How do you take a photograph which might be attractive to a book cover designer?
There is usually a distinct look to book cover images. For a publishing house the goal is to attract readers of the genre: Romantic Fiction, Thriller, Young Adult, Literary etc. The cover need not convey any information about the story, but a mood should be created. An attractive narrative image will make the book buyer want to find out where the mystery leads. The photographer's and cover designer's job is to create the mood.
Most authors would agree, a good book cover will put up sales of a book. It's the publisher who gets the final say on the design but the author is usually consulted.
I took this photograph on a drive in the Cheshire countryside. I was not on a photo shoot, but as I passed an ironwork gate, I thought it had potential as an image. It was late afternoon in summer and the sun was low. The original image had nice elements, but the magic was applied later in Lightroom and Photoshop.
The image was cropped, then the glowing light was photoshopped in. A texture applied to give the evening look.
Original Image:
The finished image:
The textures I use are from the wonderful collections at flypapertextures.com
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