Harlequin, you’re going to think I’m picking on you, but, well, ok, I totally am. Thanks to Lyndsey, we have a new challenge this week: Which Is Her Real Hair?
First up: The Unmasking of a Lady (could that title GET any better?) by Emily May, Kindle edition:
Next up, same title, paperback edition:
But wait, there’s MORE: thanks to eagle-eyed Lyndsey, we have His Cavalry Lady by Joanna Maitland:
Which is her real hair, the short, the long, or the other long? Is it me, or are her ears really weird-looking, like, even more than ears are normally weird-looking? And if there’s all that Photoshopping going on, why didn’t HE get a haircut?!
Why did they scrunch them all up in the first cover? The guy looks like Robin Williams in it!
Which is her real hair? None of the above, I suspect. Boy, they sure got value for money out of that shoot.
I’d say the third one is probably the real one. It’s easier to add than to remove. Also, the first one looks like it has a second ear a little bit to the right, which makes me think it’s a bad shop. The second one, I don’t see anything glaring that stands out. The third would be hardest to shop from the other two, and I don’t really see anything that stands out—and it would, unless the artist was incredibly good.
None of them are real.
The first clue in the lower two is the fuzziness of the ends of the hair. A bad blend job. The top one looks like the man’s head has been squashed, plus the hair is not flowing naturally over her shoulders.
All this photoshopping and they couldn’t get rid of her very period tan lines?
I think the pixie cut is the real hair, although even thats shooped all the way. (very period, too, unless they’re oking by it being one of those books where she dresses up as a boy) The chestnut hair REALLY looks badly fake, although her face looks the nicest in it.
The third one is the likeliest to be real, (the first one is a awful, obvious ‘shop job, and the edges of the hair on the second one are too smooth, although that could just be overzealous airbrushing, I suppose,) but realistically, what are the odds that TPTB are going to set up a regency era shoot with a model with a pixie cut?
I’ve read the third one (and enjoyed it, BTW). The heroine in that one has been masquerading as a male for a years and is an officer in the Russian cavalry. Hence, the short hair. There’s an author’s note at the end—apparently the heroine was inspired by a historical figure.
What I want to know is what’s going on with the color of his jacket?
Ah, Aislinn, that’s very helpful b/c I was going to say that on #3 I didn’t think s/he was actually a she.
They both have gigantic hands, too. Can anyone track down the origin of the hands?
None of them.
The 2nd one has a really bad color job on it. It looks like she has green roots. So I’m guessing she’s actually a blond.
I can’t guess what her hair cut is. Probably closest to the 2nd one, because the other 2 just have hair plopped on.
face24: Her face is going to be on at least 24 covers.
I’d vote for #3 out of all of them but none are great. What is the deal with her skin tone/tan lines?!?
Nadezhda Durova?!
(Why does she always end up in het?)
I vote for the first one being real, because that’d explain the weird ear, someone trying to fill in what hair is not covering.
Is it just me, or is there something really funky going on w/the guy on the first cover? Looks like he has a hairpiece slipping out of place. Either that or he’s one of the crystal skull aliens from the last Indiana Jones movie (the ones with the elongated skulls) masquerading as an historical gentleman.
Who cares about her hair, as she’s apparently dead. I think they took this pic horizontal, then stood her up to try to make her look more lifelike. Didn’t work.
I think the first picture is stretched horizontally a bit, too – look at the length of her jaw in that one as opposed to in the other two.
I would just like to point out that the color of her hair in #1 can only be found in a box of Miss Clairol. Aside from that all three cuts/styles look awful. I have to admit that I actually like the gents hair. It looks like it would feel nice and silky sliding through your fingers.
None of them—she’s bald.
Ah, the magic of photoshop. And I think the reason her ear looks wonky is because it’s not her real ear. As I said, photoshop…
@library addict
Yeah—I noticed that too. Green coat in #1, bright blue in #2 and then, in #3, most of the coat is a dull blue—except part of the collar at the back, which is still bright blue!
So Bitchery, now that we have decided she’s a bald model with two ears on one side of her head, we can tackle the vexing question of the true color of his coat!
hahahaha I am going for #1 longer and straight. Oh man, there have to be a lot of book models out there 😉
Never mind ‘why didn’t he get a haircut’, why didn’t he get a box to stand on?
What about the blue in his hair? Is that supposed to be wisps of gray?
i’m going to go with number 2, because the first is obviously fake, and well i just don;t like the third.
more importantly though, is she frikkin dead on the first cover?? what’s with the crazy light face and dark shoulders?
I’d be inclined to say #3 or else maybe the model was wearing a cap or has very short hair to make her photo more versatile.
Cover #1 looks distorted probably because that’s the way the Kindle covers end up on the webpage. I’ve seen it lots of times with books whose cover is technically the same but the paperback image looks good and the Kindle image looks distorted when you look at the larger image. I can’t think of a good reason why, however, unless the Kindle version is optimized to display on the Kindle screen rather than a browser screen.
I think the weirdest thing is that her face is very pale (hand, too) but her chest is pretty tan. Of course, the first cover makes it look like she’s so pale because she’s dead.
I am just left wondering if dude got paid for all these covers Or wait, maybe he is not even real!
Damn photoshop, damn you to hell!
A baby flounder has eyes on each side of its head like a normal fish, but then as it gets older, one eye migrates around to join the other so it can be, well, a flounder. I’m thinking something similar is going on with those ears. I’m just sayin’.
This is so frustrating. For so many reasons. I am a professional photographer, and if this was my image I would be pissed as hell. I don’t care if Harl purchased full rights or a mere license to kill, because kill it they did. Portfolio quality that is not. I’m not a photoshop guru but I could damn well change things better than that. AND I have- for illustrations.
I wrote a novel and I’m in the process of illustrating it, because, well, that’s what I do. What terrifies me since seeing all of the lovely Bitches posts on covers is selling my book with the images and there being some obscure wording in the contract that allows the publisher to do this kind of crap to my work. Or worse— using illustrations for my story on some other novel. I would go banshee-nut wicked crazy.
No self respecting photog would agree to this kind of treatment to their image. There are ways to do it well. Tan lines be warned. And haircolor. These are really shoddy hatchet jobs beyond the fact that they don’t know how to retain the proportions of the original image, or person. There are reasons for professionals in every trade.
ACK!
Well, upside, the cover on His Cavalry Lady was eye catching enough to send me over to the GBPL website to see if they have it in the stacks. SCORE!!
That moon-over-miami discrepancy in her skin tones is a problem, isn’t it? Unfortunately, one comes across women who rock that look IRL, too, especially women around my age coughcoughlookingatfiftycoughcough.
What I really want to know is what’s wrong with her neck—is that bruising, or did the model originally appear on a vampire romance cover and the dark marks are the result of an amateurish photoshopping effort?
I think none of them are real. Her ears seem low and tilted to me. Looks like the cosmo-hairstyle-try-on game gone mad.
A bit off topic here, but, I think I kind of actually like these covers. Well, the first one is smooshed and the tan lines aren’t exactly historically accurate, I’d guess. So I was wondering what it was about the cover that I liked. After looking a few times I figured it out – female dominant cover! I’m no expert, and don’t have time to go browse now, but I’m thinking it’s not often we have a woman placed higher than a man on the cover. And he’s in a worshipful position relative to her. I like it.
His head looks weird and stretchy in cover #1.
Her hair looks the most natural in cover #3
Speaking of strange hair, has anyone seen a pic of Sinead O’Connor lately?
Really don’t like the pose. It’s esp bad in the first version.
Do think it’s cute that she’s in a man’s shirt (esp with the title and plot of book three).
Oh, dear. I didn’t realize Harlequin, um, repurposed/recycled covers for different books. I’ve never written for them. That pixie cut (at least that’s what we called that kind of shearing when I was a kid) – His Cavalry Lady – doesn’t fit any historical. The heroine’s hair is shorter than the hero’s, although I noticed they did fiddle around with his nice velvet lapels, while the heroine is stuck with the same dress. 😉 Even my boy-dressed heroine in Desperate Hearts had chin-length hair.
then94 (will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I’m 94?)
That man has a serious case of 80s hunk hair.
I think it’s the second book—the Unmasking Of A Lady, paperback version. Mainly because it’s the only style that looking natural. The first one has obviously been added to. An the last one kinda looks ‘false’.
I don’t have much to add except the third book was probably a B- for me but I love short hair on women so that’s the one I want to be real.
My real reason for posting is to share that as I read Alexis’s “then 94” remark, I had the Beatles playing in the background and the lines referenced played in unison to my reading it.
What bothers me about the first cover is that her shoulder is 2-dimensional – her hair hangs straight down from her head to cover her shoulder, with no parting or curl to allow for shoulders usually being wider than necks.
Did they photoshop, or paste doll-hair onto the printed photographs?
I can’t focus on her hair. I’m too caught up in the terror of his stretched face in the first cover. Yes, her hair is badly photoshopped, but WHY IN THE WORLD DID THEY STRETCH HIS HEAD?!
And then I looked at their hands. The bad photoshop on the hair is to distract you from his grotesquely altered thumb.
My mom used to Nice ‘n’ Easy her hair, and immediately after the treatment, the color would be too intense and parts of her scalp and forehead would be dyed to match. That’s all I could think of when I looked at cover #1. Her ear may be weird, but not as weird as that texture-free auburn sideburn. Also isn’t the cording in her neck a little heavy for such an otherwise delicate femaie?