Warning: Many large pictures.
I’m trying to decide if I should carry a phone or camera on my next hike. I’m not a photographer, and I’m not going to try and polish pictures once they’re taken – so getting it right the first time is key. Since art’s pretty subjective, I thought I’d put some pictures out there and let people tell me which ones they like best. A note to the nerdy, please don’t download them, look at the EXIF data and then base your votes on what you know – just give a gut reaction of “this one is nicer than that one” please. There’s 4 galleries. Please leave comments – the title of each picture is above the gallery as you flip through them.
First set, walking up my road:
Which of these pictures is best?
Second set, a wildlife marsh/pond nearby:
Which of these is the best?
Set 3, fork in the road:
Which of these is the best?
A house set back from the road across a snowy field:
Which looks best?
Third
Second
Third
Second
Obviously not a huge difference. Think my choices were based on which sky seemed the amount of blue.
I like the last pic in all of these. The last pic seems to be a bit brighter, more colorful
Set 1: #5
Set 2: #5
Set 3: #3
Set 4: #1
There are slight differences in sharpness but my choices were mostly based on color and contrast. Of course these can be adjusted in post but since you typically don’t do any they become considerations.
I find the first in each set to be best. I’m seeing good range of values, no color fringing against the bright sky or chromatic aberration, the compression looks cleanest. Other things like contrast, saturation, etc can be “fixed in post” much easier than those core aspects of the image file. I think the lens looks like it’s best in the #1 versions.