I remember posting a pano shot here, some time ago, which was criticised for having people in it. I didn't understand it then, and I still don't. The shot in question was a mountain scene which contained some very small hikers. On a practical point, none of us have a divine right for people free vistas in front of us. If it is worth photographing, the chances are that others also like it, and may be there. Of course you could always photoshop them out, but then, is that a true image? Also a very valid point that is often made on this subject, is that the people give a reference to size. Also, the image is humanised. I would say though that I have seen some portraits that would be improved by leaving people out. In short, if the people are part of the scene, leave them in. If they block the scene, leave them out.

Baz, that's an interesting comment.
I didn't see your pano, but we must always consider the source of the critique vs your experience as a photographer. It's all to easy to receive criticism from people that really don't know. Though I always appreciate an opinion or a different point of view, sometimes I know for a fact that it's not correct. For a completely untrained beginner to give an opinion is different than getting an opinion from a Pro that has shot Nat Geo covers.
It would be interesting here to hear from all those that have BFA's and MFA's. not because they are better than we are but because they are highly trained in everything from the practical to the theoretical.
And I've said often that none of this often has rights or wrongs but there ARE accepted industry practices and it's hard to know those being outside the industry of photographing in a vacumn!
Thanks for your responce.
SS

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

When I first started photography, I was insistent on pristine landscapes with NO people. I waited impatiently for them to get out of my way, and learned techniques to remove these wanderers by using long shutter speeds or cloning them out. About 4-5 years down the road I learned enough to figure out when it was nice to include a person, and when it was better to not to.

There's lots of parts to my decision-making on this, but mine probably differs from the way others decide. I will say that part of my scouting at any location now includes figuring whether there are interesting humans who might be a part of a composition, and if so, how to incorporate them compositionally and particularly, how big I ought to "let" them be.

Here's two where I thought inclusion helped.