Laney Playdate

[laney]

That's so cool! Her voice is amazing, hearing her songs is one thing but seeing her perform live is just breathtaking! I remember my choir teacher being so proud of her, we all knew she would be famous . Finishing second to her is still a great achievement! That sounds like a lovely holiday you've got coming up in October too, it's so cool that you fly so far to experience the music you're passionate about. Are you originally from Australia or do you just really like it here?

My knowledge of country music is pretty limited unfortunately and mostly consists of poppy stuff like early Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus hehe. The character Taylor plays in the video for You Belong With Me kind of reminds me of the kind of girl who would grow up to be an AW model... incredibly beautiful but modestly dressed, very sweet and loving, not at all like the guy's controlling, show-offy girlfriend. This one is pretty much just a pop song but I like I because it's about being 22 and I am 22... It' kind of a simplistic fantasy about being young but it's kinda nice to enjoy that. I hope you're not cringing that I'm talking about Taylor Swift, it seems like most people either love or hate her. Some of my friends are obsessed with her but others think I'm really lame for liking her .

This video's been around for a while so you might have seen it already https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOwblaKmyVw. It's one of my favourite performances ever by Miley, I wish she would sing like that more often.

[laktor]

Ha, ha, funny that you should mention Taylor Swift. I'll tell you a quick story about Taylor, and me. A few years ago, when Taylor was just 16, she was greeting fans at the Big Machine Records booth at the country music festival in Nashville. She was unknown at the time and her very first song, Tim McGraw, wouldn't be released to radio for another 2 months. So, really, no one knew who she was, so Taylor was at the booth for the entire 4 days of the festival and would talk to anyone who came up to her. I stopped by to chat with her every day, so I became a familiar face to her. Also during that festival, she rode in the kick-off parade and a friend and I went up to her when she got into the car and talked with her some more and had pictures taken with her. After the festival, I sent her a message on Myspace (which was popular at the time) and she wrote back saying that she remembered me and thanked me for visiting her at the booth every day. That first year she had huge radio hits and the next festival, you could not get anywhere near her because she was so popular!!! It sure pays to go up to unknown artists and talk to them!!!

[laney]

What a lovely story! It's so cool that you got a chance to get to know her and found she's as nice in person as she seems in her videos.

My friend linked me a video of a Saturday Night Live skit about Taylor Swift that came out late last year after she released 1989 and everyone in the world realised they actually love Taylor Swift. It's pretty funny https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tjkf4huaBQI.

[laney]

By the way what time is Ella_C's playdate scheduled for? I can't see it because my playdate page is set up differently to allow me to do a playdate. I wouldn't mind watching if it's at a good time

[Frans]

By the way what time is Ella_C's playdate scheduled for? I can't see it because my playdate page is set up differently to allow me to do a playdate. I wouldn't mind watching if it's at a good time

Hi Laney, you can also see the schedule when NOT logged in, but here you go;

Shown with your timezone of Europe/Amsterdam. We show it as being 10:07 there now. Change your timezone on the preferences page.
Sun 08-Mar-2015 10:00 Ella C 3d 23h 52m 24s
Fri 13-Mar-2015 22:00 Lulu
Sun 15-Mar-2015 05:00 Laney
Thu 19-Mar-2015 09:00 Flora
Sun 29-Mar-2015 21:00 Lotte
Mon 06-Apr-2015 09:00 Marleen S

[laney]

Oh of course, I should have done that before posting on the forum. Silly me!

[laney]

Ha, ha, funny that you should mention Taylor Swift. I'll tell you a quick story about Taylor, and me. A few years ago, when Taylor was just 16, she was greeting fans at the Big Machine Records booth at the country music festival in Nashville. She was unknown at the time and her very first song, Tim McGraw, wouldn't be released to radio for another 2 months. So, really, no one knew who she was, so Taylor was at the booth for the entire 4 days of the festival and would talk to anyone who came up to her. I stopped by to chat with her every day, so I became a familiar face to her. Also during that festival, she rode in the kick-off parade and a friend and I went up to her when she got into the car and talked with her some more and had pictures taken with her. After the festival, I sent her a message on Myspace (which was popular at the time) and she wrote back saying that she remembered me and thanked me for visiting her at the booth every day. That first year she had huge radio hits and the next festival, you could not get anywhere near her because she was so popular!!! It sure pays to go up to unknown artists and talk to them!!!

Hey Laktor, what do you think of First Aid Kit? I've been obsessed with them since seeing them at Golden Plains festival last weekend. The sun set behind them as they played, washing the crowd in a romantic golden light. They're probably more folky than what you usually listen to but they have lovely voices. Here is a playlist of their most popular songs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PC57...C57z-oDPLs#t=1

[laktor]

Hey Laktor, what do you think of First Aid Kit? I've been obsessed with them since seeing them at Golden Plains festival last weekend. The sun set behind them as they played, washing the crowd in a romantic golden light. They're probably more folky than what you usually listen to but they have lovely voices. Here is a playlist of their most popular songs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PC57...C57z-oDPLs#t=1

Laney, thank you so much for that link. This may surprise you, but until I read your post, I never heard of First Aid Kit. However, after listening to Emmylou and a couple of other songs, I think they are amazing! Can't believe I've not heard of them. You can now count me in as a fan. So, thank you so much!

[laney]

No worries Laktor, glad you liked them!

[Dekoda]

Thanks for another great Playdate Laney! I appreciated the fact that you laid on your stomach for a pose that I suggested....I like poses like that. There were many poses that you made during your playdate, but these two were two of my favorites. Thank you again!

[laney]

Aww thanks Dekoda I'm glad you liked it! I'm happy to do things that people ask me to in the chat . Did you take these as screenshots as the show was happening or did you record it?

[Dekoda]

I record the whole Playdate, then play it back, pause it when I see a frame that I like, then do a screen capture of that frame. Once I have the captured frame, I use Photoshop to make adjustments to the shadow/highlight, the histogram to adjust the white and black points (using the curves tool), and color balance. It takes some time to do all of this, but you are well worth it!

Your Playdate was a rather large video....8.5 GB, but that's never a problem....I just happened to notice the size as I was watching it.

[laney]

I thought the colour in the stills looked nice! I like adjusting the shadows/highlights as well but have to stop myself from going too far or the photo can start looking like a bad high dynamic range image. A curves adjustment layer can be a good way of correcting white balance issues as long as the image contains something black or white, or if you can find a perfect 50% grey. Maybe the video was so large because my webcam records at 1080p.

[dropshop]

What software do you use Dekoda? It all depends on many factors like window size etc. The recorded project file became very big for me as well, but then converting it to a regular format like mp4 and it ended up at about 200 MB.

Laney, you notice the mosquitoes in the garden or were you so into the moment right then?

[laktor]

How do you record a playdate, Dekoda? Can anyone do that, or do you need something special on your computer?

[dropshop]

Screencapture software is commonly used to record your steps on a computer screen (as a tutorial from learn.abbywinters.com for example) or in this case to simply record the audio and video signal from your computer.

[garionhall]

Hi guys, it's our and our models strong preference that you do not record Playdates, please.

[Dekoda]

Hi guys, it's our and our models strong preference that you do not record Playdates, please.

Garion, why would you or the models not want us to record their Playdates? By recording their Playdates, it allows us to enjoy watching them over and over. To not record them will only allow us to watch it while it's happening, then, once it's finished, it's gone forever. I would think that AW would like to have it saved, as recording it saves it for posterity....to be watched for a long time to come. It seems a shame to just watch it while it's happening, and to never be able to watch it again....especially if we really enjoyed it.

[Dekoda]

I thought the colour in the stills looked nice! I like adjusting the shadows/highlights as well but have to stop myself from going too far or the photo can start looking like a bad high dynamic range image. A curves adjustment layer can be a good way of correcting white balance issues as long as the image contains something black or white, or if you can find a perfect 50% grey. Maybe the video was so large because my webcam records at 1080p.

Laney, it sounds like you enjoy editing photos as much as I do. I don't know if you've ever played around with Portrait Professional, but years ago when I played with it, I wasn't that impressed with it, but I recently tried it again and they've made vast improvements to it. Here is a sample of how good it can be, and this example is just using their default settings. The model is AW's Johanna, and you can see the difference that the software made in the before and after photos. I was amazed at how well it worked.

I know that AW doesn't want to do any touching up of their models photos, and that was not my intent here, I just wanted to show what software can do for your own family or friends photos. That is why I have these various software programs that allow me to edit photos....to appease my friends and relatives when I edit any of their photos. I only used AW photos because I can't post photos here of my friends or family.

[laney]

Portrait professional looks cool, it looks like they've simplified the kinds of retouching processes available in lightroom and photoshop.

I enjoy retouching portraits but have to clarify my feelings on the subject. Personally, I think it's okay to retouch a person's skin/body if the photo is in an artistic context and not presented as a true depiction of reality. For example, manipulating an image of a model to make her look like a mermaid with glowing smooth skin.

But I think it's a bit unethical to present retouched photos as if they weren't. I mean, the allure of a photo of a model retouched to have superhumanly smooth, perfect skin, huge eyes and luscious lips is obvious. But, you know, no one (not even the incredibly naturally beautiful model Johanna, probably one of the top 0.1% of the most beautiful women in the world) really looks like that. It's sad that these images are used to manipulate women to feel inferior in comparison and make us spend more money on cosmetics and makeup to try to get closer to this unachievable goal.

This is why I admire Abbywinters's absolute refusal to give in to the temptation to retouch photos of their models. How easy it would be for them to reduce a pimple here, erase a stretch mark there, and censor a model's individuality for the sake of the current ideals of beauty. But trust me on this, they really don't do that. EVER.

As a woman it's SO LOVELY so see photos of other women on AW exactly as they really are, and know that the most beautiful women are real people with a little bit of eyebrow regrowth, the hint of crow's feet or maybe an acne scar. They are all the more beautiful for these features. AW photos truly give me the sense that I'm seeing them exactly as I would if I were to see them face to face which is way more intimate than looking through the layers of artifice in the images you see in mainstream porn.

I don't mean any of this as an attack on you - you enjoy retouching for the pleasure of it (as I do), and not to sell a product or anything like that. I just thought considering AW's famous 'no photoshop' rule that I should explain my feelings on the subject.

Here are a couple of articles I like about the ethics of retouching. Theis one from Vice puts forward some good point about how photographers can use lighting, framing, posing etc to improve a model's looks as much as they could with photoshop: http://www.vice.com/read/photo-real-...nism-and-truth.

This one is an artist's experiment of asking people around the world to retouch her self portrait to make her look beautiful and comparing the results. It falls pretty flat because every photo was retouched terribly but you get the idea: http://www.designboom.com/art/25-cou...ul-06-26-2014/.

[laney]

I want to add that one of the first things I taught myself to do in photoshop was to retouch photos of myself before posting them on DeviantArt. I was a pimply teenager . After a couple of years I decided that everything I had posted on there was crap and embarrassing so I deleted my account, but kept the images on a hard drive. I had a look through it today and found some of the stuff I posted nearly 10 years ago now. Here's a gif I made from one of Neil Gaiman's Sandman comic books:



Some trippy recursion thing



Fake polaroid



So moody



Drawing



Still kinda embarrassing :P

[laney]

Thank you everybody who came to my last playdate! I really enjoyed it, as always. It's great to have a chance to talk to you guys in real time. I hope you join me for the next one

[massfan3]

Thanks Laney, your playdate was awesome! The dancing was a special treat and I'd love to see more next time when you've learned so more moves. I said this at the end but I think it was cut off before it was posted, but I can't wait to see what you get up to in Amsterdam! I love when Australian models get to visit. I'm sure Masie, Izzy, Misha and friends will be hard at work coming up with sexy things for you to do!

[Dekoda]

I posted my comments in the wrong thread. This is the thread that I posted them in.

[Skin25]

Thanks for the playdate Laney. I really enjoyed seeing you and hearing you talk. I hope you don't mind my fascination with your body, and requests to see your anus. It is what arouses me the most, and I was masturbating with you.

[bigpapi]

Laney, loved the playdate and your videos. You have a sweet persona that projects well on screen......your smoking hot body only amplifies that! please keep us "cumming" back for more!

[Sabrina]

Laney,
I am looking forward to your playdate
Love Sabrina

[havijack]

If anyone saw Laney's playdate I hope it went ok, I was at work so I missed it, maybe next time it could be scheduled for after 18.00 uk time so people that work can get to see it.

[Frans]

If anyone saw Laney's playdate I hope it went ok, I was at work so I missed it, maybe next time it could be scheduled for after 18.00 uk time so people that work can get to see it.

You can give feedback on scheduling of playdates on this survey, please do. Laney is in Australia though, not sure 1800 GMT would be good for her

[havijack]

Thanks Frans, just gave feedback, anytime at weekends is better for me as I work all week, maybe there could be a way that playdates are recorded for people who are unavailable to view them live and available to purchase like regular video's.

Laney is one of my favourite models but we don't see much of her on AW which is a shame so missing this playdate made me a bit sad.