Production: Editing The Pictures pt. 1

 Intro

Welcome back to the behind-the-scenes blog for my sports magazine project, NextGEN Athletics. In this first post of a three-part series, I'm breaking down how I approached the visual storytelling for our feature piece on Broward County soccer star Jorge Rey III. 

Jorge's story is all about the grueling mental and physical journey of a comeback. To make the eventual triumphant payoff work, the visual narrative had to start in the dark. 

Here is how I used specific color editing techniques in Adobe Photoshop and InDesign to set a moody, isolated foundation for the opening pages of the magazine.

Stripping Away the Sun 

When developing the visual identity for NextGEN Athletics, the color palette had to carry the emotional weight of Jorge Rey III's "comeback" narrative. Looking at the raw photos, many were shot in bright, harsh daylight with clear blue skies. To convey isolation, I had to completely alter that reality.

For the Table of Contents feature image (Jorge with his left hand on his head), I took a vibrant, sunlit photo and aggressively crushed the exposure. I heavily desaturated the vivid blues and greens, pushing the color temperature into a cold, moody grey-blue.

For the cover photo, the original file was a bit flat and overcast; I deepened the blacks and shadows while isolating and brightening the neon pink of his captain's armband.

By making the environments feel heavy and dark, that signature pink throughout the InDesign layout becomes the only visual "pulse" left on the page.

Validating the Dark Direction 

Editing these specific photos fundamentally informed my project choices. Initially, taking bright, triumphant sports photos and deliberately making them look gloomy felt like a risk. But comparing the raw daylight photos to my moody edits confirmed I was on the exact right track.

If I had left the sky a cheerful blue in the Table of Contents, the "Silence of the Sidelines" headline wouldn't have made any emotional sense. This editing choice shifted my direction from a standard highlight reel to a true documentary-style narrative.

Reflect: What Comes Next? 

Having created my heavy, emotional visual tone with the preceding images of heavy hitting photos, I will now concentrate on ensuring that the typography and InDesign layout correspond to the weight of the visuals.

In order to achieve this, I will be refining the kerning and leading of the body copy of the article so that they appear clearly and not cluttered against the wide-open, moody images I have created.