Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

World’s most photographed places

sightsmap.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 52 posts

Re: World’s most photographed places

#41

Post by nraynaud »

brc wrote: post #22
beggi wrote: post #13

Wonder why Europe has so many more photograph density than the US. Just correlating with higher population density?

The average population density of western europe is much higher than the average population density of even the eastern USA. Coupled with the fact that there is a lot more 'older' stuff there, whether castles, old battlefields, churches, you name it, it's not surprising there are a lot more tourist photos being taken. The average European city is a lot more photogenic than the average American or Asian city (clearly…

I just checked Paris, the most photographed is Moulin Rouge, in the middle of the former prostitutes quarter. More photographed than arc de triumph, Eiffel tower, of the 2 km long Champs Élysée.

We have to talk either about tourists motivations or the effect of the difference between the camera position and the target position in density maps relevance.

Re: World’s most photographed places

#42

Post by tammet »

nraynaud wrote: post #41
brc wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The average population density of western europe is much higher than the average population density of even the eastern USA. Coupled with the fact that there is a lot more 'older' stuff there, whether castles, old battlefields, churches, you name it, it's not surprising there are a lot more tourist photos being taken. The average European city is a lot more photogenic than the average American or Asian city (clearly…

I just checked Paris, the most photographed is Moulin Rouge, in the middle of the former prostitutes quarter. More photographed than arc de triumph, Eiffel tower, of the 2 km long Champs Élysée. We have to talk either about tourists motivations or the effect of the difference between the camera position and the target position in density maps relevance.

Eiffel tower photo locations are spread over a fairly wide area, while Moulin Rouge photos are taken in a relatively small spot, hence more intense.

Re: World’s most photographed places

#43

Post by vanderZwan »

nraynaud wrote: post #41
brc wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The average population density of western europe is much higher than the average population density of even the eastern USA. Coupled with the fact that there is a lot more 'older' stuff there, whether castles, old battlefields, churches, you name it, it's not surprising there are a lot more tourist photos being taken. The average European city is a lot more photogenic than the average American or Asian city (clearly…

I just checked Paris, the most photographed is Moulin Rouge, in the middle of the former prostitutes quarter. More photographed than arc de triumph, Eiffel tower, of the 2 km long Champs Élysée. We have to talk either about tourists motivations or the effect of the difference between the camera position and the target position in density maps relevance.

I'm a bit sad that there is no scale for extreme hotspots - I'm sure you'd be able to pinpoint the Mona Lisa's location in the Louvre otherwise.

Re: World’s most photographed places

#44

Post by Houshalter »

Someone made a program that could reconstruct models of places from tons of automatically gathered photographs (http://www.ted.com/talks/blaise_aguera_y_arcas_demos_photosy...). Imagine creating an entire model of the world from pictures like this, as well as things like Google's streetview, and in the future tons of data from drones and robots.

Re: World’s most photographed places

#45

Post by altrego99 »

crazygringo wrote: post #20
te_platt wrote: post #19

I'm curious how this would look if it were somehow "divided by" population density. It wouldn't make sense for somewhere in the middle of the ocean but it might highlight more remote, scenic places. edit: For example I noticed that southern Utah is significantly brighter than you would expect from population density.

That was my first reaction too. But zooming all the way in (to Manhattan, for example), it's clear that the heat map corresponds to actual scenic tourist spots, it goes all the way down to street level, pretty amazing. And since these are "panoramio" photos, not selfies snapped for Facebook, it would seem to be a pretty accurate reflection of tourist destinations, as opposed to population.

When you zoom in, you do in fact control for differential population density to a lot of extent.

Re: World’s most photographed places

#47

Post by coldarchon »

te_platt wrote: post #19

I'm curious how this would look if it were somehow "divided by" population density. It wouldn't make sense for somewhere in the middle of the ocean but it might highlight more remote, scenic places. edit: For example I noticed that southern Utah is significantly brighter than you would expect from population density.

It is kind of funny the region between France and Germany is the most lit up region on this map but none of the high rank marker can be found there.

Re: World’s most photographed places

#48

Post by blueblob »

altrego99 wrote: post #45
crazygringo wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was my first reaction too. But zooming all the way in (to Manhattan, for example), it's clear that the heat map corresponds to actual scenic tourist spots, it goes all the way down to street level, pretty amazing. And since these are "panoramio" photos, not selfies snapped for Facebook, it would seem to be a pretty accurate reflection of tourist destinations, as opposed to population.

When you zoom in, you do in fact control for differential population density to a lot of extent.

Not for the markers though, they are mostly for cities with high densities of people.

Re: World’s most photographed places

#49

Post by columbo »

te_platt wrote: post #19

I'm curious how this would look if it were somehow "divided by" population density. It wouldn't make sense for somewhere in the middle of the ocean but it might highlight more remote, scenic places. edit: For example I noticed that southern Utah is significantly brighter than you would expect from population density.

I agree, I think the anomalies are more interesting than the expected.

Here's an example:

http://www.sightsmap.com/index.php?lt=45.104179&lg=-94.37551...

Also I'd love to do the reverse. Show me public places that have very infrequent photos. Especially campgrounds. I'd pay to know the least used campsites in my area.

Re: World’s most photographed places

#50

Post by philip1209 »

te_platt wrote: post #19

I'm curious how this would look if it were somehow "divided by" population density. It wouldn't make sense for somewhere in the middle of the ocean but it might highlight more remote, scenic places. edit: For example I noticed that southern Utah is significantly brighter than you would expect from population density.

I wonder if you could also normalize against weather - to differentiate between "Steady state" photos that happen regardless of weather vs. photos that are taken only when the view is clearly good
Post reply on HN