What makes you vote for a picture?

[Lovesandwich]

What is attractive enough in a photo that you absolutely MUST click that little voting box? Is it style, adherent to the theme, lighting, or just plain spiffy?

[linguine]

Id say a combination of following the theme, quality of the photo and uniqueness/creativity(not really sure what category to vote for though, maybe ill just go for the staplers)

[monkeybort]

for me, theme is a given – i vote for composition, originality, technical aspects…..and, as flickr would put it, ‘interestingness’.

[monkeybort]

and staplers, of course, ALWAYS get my vote. 😛

i put ‘quality’ for my poll answer – that’s really what it all boils down to.

[millera9]

Yeah, quality is A-#1 in my book, but uniqueness and adherence (even creative adherence) to the theme factor in as well.

[Claff]

A great picture that (IMHO) misses the theme won’t get my vote. But all other things being equal, I vote for good stuff.

[Uranus]

composition is the first sign of quality, i reckon…it can make the most mundane subject jump right at you. sticking to themes is, errrrrrm, ok, but interpreting themes with a well-composed shot is better.

[Curious]

quality here but that encompasses adherence to the theme. and like a photoshop vote i’ll vote for funny even if it isn’t a great photo.

there are folks whose photos i look for but they don’t always get a vote. there were a lot of good photos this week. ones that would stand alone if seen in another setting. that is w/o the theme to explain them. can’t say that about some of the contests.

[anneb]

“I like it and it works” isn’t helpful, I guess, so I’ll try to nail down what I mean by that. Starting this week, I’m taking a critique class for first summer session, so I bet it’s good for me to try to nail some of this down for myself, too! I guess what makes me vote for something entails some (not all) of the following.

It fits the theme, even if it’s jamming it in a bit sideways. Ok, if it’s jammed in to the theme kind of sideways, I’m probably MORE likely to vote for it…

It’s shot from an interesting viewpoint, not the most obvious or cliche one, which follows from ^^^.

It fits in with the other shots, and provides a nice sense of flow.
OR
It sticks out from the other shots as different.
Yes, I know, those don’t match. That’s why you shouldn’t listen to critics TOO much 😈

The shot is technically correct (for theme-appropriate values of ‘correct:’ focus, lighting, exposure, etc.)

If it has a face, am I looking at it, esp. eyes, or the back of someone/something’s head? i.e. If the subject has some sentience, can I relate to it?

Nothing glares in the shot as not belonging, and the elements of the shot, central or not, work together well.

It makes me want to know more about it, or, It passes the “yeah, and I should care, why?” test.

Oh, and of course, “I posted it.” (see previous thread) 😉

All in all, I do find myself voting for a number of shots every week. There are some really enjoyable pix posted out there!

[swampa]

I basically base my voting on whether I think it looks “cool”* (very technical I know :P) and whether it is somewhat related to the topic at hand.

* Cool things can be images that look great or little things like the buildings warping slightly in Staplermofo’s entry this week (I’m not saying his images don’t look good! Just made it more good :P)

[Analogy]

Something that stands out and looks different, but still fits the theme, and definitely has to have great artistic and technical merit.

Honestly, I don’t vote for the staplers, they’ve become a bit too cliche and obvious for me. The “It’s A Trap” of Farktography if you will.

[linguine]

Honestly, I don’t vote for the staplers, they’ve become a bit too cliche and obvious for me. The “It’s A Trap” of Farktography if you will.

Those could be some dangerous words to say around here.

[Klahanie]

Honestly, I don’t vote for the staplers, they’ve become a bit too cliche and obvious for me. The “It’s A Trap” of Farktography if you will.

Those could be some dangerous words to say around here.

Oh I think (I hope) ‘mofo has a pretty good sense of humor about the whole thing.

[staplermofo]

Oh I think (I hope) ‘mofo has a pretty good sense of humor about the whole thing.

I’ll kill all you bastards!

[Klahanie]

Oh I think (I hope) ‘mofo has a pretty good sense of humor about the whole thing.

I’ll kill all you bastards!

Oh well, life hasn’t been worth living since my husband got his brutish mitts on my lil’ pink Bostitch. I do have all the parts though and I’m good at fixing things, so there is hope.

Okay, weird. It’s sitting on my desk so I took a look at it. It’s a Boston so I googled Bostitch to see what the hell I was thinking. Weird.

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