Development of final contents page

This is the first stage of development of my final contents page. As you can see, the model has been placed on the A4 canvas on the left, with the text on the right. A brush stroke was used to highlight the headings within the contents.

This is stage 2 of development. As you can see, this stage sees more progress in the construction of the contents page. All articles and page numbers are added, and aligned accordingly.

The is stage 3 of development. As you can see, more drop shadows were added behind the page numbers in order to them to match the articles and their descriptions.

This is stage 4 of development. As you can see, all necessary drop shadows have been added and a portion of the masthead has been added in the top right corner.

This is stage 5 of development. As you can see, the masthead has been completed and changed from white to black for better visibility against the background. In addition, an additional spotlight article has been added next to the model.

This is stage 6 of development. As you can see, an editors letter has been added at the bottom of the page in order to add to the featured contents page conventions. 

After close examination, I spotted mishaps around the render. As you can see, there are some unwanted pixels present around the model's head. Using the soft brush tool and masking, this was fixed and thus making the render look more professional.

After some peer feedback, it became apparent that the shadow of the model was on the wrong side to the light positioning. This was easily fixed using the drop shadow layer style.

After some observation, it was clear that the yellow tinge of light source did not fit with the background. In order to fix this, I adjusted the saturation of the yellow on the image in order to remove the yellow light - making it more neutral.

Next, I decided to adjust the levels of the image using Photoshop's algorithms in order to make the image look more realistic against the background.

As you can see, the model looks more natural and fits the background much more compared to previously in the earlier stages. The model is lighter and less yellow, with more contrasting depth.

Finally, I decided the improve the lighting more using the Lasso tool and Dodge tool respectively. Using the Lasso tool, I selected the highlighted area of his face and ran over it with the Dodge tool in order to bring out the lighting slightly.

In the final stage, I added some finishing components to the contents page and made some improvements in the text. Social network information was added, along with an additional picture and caption. In terms of improvements, drop shadows were added to the web address and editor's letter. The cover line and page number next to the main image underwent an enlargement to increase prominence.