Design for digipak 1 artwork

Having completed some research, it's about time I started putting together my own digipak design. I didn't feel it was necessary to create a digipak with 6 layers, so I decided on the design illustrated below. 

 

When filming and collecting my footage, I looked ahead to a point when I would come to this task. I decided that it would make a great deal of sense to take pictures which I could use in my digipak design. That said - only one really stood out. With that noted, here is what I came up with:

Above is the raw image as captured and uploaded, with no editing or adjustments. I thought that it looked good, but I wanted to play around with different effects to see if I could get an even more effective image for use in my design. 

I chose to use adobe photoshop to tweak the colours in the image into the image below. I made the background path darker, while bringing attention to the actress' face by making it lighter. I was happy with the effect on the background, but felt that her face looked a little too bright. 

 In my next tweak - I brought back the original contrast, brightness and colours on the actress' face, but kept the background darker. I hoped this would give the impression that she was going down a 'dark path' - adding to mystery and drama in the image. Another change I made was to use patch and spot healing tools on photoshop to make the image a little cleaner and more professional looking. I was very happy with the results, but felt that I would do a little more searching and fiddling before finishing up. I also chose to make her left (right to us) eye pupil completely black - add to the horror a little.

One of my least successful edits is found below. The grainy background just doesn't go with the clean character. Ugly.

 I really did enjoy playing with the lighting effects on photoshop - I was astounded by how effective they are in actually still looking authentic. Nonetheless - the image, while clear in its connotations of darkness, loneliness and insecurity, doesn't really do justice to a digipak cover for an album which isn't that dark and depressing... or scary. I still was able to learn a lot of exciting skills when using photoshop.

 Mixed feelings on this one below. It isn't bad, but it doesn't look right. There is still something enticing about the grey background though - it gives the connotation that sometimes the path forward isn't always an enjoyable one.

 This, below, is another one I liked. It really puts emphasis on the whiteness of the skull, making it appear perhaps a little more menacing. The colours seem really quite realistic, which has its pros and cons. One of the cons however is that it's maybe a little bit boring in comparison to some of the others shown... and that is a big con.

 Again, the picture below is nice, but a bit too boring for me to want to use it as artwork in my digipak design,

From this task, I have chosen the central image which the rest of the artwork and typography may be based around. The striking, beautiful colours and perfect quality of the image is what made it stand out from the others - even if one con is the washed out white of the skullface: 

The trouble now is that this has to fit onto a much squarer digipak cover... that could pose issues - and will be addressed in the next digipak post.