No, it's not easy at all. Choosing the images for your cover will take most of you ( m e ) a heck of a long time. With good reason. The image is the most important element in your cover.
𝟬𝟭 | 𝗖𝗛𝗢𝗢𝗦𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗜𝗠𝗔𝗚𝗘𝗦
How does one choose the right image? Before that, just know that getting attached to an image will fuck you up.
The very first thing you should check is the quality. You need a high resolution image, or you're fucked. It should be a portrait image, but landscape can work if the res is high. If it's blurry, look away —no matter how pretty.
For beginners, you want an image with a lot of blank space. That way, you have sufficient space for easily adding text. It shouldn't be cluttered before adding the text, or else it will become a whole damn circus once you add the text.
As seen above, there is a lot of space. You can add the text and still have sufficient space to breathe. You don't always need this amount of space, but for long titles, you always do.
An easy way to know if your image is cluttered or not is to see how many colours there are. Do the colours distract you? Or do they blend in well? Is there a focus point in the image that draws attention? Or do you not know where to look. Is there a clear background?
The image should look like it was professionally photographed. It should not look like something you or your friends took in your backyard.
The only time you can actually use a cluttered image, is if you will be manipulating the image and only use the people or object in that image. Instead of the entire mess of an image.
You also want something that matches your genre and story (sound familiar?). If your book is about the end of the world, a cat shouldn't be the main image. Unless that cat is the reason for that world destruction. Even then, you don't want to spoil too much with your cover. If your story has a monster, you shouldn't reveal that monster in the cover. Maybe its shadow, or eyes, or even a sinister smile. Make the readers want to find out more. Don't tell them everything like movie trailers be these days.
Not to toot my own horn, but this was a request I got a while ago. The story is about 4 youths in the middle of a zombie apocalypse at school (trust me, it's more interesting that I make it sound). But nowhere on the cover do you see zombies. You see the title, 4 people, and fire. Does it makes you wonder what the fuck is happening? Yes. It makes you more curious than if I had simply added a zombie in the middle and called it a day. Sure, sometimes adding the zombies is cool, but not always.
Even if the image is within the genres, p l e a s e avoid clichés. I cannot stand seeing the same damn cover everywhere (remember the twilight covers-).
Romance does not equal a rose. Not unless that rose is really important, but even then, please add something else there.
Does your story have a sexy gangster/werewolf/vampire male lead? Then you probably have a shirtless, black and white man on your cover. This one isn't as bad, but most of the time it's the same guy. Do you people only know 2 guys with abs??
Now, onto the Wattpad exclusive (I have s t r o n g opinions on this one). No, it's not fucking good at all. The real definition of overused. For the love of ALL that is HOLY, do NOT use those goddamn starry night sky pictures. You know those ones, you've all seen them. They are abominations.
Wattpad really makes me question the taste of some people, because how come so many of you use this trash??
This, and it's many variations. LEAVE IT ALONE!!! IT'S S T A R S IN THE NIGHT. W H A T IS THE USE?! FOR YOUR ROMANCE STORY??? If you're gonna stick to a cliché, stick to pink and happy covers. Not this. P L E AS E, I WILL C R Y.
FIND DOMETHING ELSE UNLESS THAT NIGHT SKY IS REAL FUCKING IMPORTANT TO YOUR GODDAMN STORY!!!!! Even then, DON'T USE THE SAME PICTURE EVERYTIME.
I am really sorry, —no I'm not— but I immediately skip to the next book whenever I see a book with a cover using the exact picture above as a background image.
And the damn silhouette couple images. Maybe this one isn't as bad, but I have a thing against them. They are so overused, I am tired.
You mad? It had to be said. (Alexa, play "U MAD" by BOBBY)
Guys, please find something else. For the sake of my sanity.
Or don't, it's just my sanity anyways.
My last tip here is that when you're on your image hunt, don's stop after you find one. Keep looking until you have at least three. Sometimes you won't even need the third, but sometimes you'll need more. You don't want the pain of going back and forth between searching images and editing.
𝟬𝟮 | 𝗪𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗘 𝗧𝗢 𝗙𝗜𝗡𝗗 𝗜𝗠𝗔𝗚𝗘𝗦
Pinterest, is what most of you are thinking. Though I'm a little hesitant there, I guess it's fine as long as you're not stealing any artwork. And you better not be using Pinterest images for commissions.
But you should try to use stock images that permit you to freely use and edit them. For manips, stocks are perfect. Otherwise, it's a little trickier to find the right image, but it's still amazing.
Here is a list of all the websites I know. They include pngs, photos, vectors, and etc. (they all have free images, but read the description to see if you're allowed to use them and who to credit)
Pixabay (stock images)
Unsplash
DeviantArt (stock images, pngs, filters, anything)
Make sure to check the description to see if you can use the images and what you need to credit. Sometimes you can't use the images, don't use them if it says not to.
Pexels (my favorite for nice and simple photography pics)
Freepik (most their good stuff requires premium or payment, but if you search long enough you'll find something)
freevector (vector images)
Vectorportal (a little harder to find cover related things but worth a try)
Feel free to add in the comments if you know of more!
But basically, DeviantArt is my go to source when it comes to manips. And pexels I mostly use for simpler covers.
𝟬𝟯 | 𝗔 𝗦𝗜𝗠𝗣𝗟𝗘 𝗧𝗥𝗜𝗖𝗞
If you've seen a lot of tutorials, you know this already. But if an image has a solid colored background (not gradient or anything), you can do something to extend that image. This way, you get more space for the text without stretching the image.
(IMAGE BELOW BY: KATIE DRISCOLL, from her travel blog: https://www.katiesaway.com/italy-road-trip-venice-to-rome/) link is also in the comments next to this if you want to check it out!
This one isn't a perfect example, but I couldn't find one in my camera roll ok.
You can see there is a slight gradient at the top, so it won't work perfectly, but I'll show you how to fix it later. You'll see.
On top, I used the eye drop tool (colour matches whatever you touch) and matched the colour at the very top. Since it's a gradient and not a solid colour, you see the line where the actual picture stops.
All we do is go to the erase tool, make the size slightly big, and make the brush all the way soft. Then, just slightly erase the very top of the image.
And now it looks like it's one picture! You also now have more space to add text and just breathe. This works better with solid backgrounds, but this also works. It just needs a little adjusting.
This was done on picsart, but it can be done even better on photoshop. It can also be done on pretty much any app with the eye dropper tool.
That's it for images. I tried to keep it short, hope it was helpful.
part two, how to use the photo adjustment settings!