Does it happen to you that your most popular pics are NOT those you like most ?

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ruben

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Does it happen to you that your most popular pics are NOT those you like most ?

It happens to me since I started to photograph. Why is that ?

Cheers,
Ruben
 
When I look at the popularity ranking on my flickr page the one with the most favourites is definitely one of my personal favourites, too. However, quite a lot of my more popular pics are rather boring in my own opinion and I know that they only rank high due to cheap tricks like pretty colors and/or shallow DoF. :)
 
If you're talking about the RFF gallery. I believe an image with strong contrast/clolours and simple forms gets more views. These elements help people discern the image when displayed in its small thumbnail view and will make them more likely to click on it to view it larger. Of course such elements may not ultimately always make for the best image.

Then again pictures with women in them always get loads of views. I have no idea why that coud be. ;)
 
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To counter balance your opinions about the public, let me recall the great David Vestal, who stated we the photographers are very bad editors of our images. Why?

Cheers,
Ruben
 
It is often difficult to be objective about one's own work. Then again, who are the viewers? On RFF, for example, pictures are seen by other photographers. This is not true of the worlds we live in. Evaluation is based on widely different criteria.
 
When looking at our photographs, we can recall the whole process of taking and making the final result. Other onlookers only see the result and not the way to it.
 
ruben said:
To counter balance your opinions about the public, let me recall the great David Vestal, who stated we the photographers are very bad editors of our images. Why?

Cheers,
Ruben
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Could it be that as the maker you’re better informed about how and why you made the image? To the uninformed viewer it is simply a picture, to the photographer there’s a story attached to it; maybe?

Do you still feel the same with your older work? With 20 year old contact sheets I find I have a completely different opinion as to which are worth printing today
 
I read that Gary Winogrand held back on developing his film for years for that very reason.

Me, I just can't wait to see what the images come out like.
 
Pretty much what everyone else said. When I look at a foggy picture of a hilltop, I remember the 12 h hike; other people see a ruined sunrise pic.
 
If you're talking about the RFF gallery. I believe an image with strong contrast/clolours and simple forms gets more views. These elements help people discern the image when displayed in its small thumbnail view and will make them more likely to click on it to view it larger. Of course such elements may not ultimately always make for the best image.

I have to agree with that. And would add that even a 700 pixel wide jpeg doesn't do justice to most pictures.

To counter balance your opinions about the public, let me recall the great David Vestal, who stated we the photographers are very bad editors of our images. Why?
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Have to ask David Vestal.

When I look at a foggy picture of a hilltop, I remember the 12 h hike; other people see a ruined sunrise pic.
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True, but if it is just what you remember about taking the picture that makes it a good picture, it isn't a good picture.

To the original question: Good and popular do not always go hand in hand. Could they even be mutually exclusive?

Cheers,
Gary
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I think what has been discussed is the emotional attachment we have to the image because as the photographer we remember the why/what/when/how etc surrounding it. If we could capture some of that in the actual shot (to tell the story) then I think we'd have a truly great image.
 
ruben said:
To counter balance your opinions about the public, let me recall the great David Vestal, who stated we the photographers are very bad editors of our images. Why?

Cheers,
Ruben
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Sometimes it is in the situation that we become emotionally attached to specific images. Winogrand's answer to overcoming this was to set aside undeveloped rolls of film for months at a time, or longer, forgetting what was there. This way, he "divorced" himself from emotional attachment to specific images. His editing then became more intellectual rather than emotional.
 
I have shown my wife prints I don't like, and she finds some kind of redeeming grace in them. By the same token, I've shown her the ones I like and they leave her cold. It's basically a matter of first impression. For the photographer, the image has a story and that gives it a different meaning. For a viewer, the image alone has to make its case.

I actually like when that happens. It helps me learn what others see in my shots and everybody else's.
 
First, it seems to me according to the answers that most if not all here agree about the phenomena.

As for the known assertion that images are like wine, sometimes yes, sometimes not. Don't you have had a great image that you recognized it as such immediately, and continue to have the same opinion one or two decades later ?


But as far as me personally I strongly disagree with all the references to the circumstances when making the pictures influencing me. When I get the results I make my selection based on what I see as the end result. At this point I clearly differentiate between what I intended and what I have gotten, sometimes for good, sometimes for bad. Here you should take into account that mostly I use to photograph people on the move.

Well, perhaps it is just that each of us has her/his own taste, and when it comes to one's work our taste may become specially sensible rather than when we have to "judge" others work.

Or it may be too, that by the very nature of our craft we are controversial characters.

For me, the former question is still open.

Cheers,
Ruben
 
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Good question Ruben and a very timely one too...at least for me...
I just got back 41 rolls of 36 ex. film (Dev. to CD) that now needs to be edited down for others to use (High School Yearbook)
I have to look at them equally and select the ones that everyone may like (Not just the shots that stroke my ego)
It's hard not to just show your very best but to think of others and show what would appear to you to be boring shots...
To most of the kids as long as they are in the shot it's their favorite...
The more technically correct with perfect placement, balance and front page color might get left behind...go figure...
Now, leaving "My Ego" behind I must edit these pictures...
 
ruben, it was nice humour :) as you said, some people fail to understand most your personal works due no relations to your memory of the past.
 
For centuries artists and physiologists have worked to explain people’s pictorial preferences, and called their observations “composition”

Do you believe there is such a thing Ruben?
 
Sorry Stewart, but the significance of your last post is unclear to me.

Nevertheless, I have to retreat from my assertion that the circumstances are not a factor in my preferences about my images. It happens that when an image is easy-for-me to obtain, I tend to disdain it somewhat. In my case it doesn't happen both directions, but in the mentioned one.

Yet this easy-for-me, or for you, encompasses a mixture of talent, experience and luck.

Hmmm, the mistery is starting to unveil...

Cheers,
Ruben
 
ruben said:
I have to retreat from my assertion that the circumstances are not a factor in my preferences about my images. It happens that when an image is easy-for-me to obtain, I tend to disdain it somewhat. Ruben
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It's hard to separate ourselves from the difficulty of making a photograph, but the general public will respond to content before effort. Where photographers here might understand the complexity or the technical wonder of a particular shot, the g.p. is simply going to respond to the finished print.

Some photographers are wonderful editors; some are not. I don't think you can make a blanket statement there.
It's always surprising what people respond to -- there's certainly a lot more interest in other people, or pets, or kids than there is in the interminable tree/rock/fern B&W masterworks.

Maybe the question is: Who are you shooting for?
 
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