When setting up a scene on the UMD store you get to pick one of the preview images as the "main" or "cover" one - the one that shows up first when scenes are displayed, and the only image you initially see if looking at a selection of scenes.

But when looking through messy or muddy scenes with a mind to buy, do you prefer clean images that show the model(s) before the messing starts, or messy ones that show the final result?

As well as answering the poll feel free to comment. My own preference is for clean shots because I'm interested in what a model is wearing, I can then tell from the rest of the previews or description if they get properly messy or not. But wondering how other people feel about it?

Attached, as examples, are before and after shots from some of our recent releases.

I clicked 'Other' because I prefer to see the first bit of mess hit the model. And of course her reaction.

That's an interesting point. To me, the "moment of first contact" is one of the major money shots, and you don't want to be giving many of those away or people will just download your previews to their wankbank instead of buying the scenes. Though having said that I'm aware I probably give away far too many previews, some of our scenes will have over 30 preview images because I want to be sure customers know in detail what they're getting before they buy.

Also interesting regarding reactions. I've always been mainly focused on the actual event, so if one of our people was having her yoga pants filled, I'd film a close up of the gunge being poured into the pants, framed from just above the waist to upper thighs, so we can see the fabric move and soak through as the mess goes in, but with the model's head completely out of shot. But in recent years I've come to realise many people want to see the reacton as well as what's being done, so perhaps better to shoot with the scene framed from just above the model's eyes to mid-thigh, so we can still see the pants-action but also see how she reacts.

I also hit other because I'll say it depends on the scene in question, what you're looking for is that iconic/attention grabbing photo or stillframe that perfectly describes the scene your selling. (this could be at any point throughout filming)

If you're marketing more towards the fantasy of the model/outfit, then it may be better to go for a clean model (perhaps holding some of the mess?).
If its the type of mess and delivery thats key to your scene, then it may be better to showcase that.

To go by your example scenes;
Scene 1: I'm voting clean. Although the messy photo also works, the maid outfit is the bigger part of this scene/fantasy.
Scenes 2 and 3: I'll vote messy; as both the clean photos appear very generic and could be any scene, while the messy gives a good idea of what the scenes involves.
Scene 4: I'll vote clean again; as the messy pic suggests this is a single model scene.
Scene 5: Clean, or I'd use a different photo of the model sitting up in the mud. Lying down she's very well camouflaged and it'll be easy to skip past the thumbnail.
Scene 6: The messy photo shows the scene well without the models being camouflaged, while the clean photo appears too generic to grab my attention.

That's a really good question. I would say clean. The clean image give me more a feeling of suspense when I then read the worded description of "mud", "gunge" etc. Then when I click on the link, I can see whatever other images are provided as previews of the rest of the scene.


BTW that scene with Honeysuckle in the PVC maid outfit is my favorite thing you've ever done!

I would say 'it depends' My preference would be a part way through shot for most scenes, i.e. model is visibly messy but not unrecognisably trashed.

The issue I have with clean shots is that unless the outfit or model or both particularly appeal to me I won't click any further.

With a completely trashed shot I often can't see what outfit the model was wearing or (if I'm not familiar with the model what they look like).

I personally prefer to see a messy pic but not like end of the session messy just like half way through so you don't spoil too much

I'd always prefer clean so you can see exactly what the model/models are wearing then go into the link to read the description and see any other footage of the mess. I find that more exciting that way.

Thanks for the detailed response, appreciate the time you took to do that, have replied to the breakdown in detail below. In general you'e absolutely right, the idea of the cover shot is to grab a potential viewer's attention so they click through to see the rest of the previews and read the description. I know what grabs me, but I've come to realise that as well as a WAM fetish I have a "women in clothes" fetish - I like to just look at fully clothed women, wearing the kind of outfits I enjoy, and if WAM is added that's like a huge second hit. So I tend to assume that a clean clothes shot that shows the outfit(s) clearly will be the best attention-grabber. And to an extent the poll so far backs that up, aftef an early lead for "messy" it's been solidy "clean" in the lead all weekend. But at the same time I can see that a partly messy shot, or an action one of mess being applied, may appeal to people more.


Yep, completely agree here, and at the moment the clean shot has 14 hearts while the messy one has 10, which futher backs that up. The scene was a custom and the customer supplied the stunning heavy duty latex maid's dress, so a lot of the emphasis for that scene was the outfit.


Interesting. In Scene 2 the blue Chinese-style dress is one of Honeysuckle's own, and particularly gorgeous, plus we wanted to show off Rosemary's very smart office jumpsuit - once someone is messy it's amost impossible to tell if they are wearing a one-piece or top and trousers. In that pair clean leads messy 7 to 5. However in Scene 3, you can still clearly see what the outfits are even covered in custard, and interestingly in that one messy leads clean by 9 to 7.


That's mainly an artefact of the way UMD crops form images square, if you enlarge it Honeysuckle (also fully messy) becomes visible on the left, and the cover images are shown wider so she'd be visible. Having said that the emphasis in that scene is very much the shiny nylon shorts, which are a fetish of their own. Clean leads messy 8 to 6 in that one.


Was thinking that myself, but included it as an example of a totally messy scene, in contrast to the completely clean, still in the grassy field above the mudbanks, clean shot. Clean leads messy 8 to 6 in that case.


Interesting point. This scene isn't available on the download store yet, it's only just gone live in the Members Lounge on Langstonedale.com and is queued for store release on the 1st of July 2021 (just after it auto-rotates off the main site). It did have the shot inlcuded below as its cover image, however I've just edited it and swapped to the "standing in the mud" one from the set above, as you say it does show the coverage without camouflaging the girls, and as the scene title is "Denim Dungaree Mudslide Fun!" it should be obvious from the title what they are wearing. The heartclicks are tied at 5 to 5 at time of writing too, suggesting equal appeal.

Ta again for the detailed response!

I'm glad you brought this up actually, DungeonMasterOne!

As a producer I find it's a lot easier for me, on quite a few aspects, to just do what I find most appealing to see rather than try to figure out something like this. But covers are something I put a lot of effort into. And I do find it quite interesting how the 'clean covers' option has a high margin more poll votes than I first expected - So I may have to keep that in mind going forward!

I think for me, my aim with a cover photo is to try and capture a moment that sums up a few different elements: A shot where you can see the model, yet see the quality of the gunge and the thought I've put into choosing the outfit - Which is often quite a specific shot to pick out! So I tend to just 'custom cover' something with three different images in: Clean shot, During shot and After shot. (The after shot can tend to be an epic booty shot. But what can I say? I'm just all about dat ass!)

That tends to be how I see it. And thanks re Honeysuckle's sludge maid scene, that was a complex but fun one to do. I'll pass on your comment, she'll be delighted.


That makes sense. I've tended to come at it from the view that the outfit and person will appeal, and people who like what they see will then click to see what happens, but I can see the appeal of a part-way-in one too.


LOL! I quite enjoyed reading it too. And yeah, agree completely with the "slithers down trousers", I love the first moments of a trouser-filling scene, externally everything is still clean and pristine, but we know she's already got a litre of custard flowing down inside, slithering wettly down her legs, any moment damp stains are going to start coming through and she's perhaps already writing a little with pleasure, but just for a moment, nothing shows. Delicious!


Fair comment, echoes what @in_my_trunks said above too.


That's always been my approach, and given the poll and popularity of clean images in the heart clicks I'll probably mostly stay with it, very interesting to see everyone's comments though.


That's a cool idea. I tried something similar a few years back with some software that generated a collage image from all the previews, merged together to make a composite image, but they didn't seem to get much of a response and the software only let you do a few without buying the full package, so never did any more. The three-image collages you've done do seem quite effective though.

I prefer clean. I guess it's just my favorite thing to see. I like to imagine how messy they'll get. To me what is most erotic is the becoming messy and not the end result.

This is a very interesting topic. I would say the best main image is that scenes " killer shot "

What I mean by that is in every scene there is usually a moment when the model just really nails it. It could be anywhere over the course of the vid or shoot. What they teach you in class is, the best picture overall makes the best cover image generally speaking.
The best picture will naturally draw the most interest from the viewer.

The skill is in knowing how to spot the "Killer shot" in a batch of potentially hundreds of pictures or caps.

That definitely seems to be in line with the poll, where clean now has a significant lead. And agreed, for me too, the anticipation of seeing a nice girl in lovely outfit and imagining what's going to happen to her is a big part of it for me too.


Oh hell yeah, the UMD generates one image per second of video so on a 40 minute scene that's 2400 vidcap images to select from, plus the still photos, while trying to give a fair overview of the scene but not give away all the money shots. Selecting the scene preview shots is by far the most time-consuming part of queueing up a scene for release, but necessary as it really is art to pick the right shots to sell it accurately.

The comments on this thread, poll, and numbers of heart-clicks on the image pair, between them show quite a variety of views. I think in general we'll continue to have mostly all-clean images as our scene covers to show off the models and outfits, but will sometimes use messy, or part-messy, ones instead if they appear to convey the overall feel better than the clean ones do. The dungaree mud scene from the samples above in particular, it'll be interesting to see how it sells with the "muddy clothes and standing in the mud pool" cover image instead of the all-clean original one.