R. ASKS | A picture may be worth a thousand words, but.... | Hello Pretty Bird! - A beauty and not-so-glamorous lifestyle blog

24 June, 2015

R. ASKS | A picture may be worth a thousand words, but....

Happy Wednesday, everybody! Hope you're all fine and dandy. I haven't been sleeping well, so excuse me if this post doesn't zzzzzzzzzzzz.



This week's question is about blogs, and was inspired by a conversation I was having with somebody about blogging. Go figure.

Which matters more to you on blogs: Good writing or good photography and design?

Please don't say "it depends"—there's obviously a greater need for nice photos on a beauty blog than on a blog about self-publishing e-books, for example. Think about the blogs you really, really, really love: Do they excel more at the written word or at taking gorgeous as f**k pictures? Is it possible to be equally good at both?

I find myself seeking out interesting writing over photography most of the time. Not that I don't appreciate beautiful imagery, but beautiful imagery without a story or compelling information to accompany it just doesn't intrigue me as much. That said, I really, really, really appreciate bloggers who try to provide both. But I will read blogs without pictures. (Remember when that's all there was? Yeah.) It's a bit different with beauty blogs because visual appeal is a big part of the whole beauty thing, but a really vivid description is more likely to make me run out and buy something than a nice photo. Talk of scents and textures, scintillating recollections of how the blogger used the product, personal anecdotes that I can relate to (or at least react to). But that's just me.

There's no wrong answer here—if you value amazing photos more than amazing writing, let me know in the comments! I'm curious about what other people think.

17 comments:

  1. GOOD WRITING. I mean, decent photography IS important, but if all you're doing is showing me some pretty pictures of your new eyeshadow palette that does nothing for me. I want to know how well it works, what you liked about it, what you didn't like...otherwise, what's the point of writing a review?

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  2. It's a little bit of both for me. I guess it depends on the product. If it's makeup, then I need clear, lighting and color corrected photos of SWATCHES! If it's an instructional post, then I must needs writing.

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  3. I def think that better writing interests me more. Pictures are definitely important but super long novel posts lost my attention. I like posts that are to the point. Also, bad grammar and sentence structure loses me even if the pictures are pretty good.

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  4. Haha I've seen a few reviews like that, and I agree that they don't do much for me. I think it's hard to please everyone though - I've seen some people complain that a review post is "too long" when it has more than a paragraph or two! Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

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  5. Yeah makeup is the one area where photography (and editing) skills are more important. A skincare review with a shitty picture of the jar will probably still be informative if the author provides a lot of information. But swatches that are waaaaay off aren't very helpful. Some bloggers don't really review makeup though - I see a lot of blogs that are 100% skincare focused nowadays.

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  6. Oh yeah, bad grammar is very distracting. I like long posts if the information is actually interesting, but it has to be broken up somehow - with line breaks or lots of pictures. Reading a giant wall of text isn't very fun.

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  7. True. For skincare bloggers, I think writing is more important than photos. I appreciate a thorough review. But I haven't seen many blogs that fail to give me this level of review since most usually test skincare for a few weeks ad minimum. But in an ideal world we'd all have both! I really need a new camera...

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  8. The writing is definitely what appeals to me. Like you said, that's what blogs used to be--just writing. Sometimes I almost feel like the pictures are what are distracting in a blog. It's like the blogger is just using them as breaks so that they don't have to write as much. Does that make sense? I just really love it when someone WRITES and writes well. Now, that being said, I do feel like certain blogs require photos like fashion & beauty blogs. However, even some of those blogs will just post a photo or two and continue on with a little anecdote about their outfit or something...I love that!

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  9. I really like blogs that write correctly... correct grammar, punctuation, etc. I know that blogs are typically informal but I just think it displays a level of effort.

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  10. Yeah, I've definitely seen some blogs that do that. I appreciate some photos even in a word-heavy post, because it breaks up the text and makes it easier to read... but that's not the same as just dumping an excessive number of photos in there to make up for a lack of written content. I agree with you 100% about the anecdote thing! I want to see a little bit of the author's personality shine through.

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  11. w,at? (Just kidding.) I'm going to agree with you there - casual is one thing but it's pretty hard to read something that has tons and tons of grammar mistakes.

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  12. Writing! If the writing is poor, I lose interest or it feels like a less quality blog/post to me, even with gorgeous photos.

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  13. I feel the same way. A good image might make me curious enough to click on someone's post, but if the writing is a total train wreck I'll probably just X out of the window and forget about it.

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  14. I try both but I know I fail so I'll invest more time in the other. I'm dyslectic or whatever and have troubles in understanding what I read.. Also I write what I think and it always sounds a bit chat-like and easy, like this comment. It's never in a difficult language like you would see in a pretty old memoir. So I've took it on me to try and make better and prettier pictures, bought a big daylight lamp set, a led ring light and dslr camera,, still not the best photographer, but I try :D I keep my blog text short and to the point, so if I want to re-read I won't have troubles lol :P Also when I read blogs for myself, I like short and to the point more than long, very extended reviews.. it's like "omg" where do I find the important part (smell, texture, good or not) This blogpost is really nice! ;)

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  15. I don't think a review needs to be long to be good - I do like reviews that give a lot of details, but if the major points are communicated in an effective and interesting way in few words, that's definitely OK by me! ;)

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  16. Writing is important. If there are grammatical or spelling errors, I can't really get past that. I also prefer posts with some personality. I'm not sure I always write particularly interesting posts, but whatever. Photos are fairly important for fashion and beauty stuff, but a well written review can be more helpful than a beautiful shot of a product.

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  17. I like personality too. I think your personality comes across in your posts - it's clear from the way you write that you have a sense of humor.

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