Ancillary Task (Newspaper Advert) - Development One

For an advert in a newspaper it is clear that you need to have either one or more very strong images to try and grab people's attention. When searching for such images related to the project, I came across the image below:

I really liked this image because not only was it clear and simple and had room for me to edit it, but it also conveyed a lot of relevence to the documentary and symbolism relating to the riots. At the top you have the authoritarian police standing together with weapons and sheilds drawn, blocking the way of the people below. At the bottom of the picture you can see the single protester, his arms out showing his power. This can be used to symbolise the way that the weak are standing up to the strong in Greek society, although the general public are of greater number.

The first step in editting this photo was to remove the background behind the heads of the police. This was to add more emphasis on the picture itself rather than what was going on in the background. I then decided to make the picture black and white. This, I believe, gives the picture a much more intense feel which can be used to show the tension of the situation. I also feel that this makes the picture feel a lot colder which is ironic with it being in such a hot country!

Thirdly, I decided that I felt the way the stairs were set out on the picture made it feel a bit flat. However this was easily rectified. I wanted to give more of a sense of power to the lone man at the bottom of the picture. To do this I used the smudge tool in Photoshop to draw lines coming away from his body as if there was some kind of powerful force coming out from him, being used to show the power of protest.

I continued this line of thought over the final two steps of editting the picture. As you can see at the bottom of the post, I have done two things to make the protester seem all the more powerful. I have firstly increased the black/white contrast of the police, making their area of the picture seem all the more cold, and it could prehaps even be seen as all the more deadly as the lack of colour could be used to show a lack of human emotions, something related to their thuggish methods and the heartlessness of the government. I have done the exact reverse in view of the protester at the bottom. I have put him back into colour whilst leaving the rest of the picture in black and white. I think this gives his stance a much more emotive/human feel and I also believe that this makes the lines moving away from his body look clearer and again more powerful.