SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

On the heels of whether our fotos should have a subject...., should we include people in our fotos?
Every year Costco has a Foto contest for its members, maybe you have seen the foto issue of the Costco Connection in years past. About eight years ago they had a short tutorial on how to take pictures.
They gave a statistic, that something like 85% of all prize winning photography has at least one person in it! I was a little surprised! I don't remember the exact percentage but it was VERY high.
The moral to that story was that if you include people in your compositions, they stood an 85% better chance of winning a prize than if you did not!
Indeed, how often do we go out of our way to NOT include people in our shots? You hear, "get there early so there wont be people yet". Is that good advice?
I recently saw in the gallery a beautiful foto of a darkened street in a European town with no people. It was obvious that the photographer had gone out of their way to eliminate them. The image also had NO soul! It needed a couple hand-in-hand or kissing or kids or something!!
I'm going to include 3 images that all have people in them. People are an integral part of our world, so why do we sometimes try SO hard to shut them out. We are social animals and NEED people in our lives.
Since that article I've made it a point to include people in a way that they support my subject and indeed some of these photographs have done well in competitions!!
I am following with 3 pics that have people in situations where you often see them purposely eliminated.
So what are your philosophies about including people? Feel free to post shots to support your position and why you feel it works for you.
Maybe after this post you will have a better understanding of whether to include people or not to include people in your compositions!!!
Please wait till I post the images. Thanks!
SS

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

In the Eiffel Tower shot I've included two people for a little side story and only a small piece of the tower but it is still unmistakably the Eiffel Tower.

In the Winsdor shot, At one time I would have moved just slightly to my left and taken the people out but here I've purposely included them to add a homey feel to the pic.

In the Palace shot I could have waited till closing and stood there till I was the last person out but instead chose to include the mass of people to give scale to the size of the palace and the constant flow of humanity EVERYDAY!

What would you have done and why? Post some examples and explain why you did what YOU did!
Post away!!!
Thanks
SS

Eiffel Tower


Windsor England


Palace of Versailles

DaveO Loc: Northeast CT

Excellent post with great examples!

J-SPEIGHT Loc: Akron, Ohio

Very interesting Bill. I always seem to like my images without people in them. I may try a different direction after reading this.

folkus

Interesting point. I have often left people out of my photos because I have felt that they would restrict the timelessness or dated the picture in a way that made it seem less "universal" in its appeal....l'll reconsider based on your thoughts.
Also, I wanted the viewer to be the primary "person" in the experience of looking at the photo. Just my thoughts...

VietVet Loc: Brooklyn, NY

An eye opener SS. I have always painstakingly tried to keep people out of my images. Your assessment gives me pause. I've a close friend, a professional photographer and when he is in town we always go out shooting together. We usually are shooting the same subjects but he, like you almost always wants images with people and of course mine are lackng people. I'm now forced to reassess my position. Excellent subject SS.

AzShooter1 Loc: Surprise, Az.

Very well said, and excellent photos.

hahersh Loc: Burlington, ON, Canada

Your conclusion that a photo with people in it has an 85% better chance of winning is invalid. You do not know what percentage of submitted photos had a person included.
If 85% of submitted photos included a person, then the probability of person/no person winning is equal.

paulrph1 Loc: Washington, Utah

Each photo is an entity unto itself and in some cases adding people to the foto adds depth and feelings and in other cases it distracts. In my estimation for what it is worth. In the first foto the people add nothing and in fact detract but in the second one the foto would be fine either way and in the third one the people give meaning to the foto. My take on the first foto of the Eiffel Tower is that it is not really a picture of the Eiffel Tower. The tower is there but it is not a foto of the tower.
Also in the last foto there are people there but they are not really there. That might seem a little abstract and it probably is. But they give something to the foto but do not over take the foto. If the people were larger and/or there were more of them they would overwhelm the foto. They would therefore become the subject. One the second foto they are not the subject because of their position in the foto. They are there but they become second nature so as to not detract from the foto.
Take for instance a foto of an alley, one person might add something to the foto but a whole bunch of people would overwhelm it.

DaveO Loc: Northeast CT

I missed the part where it was OP's conclusion.

Delderby Loc: Derby UK

Great pics - each one so different - which are complete with the people in them - who do not take anything away from the subjects. Rather they enhance them. Thank you for the lesson, which I won't forget, and am so glad I didn't miss.

geobchlor Loc: Charleston SC

I try to include people in all my photos for two reasons, 1: scale, the people looking at the photo have a better idea of what they are looking at if you have something familiar to scale the photo too. and the other is connection, sure photos with out people can be very nice to look at but if there are people in the photo we have more of a connection to the image and seem to like those images more.

LoneRangeFinder Loc: Left field

Agree with this. ^

DaveO Loc: Northeast CT

grillmaster5062

Whether to include people in an image or not should be determined by whether they add interest or detract from the picture. I don't care what the contest results say. If the image is better off without people in the frame, then that's how I'm going to shoot. Sometimes they help to add a sense of scale.