as even as possible. 







Here is my finished advert for a local car specialist company after editing. 
Firstly I cropped around the outline of the car, so I could get rid of the car park background and make the vehicle my main focus amongst the text on this image. I left the brightness and contrast the same on this image, as I felt my photograph was of a high quality that didn't need to be altered in that sense.