Beginning My Front Cover

Following the development of my Photoshop skills, I have decided that I like the effect of adding a glow and drop shadow behind long shots. As these effects would not appear as professional on my front cover, I am therefore going to use a mid-shot on this page. Beneath is the image I have chosen:

To begin, I wanted to remove my image from the black background it currently stands upon. To do this I:
- Used the quick selection tool to select my model
- Clicked on 'Refine Edges'
- Changed the Smooth to 8 and Contrast to 15
- Used the brush tool to draw around her hair to ensure all of it was contained within the new, cut out image
- Clicked on 'decontaminate colours'
- Selected 'new layer'

Now my image was cut out from the black background. Following this I used the eraser tool to get rid of any remaining background.

Next, I drew a rectangle the size of my page and placed this layer behind the layer with my model on. I am now able to change the colour of this rectangle and in return change the background colour of my front cover.

 

I am aware that one of the sides of her leg appears as jagged and pixelated. However, upon zooming in on the image it appears as smooth and neat. As a result, I am going to leave the image the way that it is for now and continue constructing my magazine. Later, I will print out this page to see what the image looks like once printed and then, if needs be, I will smooth out these imperfections.