How do topless models really feel? Visual suggestions within (NSFW; mod cleared)

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

For those unaware, The Sun, consistently the UK’s first or second most popular newspaper, publishes topless glamour models on page 3 and has done since Murdoch took it over in 1970. It’s a national institution. For a safe for work although not much in-depth article about the page 3 phenomenon have a look at the Wikipedia article.

Technology moves on, and a few years ago The Sun launched a feature entitled Page 360 (which I will link to at the end of this post so as not to break up the flow). It’s basically a 360 degree Page 3 girl, much like those swirly static images popularized by The Matrix. The difference here, however, is that the photographers appear to have been either too cheap or too technologically challenged to take simultanteous photographs and so when you rotate a girl here you are not rotating a moment frozen in time - you are rotating what seems to be a few seconds at least.

And therein comes the amusement. There doesn’t seem to be the slightest attempt by some of these models to conceal what seems to be their contempt for the entire process.

So let’s start with the unimagineably beautiful Rosie here:

Rosie - if it ain’t clear THIS CONTAINS BREASTS AND NIPPLES

Note that as she starts out, her smile seems completely genuine. Start moving her around 90 degrees and you can see some bored blinking and the smile disappearing. Another 135 degrees gives you most welcome views (if attracted to women) but nothing facial, then suddenly - you see it! A face appears, and it’s one of total boredom. Almost contempt for the entire process! And then carry on rotating the picture, and do it slowly. As she starts to become aware of the camera looking at her, the smile returns. But suddenly, even though it’s the same smile, because you can see the formation of it it’s so obvious how fake it is. She doesn’t like you at all. She’s just there having a photo taken.

Intellectually, of course, this is screamingly obvious. But it absolutely ruins an illusion for millions of commuters I think, at least if they look closely.

Here’s another example. A faultless smile when you look at the one image. But rotate and you can see just how false and contrived the entire thing is.

Courtnie

Comments and various other examples welcome - I think this will actually affect a lot of men in a gut level, it certainly has for me. And for you trigger happy lot, I have moderator permission for this.

2

I don’t really get what you’re saying here. Seems to me that the models smile when the camera’s in front of them and don’t otherwise, which makes sense. I’m not sure what the larger implication is exactly.

ETA: Also, no disrespect, but I’m getting a little “that stripper was really into me” vibe from your OP.

3

“She doesn’t like you at all. She’s just there having a photo taken.”

So, a model, whose job it is to have her photo taken, is just there to have her photo taken.

And she doesn’t individually like the millions of people she doesn’t know who will look at her picture.

My gut is unaffected. Did you imagine models (topless or not) feel any great emotion towards an audience they do not see or that they do significantly more than just have their photo taken when they have their photo taken?

I guess it ruins the same kind of illusion that some stripclub patrons get when they believe that the stripper who gave them a lap dance really likes them.

4

Oh, they totally all are though. They all take my number. The poor forgetful lasses never remember to call me back though.

5

I am impressed by the uniform enormity of those women’s breasts.

6

Smiling for the camera takes effort. It’s natural to not smile when the camera goes off the face. To me, if those models were to still be obviously smiling even when the camera went off her face, it would seem kinda creepy and weird. I’m not seeing what the OP is seeing. It just looks like that transition between, “I can relax a little,” and “here comes the camera, gotta smile again.”

7

They say the camera adds ten pounds.

8

Wait… they were smiling?

9

I think the lap dancer is a good analogy. These girls are getting paid to stand and look pretty. What else do you want from them?

10

I think they are just standing on a rotating platform and addressing the camera as it shows up in their field of vision.

11

I swear that one girl is mooning me with her bare ass. :stuck_out_tongue: It took me several seconds to turn her around in the 360 and discover it too.

12

Meh I don’t smile when no one is looking either.

13

I have a good friend who is a photographer. I sometimes help him with lighting. We’ve shot a handful of topless and nude models. The ones we’ve worked with tend to enjoy their work, and get into the shoot.

I agree with the comment upthread that the smile takes effort. Lights are bright, and being ‘on’ constantly is hard. I would expect that if we were shooting the backside of a model, and she didn’t think her face was in view, she wouldn’t smile.

If she’s wrong, the photographer should notice and correct it. I blame the photographer for these pictures, not the model.

And yeah…it’s a tough job, but someone has to do it…

-D/a

14

I’ve been in a photo session in which after about 15 seconds, I am completely annoyed with the entire process and I find it exhausting to maintain a smile that looks genuine to a viewer. It had nothing to do with my feelings about any potential viewers of the pictures either. And I was fully clothed. Getting photographed can be annoying and taxing. I don’t see exactly what you think you’ve discovered.

15

Are you being sarcastic? They all looked about average size to me, not that there’s anything wrong with that.

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A (probably obscure in how I told it) thing that I think a lot of you are missing - or at least are not commenting upon - is the way that what looks like a real smile when you see a picture of it, is so obviously faked when you see how it’s formed, something that these pics give you a fairly unique chance to see.

I suppose that’s why actresses make the big bucks!

17

Where do you live in the USA? They are probably about average for a fat woman which most in the US are but they are not at all average for most healthily proportioned women.

(And before anyone jumps on me I’m a fat bastard myself :D)

18

I do not think that word means what you think it means. :slight_smile:

[QUOTE=Acsenray]
I’ve been in a photo session in which after about 15 seconds, I am completely annoyed with the entire process and I find it exhausting to maintain a smile that looks genuine to a viewer. It had nothing to do with my feelings about any potential viewers of the pictures either. And I was fully clothed. Getting photographed can be annoying and taxing.
[/QUOTE]
I agree, but isn’t that part of your job if you’re a professional model? Just like, if you’re an actor, it’s your job to stay in character while you’re on camera/stage?

19

I am a semi-professional photographer (in that I do it as a second job). I have done a number of fashion shoots, and some glamor shots. So I have a fair amount of experience of what it is like to do this work… from the other side of the camera.

It is difficult to explain exactly how much work is required to do a model shoot. These can take an hour or more. All through it you have a photographer giving directions. And what the photographer is looking for is generally pretty precise. I’m not really familiar with The Sun or their models. But I’m going to guess that these are not professional models, or at least not experienced ones. I’m also going to guess that this was taken in the second half of the shoot. Gotta get them some experience so they have a prayer to hold that position through 40 shots.

Because by my count it looks like 40 photos per model. I’m guessing they took at least at least 2 if not 3-4 takes per picture. They have a small rotating platform the models are on (you can see it on Rosie’s page). So an assistant rotates the platform. Click… hold it… click… your elbow’s dropped a touch… click… left knee back out a touch… click… good… rotate. Honestly, they are probably taking more than that, just to try and stitch together the best set. So maybe a couple hundred shots of each 360. A couple hundred for the paper. I’m guessing they probably use better poses than these in the paper. We’re probably lucky they aren’t scowling.

That said, I’ve never participated in a shoot where the model wasn’t having fun, smiling and laughing. It can be really hard to get good shots from an unhappy model. Even if I want angry, I generally want a posed fake angry. Real actual angry tends not to be very attractive. So odds are the smiles are genuine. They are just giving in to some tiredness when they think their face isn’t showing. The photographer should have probably done a better job of reminding them to smile though.

20

Also, some of your best friends are fat women.

:rolleyes: