ESSENCE Magazine
Cover Photo Composites
I was hired to do post-production for this project. Both the photographer and the production company had a clear idea of what they wanted to achieve but they were not sure on how to achieve it.
The project was to create a series of potential magazine covers for ESSENCE that could be used for the actual print publication and the online channels for the magazine. The plan was to shoot a bunch of images as elements and have me retouch and photo composite them together under one unified story.
The story they were trying to tell is the one of the child survivors of Hurricane Katrina 20 years ago in New Orleans and how the community has “risen” since then not letting a tragedy like that defined who they are and what they can achieve.
I thought the story was very inspiring so the images needed a touch of fantasy or surrealism to them in the execution. It was already decided that most subjects in the shots would be levitating. They would be shot hanging on wires for me to retouch and remove the wires later making them seem as if they were floating gracefully in the air at very specific locations in New Orleans, the places that were heavily affected by the hurricane.
So this is exactly what we did. The production team provided the ingredients, we agreed on the recipe and it was time for me to cook!
Most of my intervention when it comes to retouching and compositing for this project was the replacement of the skies for something more dramatic and colorful along with a color grading that was flattering not only to the scene but the subjects them selves. Stock photography came from Adobe Stock® and all retouching and photo compositing was done in Adobe Photoshop®.
The result is a beautiful campaign for ESSENCE May/June 2025 issue. One of the images was used for the cover, the other ones were used for the inside article and social media content.
Here is the layer breakdown of some of these photo composite:
This was a nice change of pace from what I normally do -which is footwear and sneaker photo composites- but I enjoy the process very much. I’m pretty happy with how these turned out.
CREDITS
Production: @wanderingcameras
Photographer: @e.buckles
Writer: @cierrachenier
Stylist:@bijouluna
Hair & Makeup: @makeupby @1beautifulblunt
Creative: @cozah
Post-Production: @cejimenez @theoptimistdreamer
ESSENCE, VP, Content: @itsnandibby
ESSENCE, Visual Director: @_mq_
ESSENCE, Senior Designer: @so.lit
