So everyone following our social media (Fb, Insta, Twitter) will have seen our amazing #bookfaces and have probably wondered “How do they come up with such ingenious, creative ways to merge face with book cover?
This blog post by L-B (Customer Service Assistant, Warwickshire Libraries), who has a BA Hons in Photography, will cover just how we come up with such amazing posts so you can all be #bookface royalty along with us.
Step One: Pick a book-
Now this is by far the trickiest part. The book must have a recognisable face (or body) that is appropriate to use. The face cannot be bigger than that of real life, or the proportions cannot be fixed using depth of field (we’ll come to this later). It also helps if the photo is only partial and the missing part of that face can be lined up with your own; such as the mouth on the book at the top so you can pop it on your own, or forehead at the bottom to cover your own.
Step Two: Pick a model-
Sometimes it helps to have a model who looks like the person on the book, sometimes it’s far funnier if they don’t, use your own sense of humour to judge this wisely. It helps if this person is willing as in the next step it can be crucial that they stay very still.
Step Three: Take the photo-
Now sometimes, you may need an assistant to hold the book between you and your model, sometimes the model can hold it themselves. Determining the best distance between book and model can be tricky, you have to make sure that the parts of the model and book line up equally, and if the face on the book is smaller you’ll have to bring it closer to the camera to get it big enough to work. (This is why using depth of field won’t work the way we mentioned in Step One)
At the end of these steps you should have something resembling a bookface!
Feel free to share your efforts with us and the rest of the internet by sharing on your own social media and making sure you hashtag #bookface!
Find us on:
Facebook
Warwickshire Libraries 