Header Image

Header image sources: antique-blackboard-blank-chalk by Pixabay from Pexels (CC0) and adolescent-adult-book by 周 康 from Pexels (Pexels License).

The header images I have chosen are of a chalkboard (in the background) and a girl reading a book. My website’s audience is likely going to be mainly college students which is why I chose the image of a chalkboard and a young woman reading. In regard to how these images refer to what my website is actually about, I wanted my site to be educational and to be used as a resource- which is why I chose student/school oriented pictures. I thought about adding more images in relation to mental health, such as a brain or medication, but I did not want to sway from what the site’s true purpose is which is to education and bring students together to communicate and form a safe space.

I got the images for my header on a website called Pexels which hosts images that are free to use under creative commons licenses. A creative commons license “give[s] people the right to share, use and even build upon work [someone else] has created,” (Creative Commons, 1). The images I used were licensed under either a Pexel’s CC license or a CC0 license.

In order to create my header, I used a free software called Pixlr. I saved two photos that were free to use under creative commons licenses and created a new image on Pixlr that fit the dimensions of the header image. Then I blended the images by creating new layers of the image and used the eraser tool to remove the background part of the girl’s photo. I then added a hint of the blur effect so the focus will be on the name of the site.

My production process compared to that of a single-layer bitmap image that Davison describes was pretty similar. Obviously the software is more advanced now in 2018, but I was still using the same tools that were available in MS paint, such as the eraser tool.