Here’s a quiz for you: how many of the items above were shot by yours truly, and how many kindly contributed by the companies that built them? This was a compiled graphic for my feature article in the Magnet 2009 magazine, which was produced in the spring.

Now here’s the answer: two. Can you guess which ones?

If you can’t tell, then I’m glad as that means I did a good job of compiling individual graphics and photos together so that they appear as seamless as possible, as though they were taken altogether in a studio. Of course, after all the source material was gathered, I used Photoshop to put it all together. It didn’t take very long (and I’m not the most efficient user out there), and if you’re curious how I pulled it off, read on.

Firstly, I had to shoot the Acer netbook and Apple iPhone myself, as these items were easily obtainable, while items such as the Plastic Logic and Fujitsu readers didn’t exactly exist yet in the market back then. I took a white projector screen for the backdrop and lined the netbook and iPhone nicely on a white glossy paper which was actually the back of a world map, lying around in the office. All this white makes extracting the images easier in Photoshop.

All that was left is to politely ask the relevant companies for media images of their products. Arrange them around a little bit, with a little more Photoshop, and the end-result is a compact, aesthetically-satisfying compiled graphic for my feature article on the new generation of e-book readers.

What you see above is the final wrap-around cover for Columbia University‘s MagNet, a magazine on digital trends, and produced throughout the spring semester by one of the classes in the journalism school. Although the images were shot and digitally altered by me, the idea wasn’t wholly original. We had come across a sketch on the web that also used selected coloring to focus the eye on the important subject.

Since the mag’s emphasis is on fast-growing digital takeover, we essentially wanted a souped-up digital goddess (and god) flouting all the digital devices that one could carry. For contrast, that person would be surrounded by the drab, black and white stalwarts of yesteryear institutions, who would read the dying format of print newspapers.

We tested the idea with a bare-bones mockup:

The simple mockup. From left: Donald, Kim and Catherine.

Everyone in the class backed the concept, and despite the mockup’s simplistic makeup, all could see that there was potential to be an amazing cover.

Few days later, when it came down to the final execution, I directed the first three to sit on the steps, with Mina (the cover girl) in the middle, flanked by Graham and Ben. It was close to midday, so I used a white poster to reflect back some of the light to soften the shadows. Using my telephoto lens, my aim was to compress the background with the cast. Unfortunately there was a limit to how far I could step back so I didn’t get to use the efect to its fullest. Nevertheless we worked with what we had.

Several shots later, I directed the remaining three (Adam as the cover man) to shoot the back cover. Same motions, and in total we took only about 20 minutes. Notice that the props for both front and back are the same. You can even see the same images in the newspapers!

Back in the lab, to my horror I realized that the background of Lowe Library’s columns did not line up (as it shouldn’t, and I should have thought of that). By that time I had applied significant touching up for the individual front and back images to perfect them. The problem could be rectified; it simply required more Photoshop work. Trick here was to shoot a fresh background image without the cast, and blend it with the original image.

As you can see, it worked beautifully and when the boxes shipped, the class and many other friends called it a remarkable piece of work. Needless to say, it’s a wonderful confidence booster to have your shooting and editing skills validated by peers and professionals alike. This magazine contains subliminal joy and pride for being my first designed-and-published cover. With it, I hope it opens new doors into commercial photography.