Image search

[bunn]

I do wish it were possible to exclude screenshots from computer games from image searches.  I'm trying to draw people galloping about on horseback and to do this, I would like actual photos of people on horseback, rather than:

1. Screenshots from Civilisation
2. Total War screenshots
3. Wargaming miniatures
4. Mount and Blade screenshots
5. More Civilisation screenshots
6. Lord of the Rings Online screenshots (not the film, the game)
7. More bloody Total War screenshots

I wouldn't mind if ANY of these games actually featured realistic looking horses (or people) rather than weirdly deformed Uncanny Valley horses and people with joints in places where no human being has joints.  Maybe the game designers can't actually find any real horses to copy?

 I'm not sure, either, why genuinely attractive photos of real animals tend to get posted at less than 500 pixels across, making it hard to see detail, whereas screenshots from games are posted at 2000 pixels+ across, even though the game screenshots don't have as much detail to be lost in compression. I suspect though that gamers are better at text tagging than horsy people, and post images on busier websites, thus getting a comparitive advantage in search engine terms. 

Comments

[andrewducker]

Oddly, when I google "Galloping riders" I don't get any computer games until page 4.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Ah, that will be because you didn't ask for them to have spears or armour, or require photos of a certain size... Restrict that same search to large photos and you get Assassin's Creed, miniatures, and bizarrely, quite a few people on bicycles... OK, there are some photos of real horses, but a lot of them are not actually galloping...

I deduce that horsy people are more likely to post small photos, but I'm mystified that Google Image Search doesn't find more horse-including screenshots from the LOTR movies. I suppose I could dig my DVDs out and do freezeframes...

[bunn.livejournal.com]

... with small photos you usually can't see how the muscles go which is essential if you are trying to create a new picture using several resources, rather than just copy one. :-/

[andrewducker]

Gotcha. I didn't think to look for anything more specific :->

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

Try googling for racehorses or horseracing.

It has to be said that the best fantasy comic book artist of the 1960s and 1970s, famed for his work on Conan the Barbarian, one Barry Windsor Smith, could not draw horses to save his life.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Many good fantasy artists can't (much better than me!), but I want to. I reason that the best way to get better is to keep trying.

I've got a certain distance with racehorses etc, but now I need someone using a spear (OK, there are always going to be fewer photos of that...)

I tried jousting, but the horses are so smothered in clothes and the riders so plastered in armour you can't see how their bodies move. grrr.

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

Try finding Googling for Roman, Norman or Nubian cavalry reconstructionists. I know there are a number who work with horse and spears, though am not sure how many photos posted on the Internets.

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

There's this one, for starters

http://www.talismancoins.com/catalog/Battle_of_Hastings_Norman_Knights_Charge.jpg

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Aha, much better, thanks!

[inamac.livejournal.com]

Or equestrian re-enactors - this has some useful largish photos - http://www.filmhorses.com/services.php#reenactment

And this one for Roman cavalry tactics - some very good action pics with lances, though apparently they don't use javelins for safety reasons. http://www.comitatus.net/cavalrypart4.html

[ideserveyou.livejournal.com]

Try the episode called 'The Challenge' on your Arthur of the Britons DVDs... two people do lots of galloping about on horseback with all sorts of dangerous-looking weapons in that one. And no pesky armour or horse-clothing to get in the way ;)

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Aha, I knew that DVD would come in handy! The horserace at the very beginning might have some useful shots too...

[king-pellinor.livejournal.com]

Try http://theborderers.info/index.html - I think they have a lot of photos up.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

They do : unfortunately they are really too small to be very useful for what I am trying to do: you just can't make out enough detail.