Halloween is upon us, so I thought it fitting to start a photoshop project using a picture from a "ghost photoshoot" I took a short time ago. From the beginning, I wanted to create something genuinely creepy, with a retro look and feel, reminiscent of old ghost stories told around a campfire and classic horror movies. I selected the foreground, creating a new layer, and edited the background to create a dark and gloomy backdrop to contrast against the white ghost while adjusting the color scheme to better fit the aged feel. Meanwhile, I used a black and white inverted color scheme to bring out the ghostly image of the figure in white, and made an effort to bring out the multiple shadows and translucent parts of the figure to create a truly ghostly feel. I also selected a triangle shape near the bottom of the image where you could see the subjects legs sticking out from the sheet, and darkened the section to further the idea that this being, if it ever was, is no longer human. Then came the most challenging part: the fog. I used a special brush technique to create a realistic looking fog that seemed to be stemming from the figure's hands (well one set of them at least) and repeated gentle amounts of the fog throughout the background to create unity. It wasn't until the end that I realized this could make a perfect book cover, and decided to name the title and author near the top of the cover. I chose a font that looked old fashioned, almost as if scrawled by a victim of the White Witch as she desperately attempted to describe her pursuer before being overtaken by the wraith. I chose a serif font that stuck with the old-timey feel while contrasting against the title font. Lastly, I aligned the writing near the right side of the cover, as I felt it creates an urge for the reader to turn the page and discover the devilish secrets of the White Witch.