Teach Soap

What do you honestly think about these two photos for a soap advertising campaign
Please feel free to be brutally honest, these are the raw photos the graphix guy will be working with.

How cute!

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

thanks...someone asked where is the soap...

using an amatuer model, my daughetr and grand daughter was hard, we started with bubbles and soap, but by the time i got attractive shots the bubbles fell off and the baby had soap in her eye.

This isn't for my soaps, it's actually for another soap maker who wants to hit the urban market, a graphix guy is going to use these photos in the background of an ad. we were looking both the hispanic and african american look.

I think the pics are beautiful. But for advertizing purposes, I'd stage it, perhaps by adding some props like candles, towels, maybe a glass of wine and make it a more spa like background. I don't see any product in the pics either. And not enough lather if your selling soap.

The baby is too cute for words, how about covering her with more bubbles and a shot with just her. The picture as is, looks too personal for an ad campaign. More for a family photo album imo. She looks young enough to still fit in a baby bath or even a sink. That may give you a better shot. If that baby cant sell soap with a face like that, I don't know who can

Another thought is to have the Mom dressed in a white bath robe (spa like) bathing the baby, looking relaxed after using your products. Try to sell a "story".

Just my opinion, you did mention we should be honest.

Any graphics guy worth his salt can add bubbles or soap easily enough. I wouldn't worry about that.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

Opps, I didnt read your last post before I replied.

The fake depth of field in the first pic needs to be redone. Her leg needs to be removed; it's a distracting angle, she is too close to the background, and the pic itself rather boring. The color consistency of the backgrounds differ as the light balance on the camera isn't set correctly. 2nd pic - I would turn the daughters head a little more to her right to involve her more into the photo, showcase her happy smile plus it might also help eliminate the bulk of her shoulder in the photo.

Another option instead of harsh FLASH reflections.. would to be to use lots of diffused lighting or reflective lighting. If true color rendition isn't necessary you can change the color temperature of the photo to slightly warmer.

Sorry if that's a little rough, I am just trying to pick it apart for you.
Good luck with it.
Darrell

Thanks for all the honesty. My son was supposed to shoot the original pix, then after we thought abt it, he was going to loan me the camera (didn't want to shoot his sister in a tub). eventually I just grabbed my malfunctioning digital.

I will definately try a reshoot after I see what the graphix guy ends up doing. The soap maker this is for makes a very rustic bar, the whole marketing campaign is rustic. But i sell the bars naked in an urban area and do good. (the bars are so different from mine they actually compliment each other since they are all veggie and I sometimes offer tallow bars).

The packaging was shown to a business class of AA women who hated the packaging, but I know the soap maker well and the packaging and bar relfect exactly the soapmakers personality (sort of like Dr Bronners packaging), so I suggested supplimenting the wholesale marketing campaign with advertising that relects the community but retains the soapmakers original vision. So the picture may be creatively used with some very unique rustic images. So i have to wait and see the first results.

Thanks everyone

Hate to sound overly picky, but if it's RUSTIC.. you may not want those nice shiny tiles in the background. You could stage the wash in a local creek with wooded background and change the image tone to more of a sepia tone or black and white... or buy a sheet of paneling that resembles the interior of a log home and use it as a back drop behind the tub. If your graphics guy is good he can use the background eraser on his photoshop and replace the background with something else. He can also remove the saturation from the photo rendering it B/W.
Here's a sample of black and white (I only did a small portion so you could see.. )
I also just threw in some trees in the background to show how easy it could be.

beautiful ideal, thankyou!