Production: Editing The Pictures pt. 2

 Intro

Welcome to part two of my deep dive into the color editing process for NextGEN Athletics. After establishing the dark, isolating reality of Jorge Rey III's initial injury in my first post, it was time to visually represent the hardest part of any athlete's journey: the rehab. 

A comeback doesn't happen overnight, and I wanted the aesthetic of the magazine's middle pages to reflect the sweat, structure, and intense physical toll of the training room. Here is a look at how I colored the grind.

Textures of the Training Room 

In a second version of the color editing phase of this magazine, I had to portray a sense of effort involved in each comeback through the images that were selected. 

Three images that I used were representative of some of the physical toll of the comeback (the close-up pushup photograph for "The Lab," a goalie dive photograph, and a header photograph that was caught mid-air).

Unlike the very first pages where I virtually omitted the color, I wanted to establish some level of grit and contrast.

My approach took place in two distinct formats. With the push-up photograph, since the image was already dark and dull, I increased the levels of contrast and introduced some greenish tones to the shadows to give the sense of touch to the gym floor and to capture the perspiration from the person performing the push-up.

For the action shots, I stayed with the same natural daylight but increased the clarity and sharpness of the image.

In my overall layout of the grounded, extremely textured, action images, I created black, rigid frames to use as my guide to place these images into black frames using the use of highlighter in the neon pink to help guide the reader through the recovery phase of each athlete and how they recover from their individual comebacks.

Pacing the Visual Story 

Doing the middle of this section was so essential to getting the pacing of the magazine correct. It helped me to see how the editing I was doing; contrasting the grittiness of the rehab photos with the sharpness of the action photos, made me realize there was a way to break up the long narrative with shorter pieces as well.

Adding the variety of edits helped me to decide to also create shorter types of information such as a scouting report and a gear guide. 

This is important in preventing the magazine from being just one long sad story, while at the same time putting back into the layout the energy of the sport.

Reflect: What Comes Next?

With the middle of the magazine visually locked in, I need to focus on the transitions. I will go back into my InDesign document and adjust the text wrap around these action-oriented photos, ensuring the layout feels dynamic and pushes the reader's eye toward the triumphant finale of the article.