Image inspirations

I have been deciding on some image ideas to start taking my images. I have been looking at album covers and have noticed the close ups used on the album covers. The album I have been looking at most is Taylor Swifts 'Red' album. I have been looking at fan made 'Red' album covers also because they used most the images taken for the 'Red' album but weren't used.

For my album cover I want it too be simply yet sophisticated and choosing to look at Taylor Swift's album cover has influenced my idea of sophistication. I like the idea that she used be calling her album 'Red' and the image is a close up of her with red lipstick therefore linking the album cover to the image on the cover.

This album cover oozes sophistication and simplicity, yet it's elegant and beautiful and really attracts the audiences attention by using the close up of Taylor and by linking the album name (Red) to a colour that Taylor is wearing (her red lipstick). I like this album cover as an idea for an image as I like the way the close up makes the artist more intimate with the audience. The use of cinematography (the close up) and mise-en-scene (the lipstick) has made this album cover visually appealing to a target market.

Also the image looks as though her eyes are shawdowed and therefore attracting the attention of the audience to her lips more as they are in the light and replicate the colour.

Red also connotates passion and love, this could be a connotation of Taylor's passion for music and love for the work she does.

This is a fan version of the album cover, however I like the idea of this. I like the close up still be used but I also like the way the 'RED' initals have been edited over the image still reflecting the red colour scheme and therefore still linking the image to the album cover and album title.

This album cover has used a lot more editing techniques to achieve the final look. It still keeps the sophistication of the image but making to more eye catching with the use of the colour red been more dominante upon the overall album cover.

 

Another artists album covers I looked at were Demi Lovato album covers. The song I used in my music video was taken from Demi's album 'Unbroken' and therefore I decided to look to see the route Demi had taken with the overall affect of the single cover and then the album cover.

 

On the 'Skyscraper' single cover Demi has stripped back in terms of mise-en-scene and hair and makeup. In the image Demi looks almost natural as her makeup is kept very minimalistic and the background of the image is a natural location and isn't over done with bright lights and neon colours which would usually be seen as convention of the pop genre. The image on the single cover very much reflects the meaning and sound of the song, it's very stripped  back and is beautifully simple.

 

The overall album cover 'Unbroken' is again in a natural location but Demi has used a dark coloured lipstick and more costume props to help give the affect that she's strong and dominat. Even the angle of the image, a low angle, reflects her dominante stance. The image and the look very much reflect the meaning of the album and therefore work really well with one another.

 

 I like this album cover as I like the way Demi looks really dominante within the frame and the angle of the image reinforces that. I like the makeup as it adds to her sassiness and makes her look more appealing in terms of look madeup.

This album cover reflects more of the codes and coventions of the pop genre as Demi is more madeup in terms of makeup and mise-en-scene use.

The lighting on the left side of her face makes her look more angelic and is visually more appealing or reflects the idea of 'there is light at the end of the tunnel' which is the basic message of the album.

I like this single cover as again it's simply beautiful and sophisticated. The image is positioned slightly left of the frame leaving room for the naturla location in the background visible but a little out of focus, furthermore the pull focus draws the audiences attention to the artist and therefore associating the album and the artist more visually.

 

Her eyes are also like she's looking into the audience and therefore draws the attention to the artists eyes rather then the backrgound.

 

The colouring in this single cover are very neutral colours and add to the simplicity and go against the typical coventions of a brightly coloured pop album cover.