Sunrise / Sunset ～LOVE is ALL～ information and covers [IV]

Originally Posted by Ayumi626

From my experience as a photographer the photographer does the photoshopping. The design team usually does text and whatnot. But actually the photoshopping is typically not done by the photographer them-self but rather by one of their employees with the photographers approval before the photograph is given to the client for the absolute final approval.

I have to agree.. Once a photographer is established he usually gets someone to do the retouching for him (not always) but often. But regardless the photographer should always be the one to OK them. Unless there is some contract in place.

But some photographers don't even have to retouch, you can do a lot with lighting. I guess it depends on the skill and preference.

(I've been in the industry for a few years myself )

[ALfromHELLSING]

Her facial expression says: "Is it ready yet? I'm tired, I'm sick of it I wanna go home... Please faster and just leave me alone..."
Oh, at least I like Sunrise. ^_~ And again she looks hot.

[love in music]

damn official site needs to update with the rly huge pics. i can't wait to send ppl into cardiac arrest with my sets see them!

[Yagami Raito]

I've just checked other Ayu communities on Mixi and well.... Fans thoughts are neither really positive nor negative. I mean there's a mix of opinions d(u_u)

[nemesisyume]

Originally Posted by Raelian

I rather have something like this being the cover T_T

omfg these are effin gorgeous
but I still like the real covers

Originally Posted by Tsubasa2591

OH MY GOD!
can someone send this to avex? ¬_¬

ROFL that would be cool ''LIKE THIS - NOT LIKE THIS''

[Queen Bee]

Originally Posted by QuébecLibre

I have to agree.. Once a photographer is established he usually gets someone to do the retouching for him (not always) but often. But regardless the photographer should always be the one to OK them. Unless there is some contract in place.

But some photographers don't even have to retouch, you can do a lot with lighting. I guess it depends on the skill and preference.

(I've been in the industry for a few years myself )

I completely forgot about the lighting. That is very true. Is the lighting is just right then very little photoshopping must be done. Something tells me his original photographs may not have been perfect but they probably look better then the end result. For me I would have liked the covers a lot if it didn't look over photoshopped but more natural. This is one reason I'm going into fashion photography. I want to work with Ayu and some of the other J-Pop singers I like. Leslie Kee is a big inspiration for me. But back to the covers...

[Ayu-me]

I don't want to look like I'm seriously complaining just for the sake of it, but I really can't see these covers growing on me. And NO just because the covers are bad it doesn't mean I suddenly hate Sunrise because I still love it, but in the psychological sense, you could actually grow less fond of the song because of the covers. The covers are supposed to be the representing image for the songs, if the image is really bad the songs also seems worse. I'm not educated in psychology, but I'm rather certain our minds would work that way, and I definitely open my eyes more to the flaws in the actual song(s) now when the covers are so horrendous.
And I agree on her looking like from a porn movie. She doesn't fit with the background at all either; just tan, brown, golden Ayu and then paste in a unnatural and flat background from a tourist booklet. Also, on the CD+DVD cover, it looks actually like the background was only supposed to be the blue sea, but they decided to paste in some flower bushes right in the middle. Overall, it just makes the covers look flat (not to mention her is-it-surgery? breasts, eugh... I don't find that hot) and please don't bash me for my opinion. You can love the covers all you want, but I just can't see the beaty in them and I'm artistically laid. I'm usually good at seeing the tiniest of bright spots in things, but this... Sorry Ayu, you don't look sexy nor do you look cute to me, you just look like another superstar about to hit the wall...

[Yumsushi]

Originally Posted by Furashubakku

Are you seriously too blind to see that she isn't stood in front of a blind screen? It's just the way it is edited. Bali is there 100% as the diary entry quite clearly shows.

Are you seriously so ignorant? No need to be rude.
Lets put it simply so you can understand it. I am quite aware that she flew to Bali but the cover still looks like she was added on top of the background picture. For all we know (and see) whatever pictures she took in Bali with the real backgrounds did not make the cut and that may be why the cover looks so fake.
The general population isnt going to know or care whether she was physically there. No matter what it looks laughable and poorly executed.

[polka-dot-jewel]

After having a decent night's sleep, I've decided that I've come to terms with these covers. These are the covers, whether we like it or not.

Though... I wish this single had been released in four versions, just because of the title. Maybe two of the covers could've been out in the sun, like this, and the other two could've been shot during the sunset. That would've been cool, I think.

[aura~]

Originally Posted by Yagami Raito

Yeah you're right, however there's a way to know what is the opinion of TA members -> mixi !! The community "TeamAyu A course" ! But for the moment there's only one person who wrote a comment... and it's positive aha ^^'

aa! I don't knopw how to see this page!! but it's interesting if we can know what TA thinks about it...

[terra]

Gosh I don't like those...Shimoko did a horrible thing IMO
Those looked fake and fan-made....why should she travel all the way to Bali only to made those 'studio-like' covers.

Why why why should the cover be like that?

[truehappiness]

It's weird waking up to a thread and it's like 6 pages longer with more complaining and random shops around it.. oi.

Anyways, I think that the people who do 'edit' the photo and 'make it look better' here do okay, but really.. if you try to imagine how people would react if she had a cover like that [standing in front of a green screen-like sunrise or sunset] I don't think it'd be different from what we'd have here at all. Sure, we'd get some "Oh, but at least it kind of relates to the title.. I think.." but for the most part, people will still have the same opinions of the covers looking artificial and etc. So in the end, perhaps it's best for most Ayu fans to learn from this 'experience'.. that just because a cover isn't as fantastic as you'd want it to be [and to be honest, why would you when you know that Kazuyoshi shot it weeks before?] you shouldn't explode like someone just shot your best friend on some forum.. blaah, haha. Perhaps it's just that I've grown a bit as an Ayu fan over the last few years, but I just don't feel like the covers or PVs really mean much to me anymore.. hm.

....why should she travel all the way to Bali only to made those 'studio-like' covers.

Sometimes, I don't think people think about when she goes overseas for 'vacation' and really, it's sort of an excuse to go places when she 'works' there. She doesn't usually go to a overseas destination to just shoot a cover or just to take photos.. she records PVs, records new singles, writes new songs on the plane, shoots photos for magazines, makes a new photobook.. there are so many possibilities when she leaves Japan, it's kind of scary, but to assume that she simply went to Bali to shoot covers is sort of ridiculous when you think about it and realize that she really went to ~relax~ which is what people want her to do practically all the time, haha.

[minna]

I like the covers, the concept, the colors. it's really summerish
however, her expression on both covers...is weird. maybe with the HQ covers it'll be different

and the first one really remids me the cover for glitter/fated

[waterballoon]

@neme: I don't expect her to be green or whatever in GREEN/Days, but at least for something like Sunrise/Sunset... wouldn't it be better to take a cover with the sun/beach as the background?

And that photo that shows the real background in her TA photos or whatever... sorry, I think that's like BALI HOTEL and not Bali. There's a difference. That background looks like the balcony jacuzzi of her hotel suite than a natural scenery of Bali itself.

Moreover, even if it has to be her balcony jacuzzi, why on earth must it be so photoshopped that the sea looks like a canvas painting? I can't even see the waves!

truehappiness said she could have done a lot of things at another country. I agree, but of all things - to compromise the covers for a single??? That doesn't seem like Ayu to me.

Also, I don't actually think the photoshopping are bad... I mean whatever it's just photoshop; her enlarged boobs and hot bod really look hot and I like them...

I really just hate the background and her facial expression... so much.

Though I think Ayu must be drunk to choose these 2 shots as the covers... I can't help but think the rest of the gallery isn't that good anyway. truehappiness is right again when he mentioned that Kazuyoshi Shimomura directed Ayu for photography.

Just think about it... from 1999 all the way to the A BEST 2 covers, she rarely poses with the fish mouth or whatever... why is it that the moment Kazu comes in, she starts to drop in her facial expression standard!?

And the thing I can't stand the most is that... her facial expression looks like they are in between actions/poses rather than being an actual action/pose.

CD: I suppose she wanted to pose like with a hand on her hip or something, but damn Kazu had to snap her while doing that.

CD+DVD: This, I think she wants to do a Rule/Sparkle cover, or even putting her hand behind her hair, even tossing it. Damn Kazu has to snap her while doing that as well.

These covers... she looked like she's in the middle of posing... which reflects really badly on the photographer imo...

And Ayu, oh God, I felt like she had no choice but to use these 2 - the rest must be butt ugly...

I think, the overall feel of the covers is so... unappealing...

-HOTLINKING COS I WANNA POST THIS BEFORE AHS BECOMES UNAVAILABLE AGAIN; I'm really sorry-

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

I really liked the GREEN/Days cover... shot by Kazuyoshi as well, but I feel that Ayu has made a right face (by luck maybe?) or something here, which worked.

I also know it's too early to judge since these covers are not HQ, but it's not like her eyes are gonna "smile" or that I'll see a smile on her face when it's in HQ... sorry guys.

I really don't complain much about Ayu... even the NEXT LEVEL or Rule/Sparkle covers which a lot of people dislike, I liked them.

But this is just... unacceptable.

These are really her worst covers imo, and I'm not going to change my mind, and I hope I wouldn't change my mind in the future.

[rakeru]

was she working as hard as she could to counter the theme of NEXT LEVEL? instead of complaining, which is my first instinct, i'll just say that any cover that features Ayu still gets a couple brownie points no matter how bad it is. remember the fake, fan-made Startin'/Break Down covers from a few years ago? those literally were completely fake and still there were a lot of positive reactions! so maybe we have to take this with a grain of salt and acknowledge that Ayu knows what she's doing when she approves a cover. she's not exactly new to all this, i mean.

[truehappiness]

Did people all of a sudden forget about the disaster that was STEP you? And apparently I think Kazuyoshi did that set of covers too.. haha.

so maybe we have to take this with a grain of salt and acknowledge that Ayu knows what she's doing when she approves a cover. she's not exactly new to all this, i mean.

To be honest, I don't think more than a handful of Ayu fans even know what looks good as a cover/PV/whatever, so.. haha.

[Evolution7/4]

Originally Posted by Ayu_desu

There are too many flaws in these covers that I won't state what they are, and of course, I wouldn't want to, as I would be called a detailed-excuse-making-complainer.

And that you will need to get eye surgery!

I think saying that this is poor photoshopping (or putting some kind of negative adjective with photoshopping) is the better way of explaining the covers. yes, Ayu has always used photoshop, but usually its for the , greater good so to speak? Like Next Level was photoshopped, but it was used to make it fit in with the computeristic and future setting (ala the heavy airbrushing on Namie Amuro to fit the theme of Best Fiction). And most importantly, it was profesionally done. The Sunrise covers not only look fake but cheap, when it shouldn't. Sometimes its meant to look fakeish (ala the covers I mentioned above) but the photoshopping looks lazily and cheaply done. Its not just the fact that photoshop was used, but that it was poorly used.

Step You's cover was really good...

[micster]

Originally Posted by truehappiness

Did people all of a sudden forget about the disaster that was STEP you? And apparently I think Kazuyoshi did that set of covers too.. haha..

wut. Nothing wrong with STEP you covers. There like picasso's creation in comparisons to these

[love in music]

Originally Posted by Evolution7/4

Like Next Level was photoshopped, but it was used to make it fit in with the computeristic and future setting (ala the heavy airbrushing on Namie Amuro to fit the theme of Best Fiction). And most importantly, it was profesionally done.

uh sorry to say but no it wasn't. the photoshopping out of her tattoo was one of the hugest photoshop fails i've seen

[Evolution7/4]

Just for a side note: Did anyone notice the songs in the mash-up mix were changed in order. Now its fairyland-glitter-Blue Bird-greatful days-July 1st. I can't wait for the mashup mix!

Originally Posted by identity

uh sorry to say but no it wasn't. the photoshopping out of her tattoo was one of the hugest photoshop fails i've seen

I didn't notice. Ayus skin in that covers is all photoshopped (as i said to go with the techological computeristic theme) so it fit in with the rest of her skin. its not like theres a giant square of fake looking skin where her tatoo would be.