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12/05/2006 10:07:19 AM · #1 |
| Looking through the challenge archives, it seems that the top scorers (top 20) are generally landscapes and still life. Why do photographers and voters prefer landscapes? |
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12/05/2006 10:12:19 AM · #2 |
A face will always receive more of a mixture of opinions in terms of how an individual relates to the character or expression which has been captured. Everyone can appreciate a good view.
Remember this is about the masses.
Message edited by author 2006-12-05 10:14:36. |
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12/05/2006 10:12:40 AM · #3 |
I think the answer is volume. More photographers, especially newish ones tend to shoot landscapes because it doesn't require special equipement, just a good eye and patience. Shooting people well often requires more knowledge, more equipment, etc., thus less people doing portraits at DPC.
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12/05/2006 10:20:12 AM · #4 |
Originally posted by idnic:
I think the answer is volume. More photographers, especially newish ones tend to shoot landscapes because it doesn't require special equipement, just a good eye and patience. Shooting people well often requires more knowledge, more equipment, etc., thus less people doing portraits at DPC. |
Landscapes require just as much knowledge. Just different knowledge- not more!!!
maybe the equipment bit is slightly true. Yet a simple reflector and window light is sufficient.
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12/05/2006 10:27:26 AM · #5 |
I agree with this. I've met lots of people getting digital cameras for the first time and they ALL want to go shoot landscapes. I'm not sure why, but I think it's because the newbie believes it's the easiest way to get a "good" shot.
Far too many postcards are landscapes, I guess - brainwashes people.
What the newbie doesn't understand at first, is that capturing a quality landscape isn't so easy. For me, it's hard as hell. I much prefer my people shots.
Originally posted by idnic:
I think the answer is volume. More photographers, especially newish ones tend to shoot landscapes because it doesn't require special equipement, just a good eye and patience. Shooting people well often requires more knowledge, more equipment, etc., thus less people doing portraits at DPC. |
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12/05/2006 10:27:31 AM · #6 |
Originally posted by alexsaberi:
Originally posted by idnic:
I think the answer is volume. More photographers, especially newish ones tend to shoot landscapes because it doesn't require special equipement, just a good eye and patience. Shooting people well often requires more knowledge, more equipment, etc., thus less people doing portraits at DPC. |
Landscapes require just as much knowledge. Just different knowledge- not more!!!
maybe the equipment bit is slightly true. Yet a simple reflector and window light is sufficient. |
The knowledge I was referring to was about the equipment and use of it -- I didn't intend to say that Landscapes didn't require as much learning as any other type of shooting.
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12/05/2006 10:28:03 AM · #7 |
Only one of the current front page is a typical landscape.
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12/05/2006 10:34:37 AM · #8 |
Originally posted by hopper:
I agree with this. I've met lots of people getting digital cameras for the first time and they ALL want to go shoot landscapes. I'm not sure why, but I think it's because the newbie believes it's the easiest way to get a "good" shot. |
Landscapes don't talk back. There's a myth that you have more time to shoot landscapes than shooting a person. So for inexperienced photographers, landscape seems easier. Less confrontational. Nobody wanting to see the picture you took of them.
The lighting equipment is harder to control for landscapes and it isn't so easy to direct the scene, so I think landscape photography is probably more demanding than portraiture, but a lot of people don't get that straight away.
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12/05/2006 10:35:53 AM · #9 |
Originally posted by Gordon:
Originally posted by hopper:
I agree with this. I've met lots of people getting digital cameras for the first time and they ALL want to go shoot landscapes. I'm not sure why, but I think it's because the newbie believes it's the easiest way to get a "good" shot. |
Landscapes don't talk back. There's a myth that you have more time to shoot landscapes than shooting a person. So for inexperienced photographers, landscape seems easier. Less confrontational. Nobody wanting to see the picture you took of them.
The lighting equipment is harder to control for landscapes and it isn't so easy to direct the scene, so I think landscape photography is probably more demanding than portraiture, but a lot of people don't get that straight away. |
well put
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12/05/2006 01:00:09 PM · #10 |
Yes, I understand what you're all saying about the myth around photographing people...my training ground has been trying to capture my own children on film: you have to shoot from the hip and it's not a challenge for the feint hearted...but this still doesn't explain the results...why is scenery selected by voters above intimate people pics?
Maybe it is as Cindi (Idnic) says...it's a question of volume...there are simply less people pics to look at and rate? Cindi..your portfolio shows just how rewarding People are!! :) |
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12/05/2006 01:35:03 PM · #11 |
Originally posted by faery:
but this still doesn't explain the results...why is scenery selected by voters above intimate people pics?
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Too many variables to completely explain why, but you start having to be part psychologist part movie director when shooting themed portraits for challenges.
To start, voters are quick to vote on attractiveness of the subject. While you won't find many voters that will fess up, but it does happen. A few obvious exemptions are the elderly and impoverished (these provoke different emotions).
Secondly, the ability of your model to provoke emotional responses (or your ability to direct such acting) is crucial to your success with a staged portrait in a challenge.
I could keep going about lighting and post-processing for mood. But, there are just too many variable that can kill a themed portrait. I won't go so far as to say it takes a better photographer to shoot a portrait than it does a landscape (because I suck at landscapes - not patient enough) but it does take a different set of skills which may or may not be directly related to actually taking the photo.
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12/05/2006 01:37:28 PM · #12 |
Originally posted by fotomann_forever:
To start, voters are quick to vote on attractiveness of the subject. While you won't find many voters that will fess up, but it does happen. A few obvious exemptions are the elderly and impoverished (these provoke different emotions).
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Several 'fessed up on this. Comments like 'well, doesn't meet the challenge but I'm scoring highly because the model is attractive'
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12/05/2006 01:47:03 PM · #13 |
Frequently, the things that impact us are things we don't see often. I think it's easier to find geographical locations that are uncommon to a wide group of people than it is to find models who are "different" enough. I also think people tend to have a more similar view of landscape scenes than they do of people (ie. it'd be easier to find a landscape that 10 people thought was gorgeous than it would be to find a person that 10 thought was gorgeous.) That's just my guess.
Not to mention that at least 50% of the people shots entered here have the same models over and over and over again. That lessens impact, too.
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12/05/2006 01:53:41 PM · #14 |
Originally posted by mk:
(ie. it'd be easier to find a landscape that 10 people thought was gorgeous than it would be to find a person that 10 thought was gorgeous.) That's just my guess.
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I agree with that.
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12/05/2006 01:56:33 PM · #15 |
That makes so much sense: each viewer will approach a model/s subjectively...based on a whole lot of bias/preferences/subconscious identifying etc ...
Ironically, while I am very drawn to People Pictures, the Very Staged Beautiful Model shots, leave me cold and I catch myself voting them down for a whole variety of reasons. I need to examine such reasons in myself... I think it's a case of "Trop belle pour toi"...("Too Beautiful For You"...did you ever see that Gerard Depardieu 1989 movie on the art circuit?). Perfectly groomed people tend to get an immediate '6' and below from me. Must work on this bias...
But really this has been great: just a short discussion like this has already made me rethink my subjects and what I want to achieve...thanks guys! Thanks DPC!!
Message edited by author 2006-12-05 13:58:28. |
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12/05/2006 02:08:47 PM · #16 |
Originally posted by faery:
...why is scenery selected by voters above intimate people pics? |
It's a matter of universal appeal. If a stranger came up to you and asked if you wanted to see pictures of his family or pictures of Bora-Bora, which would you rather see?
Also, think about what you see every day where you live... all sorts of people, but only a few changes of scenery. With so many members all over the world, it's more likely that some will find unusual (and thus interesting) landscapes than unusual people. |
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12/05/2006 02:09:00 PM · #17 |
Human nature dictates that most of us will claim that our specialty (landscape vs. portrait) requires more knowledge than the other.
Reality dictates that for each individual person the other specialty is the harder of the two.
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12/05/2006 02:13:22 PM · #18 |
| for me, i like shooting people (photographically, that is), but it's easier to find a landscape to sit still... |
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12/05/2006 02:13:46 PM · #19 |
Joey_L's (and a select few others') work aside, the typical high-scoring DPC portrait either looks like it came from the pages of National Geographic or the pages of Cosmo.
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12/05/2006 02:16:56 PM · #20 |
I think Portraits in landscapes are harder than either. :P
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12/05/2006 02:20:10 PM · #21 |
for me it is always much more interesting with people than with any landscapes, no matter how "strange" they might look like.
landcapes (the majority of them) are liveless to me, if there are no people there - there is little life in them.
landscapes are alwyas the same, people are always different.
but it's just my weird impression of this world:)
well, I've only been using one model so far though...
and I do not like "smooth" model photos either. |
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12/05/2006 02:24:51 PM · #22 |
I find good landscape work harder than portraits, because you can always ask a person to do that gesture again. Landscape photography is often frantic, rapidly changing, stressful and a constant panic. Shooting people is at least a bit more relaxing & less fleeting.
But I find good portrait work harder than landscapes, because you have to interact with a person. The emotions are fleeting, rapidly changing and hard to catch. It's a stressful, constant panic. Shooting landscapes is at least a bit more relaxing and less interactive.
Both are very tough to do well. Both are easy to do badly. But as others have said, landscapes tend to provoke less negative emotions, so are good subjects for a popularity contest. People tend to have stronger opinions about pictures of other people, so that can tend to open up room for voting down as well as up.
For some reason people seem to like turning portraits into plastic mannequins too, for some reason.
Message edited by author 2006-12-05 14:25:31.
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12/05/2006 02:26:55 PM · #23 |
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12/05/2006 02:28:57 PM · #24 |
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12/05/2006 02:39:07 PM · #25 |
Originally posted by DrAchoo:
You don't think landscapes have personality? These shots were probably taken within three feet of each other.
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wonderful photos! and sure they have personality, everything has.
I just think people are the most interesting creatures. or maybe it's a body cult inherited from Leonardo that is talking in me? :)
anyway, I look for unusual and weird in everything. and still love people a bit more.
:) |
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