The Southern Charms Fan Box

There is a saying, a picture paints a thousand words. Since Southern Charms is a visual and voyeuristic medium I thought it would be helpful to mention what potential members see advertised on the free side of your site directly affects whether or not they may choose to whip out that credit card. That said, I though I’d point out some issues pertaining to pics you may not have thought about.

Retouching (Photoshop work)
Believe it or not there are members who absolutely DO NOT like retouched pics; pics that have been tampered with in Photoshop to remove “imperfections.”

Some of us actually like to see charms for who they are, with all of what one may consider “flaws” or areas that “need touching up” or perfecting with Photoshop. Freckles, stretch marks, extra pounds, signs of aging, whatever, it’s all good. It’s what some come on a site like SC to see, what a real woman who is his/her type looks like, as opposed to some digitized version. For me personally, if a charm catches my eye but I see retouched pics in the non-members area, that is a turn off right away and I don’t join the site.

Size of Pics:
This is another potential turn off for some people. Yes, myself included. In this day and age many people have monitors at home that are at least 17inches wide. Most people probably view SC in the privacy of their homes as opposed to on smart phones and smaller devices, so if your pics look like a little rectangle on the screen, think about what visual impact that has versus a nice big pic that looks like the model is there right in front of you after you click on a link. In short then, most definitely small pics could turn some people away from joining a site big time, if one sees small pics in the non-members area. I know that anything under say 800 x 1200 pixels at 72 dpi (dots per inch), makes me think twice. How can I tell if images are at least that size? Simple, anything smaller looks like a little rectangle on my monitor.

Okay, enough preaching for now, lol. Just thought I’d mention a couple things. Also, this is not to point fingers at anyone at all in particular. I’d never be so obnoxious to do something like that, so I hope no one takes offense.

I don't know why anyone would take offense to your post. Honestly and truly I think your post is truly helpful and informative! I'd love for other fans and members to post their thoughts too!

I do have some questions on your thoughts though.

First off, what size of picture would you think is too big? Currently my pics are 1479 x 1114. I've thought about making them even bigger, but I've had some guys tell me that they don't want to open a pic and they just see a jumbo nostril or something because the pic is so big. So what do you guys think is a good size for the pics?

On the photoshop issue, I have to admit, I do photoshop out my scars. I have C-section scars that are pretty narly looking, as one of them was for an emergency Csection In which I nearly died. <I was in a coma for over a week and docs didn't think I would live>
I'm sure guys can tell as I'm not a photoshop pro, but for me, it's more of a personal issue. With that said, I would hope that guys wouldn't decide to NOT join my site just because of something like that that I prefer to keep private. Those scars are not Sultry Serena, they are "mine" and something I don't wish to share with "her" fans.

Honey, your message is a great critic and no offense. I read your message with pleasure.
Thank you for your oipen heart and your thoughts, such a critic is always welcome.

Lets talk about "imperfections" : You are a photographer, and we are women. You know very well what women dont like to be seen...pimples
I am retouching my pictures to rmove some pimples from my butt. I know that my skin doesnt take my squirtings, thatswhy I get always pimples on my butt. But I will not stop having orgasm, thatswhy I have to "help" me out lol

The size you are menetioning, I am fully with you. There is point having small pics, SC gives us the opportunity to have sizes of 2000 px on height or width, and its good to use it a full spectrum. I like to make a picture bigger if I want to.

Again, thank you for your great critic and hopefully we will read lot more such nice critics and also compliments

Kisses
Kristina

EDIT: HA, my darling Serena was faster then me lol

KristinaSlovenia SC4 wrote:EDIT: HA, my darling Serena was faster then me lol

..........But only by a minute. Besides great minds think alike.

PS: I'm quite sure your butt would still be sexy even with the pimples

SultrySerenaSC2 wrote:

KristinaSlovenia SC4 wrote:EDIT: HA, my darling Serena was faster then me lol

..........But only by a minute. Besides great minds think alike.

PS: I'm quite sure your butt would still be sexy even with the pimples

Darling, and I am very very sure you would be as sexy as you are with your scarfs, but you wrote it so good...its better to leave it private

SultrySerenaSC2 wrote:I don't know why anyone would take offense to your post. Honestly and truly I think your post is truly helpful and informative! I'd love for other fans and members to post their thoughts too!

I do have some questions on your thoughts though.

First off, what size of picture would you think is too big? Currently my pics are 1479 x 1114. I've thought about making them even bigger, but I've had some guys tell me that they don't want to open a pic and they just see a jumbo nostril or something because the pic is so big. So what do you guys think is a good size for the pics?

On the photoshop issue, I have to admit, I do photoshop out my scars. I have C-section scars that are pretty narly looking, as one of them was for an emergency Csection In which I nearly died. <I was in a coma for over a week and docs didn't think I would live>
I'm sure guys can tell as I'm not a photoshop pro, but for me, it's more of a personal issue. With that said, I would hope that guys wouldn't decide to NOT join my site just because of something like that that I prefer to keep private. Those scars are not Sultry Serena, they are "mine" and something I don't wish to share with "her" fans.

Hello Sultry Serena:

I don't think that 1479 x 1114 is too big. On the contrary. That's a great size. Another thing is there is no ideal size. I know that anything smaller than about 1200 on the height does not fill the height of my monitor, which I don't like. Regarding the guy that mentioned the jumbo nostril. Well, if your pics are larger then his monitor there are literally dozens of pic viewing apps that automatically fit larger pics to accommodate the viewing parameters of one's monitor, so I don't see how what he mentioned is any issue at all. I am an Apple Mac user. The default pic viewing app for that is called "Preview" and it automatically resizes larger pics to accommodate one's monitor size. There are a bunch of similar apps on PCs too.

I often use apps that run a slide show of a gallery. There are a number of these for Macs and PCs and all of them can automatically fit larger pics to accommodate one's monitor size during the show.

Re: Photoshopping of your scars. Something like that is not quite what I had in mind, Sultry. What I was thinking of are those pics where the model or her photographer tried to make her face and/or skin or body look flawless or really smooth. My first issue with that is that the work is really unprofessional looking. I mean if one can notice that is was Photoshopped, that means you failed the job as a retoucher, as far as I am concerned.

I do this kind of work myself, and I can tell you that the trend or what is often asked for when you go to places to work today, is to retouch so that the skin looks "natural." Now this varies from magazine to magazine of course. There are many of them that want the porcelain skin look, but when it comes to erotica, to me that look is wacky. It doesn't look real, the person's skin looks more like something that is plastic or belongs on a doll so all attraction is lost. There is a big bust site called DDF Busty for example. They couldn't get me to join that site ever because of the horrible retouched photos. Everything looks so fake.

So you see, what you mentioned is a bit different from what I had in mind.

KristinaSlovenia SC4 wrote:Honey, your message is a great critic and no offense. I read your message with pleasure.
Thank you for your oipen heart and your thoughts, such a critic is always welcome.

Lets talk about "imperfections" : You are a photographer, and we are women. You know very well what women dont like to be seen...pimples
I am retouching my pictures to rmove some pimples from my butt. I know that my skin doesnt take my squirtings, thatswhy I get always pimples on my butt. But I will not stop having orgasm, thatswhy I have to "help" me out lol

The size you are menetioning, I am fully with you. There is point having small pics, SC gives us the opportunity to have sizes of 2000 px on height or width, and its good to use it a full spectrum. I like to make a picture bigger if I want to.

Again, thank you for your great critic and hopefully we will read lot more such nice critics and also compliments

Kisses
Kristina

EDIT: HA, my darling Serena was faster then me lol

Kristina, you may want to check out what I mentioned to Sultry Serena about retouching. What you mentioned about editing some pimples from your butt, etc. is not quite what I was thinking of when I made my post.

I have noticed a trend of some models trying to do that "perfect skin" type of retouching, which looks really awful and totally fake. That's what I had in mind.

I'm going to increase the size of my photos to 2000 x 1330 beginning with my update next week and see if anyone notices or mentions it.

Yes, read the posts, and you are very right.

SultrySerenaSC2 wrote:I'm going to increase the size of my photos to 2000 x 1330 beginning with my update next week and see if anyone notices or mentions it.

You will look incredible at any size photo

I have been posting my photos 1800 to 2000 for a long time now.
With the cameras today they take photos like 4500x3800 some more
or a bit less, but still very large. SC allows 2000mp. On my computer
a 2000mp photo will just about fill my screen. On hubbys it fills about 3/4
because he has his res. set higher.
Happy Holidays everyone.
Hugs

I increased my photo size to the 2000 x 1330 .........and I've not had any complaints about giant nostrils

The op brings up very good points. I remember a study that the anti-porn people like to bring up linking erectile dysfunction to excessive porn use. well I feel those studies only tell half the story.
I dont think its the use of porn but the type of porn used. The vast majority of porn comes in the form of perfect beautiful women who make up maybe 10% of the population. and because its been proven that sexual responses can be trained it stands to reason that if most of your sexual stimulus are images of women who only make up 10% of the population your body wont respond to the average women you are most likely to land in your bed.
what I liked about amateur porn sites like southerncharms, dreamnet, webhoney's and freakdaddies was that it was like looking through your neighbors window, the women looked like women who I see every day in real life.

But then something happened photoshop, and g.i.m.p got advanced enough to make the average women look like a playboy centerfold and they all started using it. so now you might get 4 or 5 good sets out of a model before the photos stop looking real. My favorite sets are usually of a model doing mundane things in various states of undress like ironing, cleaning house, doing yoga, drinking bear on the couch etc etc.....
All and all amateur does not seem amateur for very long anymore. and the studeo settings have long been a turnoff.

I love keeping things natural on my site. I mean yes, I definitely wear makeup in my sets (but not all of them!). I don't edit my pictures MUCH. I do crop them and remove red-eye.

Also, I love SC because there is a variety of charms on here - charms that touch up their pictures a lot, charms that are completely natural. It's great to have so much variety!

Hello Longtime and Charm sisters and sweet viewers who took the time to respond to this thread,

I really think the decision to smooth skin or not is a personal decision for most of us. I happen to have some scars on my face and elsewhere on my body from a childhood accident that I smooth and I feel happier about the finished product. We are "putting our bacon" out there on a regular basis and I'm all for whatever makes us feel the most confident and strongest. If we are processing the images ourselves, the end result may not look very professional but then we are for the most part, amateurs.

Please allow us to do what we need to do to give you our best product, and accept us for what we are...human. Some may not make changes to the raw product and that's a wonderful thing. But some of us do for reasons that are very real to us. Sure, you might not mind seeing the imperfections and flaws, but it's also about how we feel about ourselves. Every male and female on SC should be applauded and celebrated for being courageous enough to offer a glimpse into his or her sexuality to the world with or without photoshopping. That is what's really important!

Good topic! XXX
Alex

Oh Alex SC2 wrote:Hello Longtime and Charm sisters and sweet viewers who took the time to respond to this thread,

I really think the decision to smooth skin or not is a personal decision for most of us. I happen to have some scars on my face and elsewhere on my body from a childhood accident that I smooth and I feel happier about the finished product. We are "putting our bacon" out there on a regular basis and I'm all for whatever makes us feel the most confident and strongest. If we are processing the images ourselves, the end result may not look very professional but then we are for the most part, amateurs.

Please allow us to do what we need to do to give you our best product, and accept us for what we are...human. Some may not make changes to the raw product and that's a wonderful thing. But some of us do for reasons that are very real to us. Sure, you might not mind seeing the imperfections and flaws, but it's also about how we feel about ourselves. Every male and female on SC should be applauded and celebrated for being courageous enough to offer a glimpse into his or her sexuality to the world with or without photoshopping. That is what's really important!

Good topic! XXX
Alex

Alex,

I always thought you were a hotty and I'm sure you are with or without the touching up. Your pictures are awesome so if they are touched, I haven't noticed anything. Generally the person in the picture is the greatest critic and notices the most.

I don't retouch my photos, I do though put makeup on blemishes. haha

About scars I just choose to try to hide my stretch marks with garter belts etc. They are pretty bad, and the fact they are 14 years old bums me out. They aren't red anymore and some faded. but I still have a lot. Booooo

I even add what I think is unflattering pictures of myself. I am going to add the blooper updates again in the bonus section. lol those were pretty funny.

You ladies are beautiful!

MercedesSC2 wrote:I even add what I think is unflattering pictures of myself. I am going to add the blooper updates again in the bonus section. lol those were pretty funny.

I do blooper sets too, as bonus updates! I figure it's just fun... why not