Pixtus - Photography Forum, Photographers, Photo Tips

HotHolly · 06:30 PM

What is with this? New trend or something? WHY WHY WHY are they using shots where the hair cuts across the eyeball. Bleck!

Below is a book cover for the next in a NY bestseller series. BIG bucks went into that cover. And it's got a twig through the eye!

And Victoria's Secret just had one too. That one has eyeball hair (hair through the eye).

Am I mental?

Okay, of course Im mental, but does it bother you too?

MicWayWal · 11-22-2010, 06:04 PM

Okay this is not so much eyeball hair as it is eyeball tree branch. Yeah it bothers me too. It looks like something is wrong with her eye. If it is a part of the story then I am okay with it. But you won't know that until you read the book. In the meantime it would turn me off to buying the book to begin with.

Used to be a time I did not let ANY hair get in the eye. I am better now about real hair getting in the eye, but it needs to look very natural and not just an out of place sliver of hair that I missed in shooting.

HotHolly · 11-22-2010, 06:28 PM

The branch isnt part of the story. The girl is a werewolf.

Yeah, that one is a branch, the VS one is hair.

I dont mind it totally covering the eye, but intersecting it totally drives me nuts.

Cajungaltx · 11-22-2010, 07:25 PM

She's supposed to be hiding....peering through something? I don't particularly care for it either.

JohnT · 11-22-2010, 08:34 PM

Seems like the bar has been lowered for what passes as top-notch photography—all for the sake of naming it "art."

texxter · 11-22-2010, 08:55 PM

You're missing the point of a book cover or a magazine cover - it's to make you stop and look at it, hopefully pick it up, ideally buy it. Has nothing to do with art or rules, it has to do with selling. If it bothers you the publisher half won - you noticed the cover - don't think you'll buy it, but now people on the internet are talking about the book and its cover. That's the point. Whatever it takes to be different and sell.

JohnT · 11-22-2010, 09:07 PM

I don't know, Paco. I still think it's just bad photography.

But it's open to interpretation, I suppose.

HotHolly · 11-22-2010, 09:30 PM

Paco, you really think they thought they would break the rules, cut through her eye, and cause a ruckus amongst photogs? The books target demo is 13-17 years old. They seriously dont care.

The color cast bugs me too. She looks like an elf instead of a werewolf. And I read the 1st book - she's not an elf.

And book 1 does have a cool cover, although by photog standards, its over processed and breaks other rules. But I still like it as a book cover.

But this one. I dunno, I just think it's the opposite of good. Elven werewolf with a stick in her eye...says buy me? I think people who like elves - and green - will buy it. And teenagers who dont care about the stick.

I was just surprised to see it here, and then again in a VS ad. They dont usually do that. I was wondering if its a trend. Like toe socks...and Im totally hoping not.

Ahh! · 11-22-2010, 09:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HotHolly

Am I mental?

Okay, of course Im mental, but does it bother you too?

Holly, I have to assure you, it does not bother me at all that you are mental.

HotHolly · 11-22-2010, 09:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ahh!

Holly, I have to assure you, it does not bother me at all that you are mental.

OMG! Peter talked to me!!!

That must mean my question was totally nuts. I was thinking I sound OCD as I was typing my last reply, but cutting through the eyeball is like fingernails on a chalkboard. It makes me hate whatever its trying to sell. Screeeeeech. :shiver: bleck.

OK, im gonna stop looking at it now, and get over it.

:g rin:

Yeah right. Thats not gonna happen!

Where's Heather! We should go into BAM and make fun of book covers one day. I'll buy you some java and pixie stixs so you have fun too!

Ahh! · 11-22-2010, 09:44 PM

I've never taken the "art" side of what photographers do very seriously.
There are rules. But you can break them. As long as you can get enough people (or the audience you are stalking) to agree, you can get away with it.

That leading lines thing is one of them, the rule of thirds, Fibonacci Sequence...yawn...zzz. Pfzzt!

Let the market call the shots. Holly, you at least posted this in the biz forum, where we can all agree that the market determines the outcome. Remember Pet Rocks? Chia Pets?

One person's junk is another man's treasure! And that is not just a TSA slogan.

Further, the Affiant sayeth not.

Ahh! · 11-22-2010, 10:04 PM

Dang, I see a new puzzle for Wheel of Fortune: Chia Pet Rocks. As long as Chia doesn't "pets rocks" we can keep it PG.

toverman · 11-22-2010, 10:36 PM

Paco is absolutely right, that what makes for a good cover doesn't necessarily mean a good photograph. The tree branch is distorting the face of an otherwise perfectly hot werewolf. Or shewolf. Or whatever.

Hey, being mental is a state of mind!