Now that the Cute and Hot polls are up again, I can reveal my ridiculous overthinking with preparing the pics for the polls <3
See, I have many AIMS and STANDARDS!
The pic should be as Cute/Hot possible, but according to certain rules:
1. It should feature the face clearly, as little hands on the face as possible, sometimes there could even be too much hair
2. The expression shouldn't be exaggerated, like cute puffed cheeks; some of the voters don't know all the girls and that's why their pic needs to be 'honest' with a somewhat neutral expression like a smile (or in hotness poll a sultry gaze) to keep it fair
3. The picture quality needs to be good enough in comparison to the other pics
4. Some pics I don't choose because they have horrid lighting and I can't fix them better; some of the poll pics have been tuned by me a bit to make them match the others better, but preferably the pic will be fine on its own
5. Generally no blog pics. This year the exception is at least Manaka Inaba in the hotness poll because I could not find any remotely HOT picture of her and was desperate. The reason why I don't normally like to use blog pics? They usually use a shit-ton of filters, the angles are often too calculated (see: Sakura's blog pics), they tend to have extra decorations on them, they are too zoomed in so the entire head doesn't make it in, or they are simply not good enough quality.
6. They need to be from THIS YEAR; one would think that six months is ample time to take an amazing cute/hot picture, but you would be surprised with the trouble I go through, especially for the hotness poll pics.
Why this year? It would be pretty unfair if someone took one amazing super hot shot in like 2012 and then that shot was always used in the poll. Nope, the poll is for this year so it must be up-to-date; ideally it would even feature their most recent hair cut, but that's not always possible.
As for the hotness poll, I know to a lot of people hottest means biggest boobs and whatever, but to me for the hotness poll pics, the expression is most important. What really makes a lady or anyone hot is agency; that alluring expression ufufuffufuf. Could be a smile, could be a serious gaze, kind of depends on what's available. I think when the polls first started the Elder Club was still in and it was difficult enough to find recent pics of everyone, so I couldn't focus as much on finding the hottest possible pics, but for the past 5-6 years I've really tried my best.
Over the years, the art is perfected~
To me the point is that when people are making their decisions, they can still look at the pics and go like "omg! She is so cute! I should vote for her!!" Like it's the last chance for that girl to make an appeal, so I should help her make that appeal by choosing the best possible pic for her. LOL I don't think I actually sway anyone's vote, but I want to feel like I'm being as fair to the girls as possible
Of course cuteness is in the eye of the beholder, so someone might think that a pic I choose as cute is horrible, but that's just life.
So yes. That is the Philosophy behind the H!P Cuteness and Hotness Poll pics.
EDIT: I just hope that when people open a cuteness poll thread, and a hotness poll thread, they will see that the chosen pics have a totally different feeling overall ^^;;;;
Topic: The Hello! Project Postwhoring Thread (Read 871158 times)