Category talk:Photographs

Purpose

Having recently discovered this category, I find it its purpose to be ill-defined. The categories are relatively underutilized, and no category makes it obvious what its purpose is supposed to be. It appears to be divided into subcategories by the user who uploaded the image. Inclusion in such categories seems to be entirely optional and subjective, where the decision was probably made by the uploader by asking "Does this image have a 'photographic' quality to it?" It has no affiliation with the userspace, and yet seemingly promotes the individuality generally relegated to the userspace. It appears that no consensus was made about the contained images, unlike our featured images, yet still are granted "photograph" status matter-of-factly.

In my eyes, something needs to change. Certainly, its purpose needs to be defined within the parent category, but I don't think it truly has one yet. Should the category be moved into Category:User Images? Should the user categories be removed and the category used to hold images with a particular "photographic" quality?

I particularly like the latter option, perhaps with a definition of "photographic" that would allow this category to be the home for user-created images that have the qualities of a Wallpaper, without the officiality. Please reply with your own thoughts and opinions. Dcsg (talk) 00:08, 13 July 2021 (UTC)

I wasn't at all surprised to see that rpeh was the main driver of this category. He was very fond of taking photographs from the various games, and many of them were very scenic and well-shot/-lit. I can't really speak to the motivation behind the category, but I would guess that it was mainly for people who wanted to show off whatever shots they'd taken without having to find a home for the image anywhere more specific. Looking at it that way, it would make a lot of sense to make it a subcategory of User Images, but there's no reason it has to be. A lot of photos that were uploaded for a specific purpose could easily fit into a combined category, so I'd vote in favour of that, in the end.

I'd recommend against defining "photographic", though, or if we do, leave it pretty broad/vague. It's one of those words like "scenic" where you can't entirely pin down what makes something photographic or scenic, and the harder you try, the more awkward of a position you're going to end up in. – Robin Hood ^(talk) 01:30, 13 July 2021 (UTC)

I'm going to take a tip from the Featured Images page and suggest that we edit the category's description to say it's for "specifically-taken beauty shots". As per the Featured Images Page:

"For an image to be eligible for Featured status, it must be used in a UESP article. This is to prevent specially-taken beauty shots from stealing the limelight."

I think these images qualify. They're not used on any articles, and they're taken by users for non-wiki purposes. They're beauty shots. "Decorative photographs" is a bit too vague of a descriptor. I'm also of the opinion that we should move this category to user space. -MolagBallet (talk) 01:13, 15 July 2021 (UTC)

Is there any reason why these beauty shots aren't included on their relevant pages? I've taken what one might call "beauty shots" but I've added them to their relevant pages because they're beautiful and relevant. If these images are not intended to appear on an article, then I would strongly suggest they be moved to be user images. -Dcsg (talk) 05:32, 15 July 2021 (UTC)

So, how does this sound, then?

• Rename all images to User-username-photo name. (Or maybe User-username-NS-photo name...perhaps only if needed for disambiguation?)
• Rename the category to Category:User Images-Photographs.
• Categorize Photographs under Category:User Images.

If we want to start including some of these photographs on gamespace pages, they may need to be renamed again, but lets tackle those one-by-one since naming may be different depending how they're used. Sound good? – Robin Hood ^(talk) 18:29, 17 July 2021 (UTC)

I'm all for it. -Dcsg (talk) 18:44, 17 July 2021 (UTC)

(←) Oh, are we doing anything about the subcategories? Like, do we want Skyrim-Photos-rpeh to become User Images-Photographs-Skyrim-rpeh? Or just User Images-Photogrpahs-rpeh without the namespace? – Robin Hood ^(talk) 19:11, 17 July 2021 (UTC)

Honestly with a name like this I thought this category would be for real-life photos taken with a physical camera, like this picture (and its I assume the definition of photograph to always be taken by a camera). All the things in this category are better described as screenshots, not photos. The Rim of the Sky (talk) 19:16, 17 July 2021 (UTC)

I think the subcategories should be deleted, since they'll have the user's name in the image name. -Dcsg (talk) 20:00, 17 July 2021 (UTC)

That works too. And yeah, I think Rim has a point. We should probably rename any references to "Photo" or "Photograph(s)" to "Screenshot(s)". – Robin Hood ^(talk) 20:31, 17 July 2021 (UTC)