Stand for the Family

The author of Stand for the Family, Sharon Slater and her PR Cecily Markland, came to one of my art exhibits of Captured Miracles. They loved the collection and the style so much they asked me if I would consider doing a shoot for the cover of their book. This is a step by step of the image, a creation from Raw photo image to final layout. We were all very excited with the way it turned out. Hope you like it too.


Image 1
From the Shoot Sharon and Cecily picked out their favorite pose and flag shot. There was one thing that we needed to change and that was the daughter on the end. (Thanks to Davin and Tracy Hansen Family, our wonderful models)

Image 2
Showing her more engaged in the shot, I ended up photo shopping her from another shot in 2 steps. One with her body more bent and pushing, and 2nd I used her head from another shot from that and had it more tilted up. I feel this really helped the shot come together as a whole.


Image 3
I just loved this sky and knew with some color correction and textures it would look amazing with the sunset. There were a couple of things I needed to eliminate, the branch on the right side and upper corner and the tigs hanging down from the top.

Image 4
Now for the fun parts begin, adding intensifying color ....and changing out the family to the family grouping I already tweaked.

Image 5
Their Graphic Designer, Leslie Thompson (brilliantly talented women) asked me if I could frame the family more with branches. This is a raw image before the cropping. I like how it can show you how and were the branches were moved and added. One thing that is great about textures that are added at the end is that it helps to hide and mask seams. Which helps save a lot of work of blending and erasing that I would of otherwise would need to do to really help it look "not photo shopped". There are 2 textures added to this image, the bottom first layer is a layer that has brush strokes to it, to add a painting feel to it and help pop the yellows.


Image 6
This is a final cropping of the full image shot. Cropping out unneeded parts of the image and helping to finish it off. The 2nd layer was a layer that helped to pop the color to be a more intense gold tone with an aged look to it. You will notice in the final image for the Cover we ended up spreading the 2nd texture over the whole image instead of keeping it in the one squared area around the family. Even though Leslie and I both liked this effect we were worried that it might cause problems in the final cutting of the book. We didn't want to chance the odds of the image being laid not exact in dimention with the edges of the book. This would show to much if that were to happen. So we stretched it all the way across the book



Image 7
The final book cover. I just love how Leslie did the typography. It is so strong and bold, yet has a soft approcable feel to it. (it is so cool how she did this cover, the graphics make it look like a movie poster.) I am excited for the book to come out and to read it. Sharon has been apart of foudations, and boards that help to instill and fight in areas that help to strengthen the families in our nation. Be sure to read it and share it with others if this is a concern for you. Standing for the Family.

Image 8
this is the banner that they will use in ads and websites.


I am going to get a website from Cecily and Sharon to put on her about their book, so check back.
Also here is contact info for Leslie Thompson, she is amazing to work with.

Leslie Thompson

Graphic Design

ph (480) 988-2271

LTGraphics@cox.net