For my personal taste, yes, I think there are reviews with too many pictures. If it doesn't add a new or needed element to a review, I don't see the point. I don't vote on reviews based on the number of pictures it contains as I don't think that's fair. I vote primarily on the text review, but I will rate a review with pictures higher if I felt they added to the review.

I'm a visual person so I like to see them in reviews and I like to include them in mine. I'd hate to think someone out there is giving me a bad rating just because they don't want to scroll through a few images.

I prefer videos to pictures when I need to see something. I get a better sense of scale that way and you can't show things like flexibility or sound volume as well with photos.

Nine times out of ten, a review without pictures tops out at a "Useful" for me. Not all reviews need pictures, true; but sometimes a pictures IS worth a thousand words.

Like everything else, moderation is the key.

I'm kinda tempted to do a review ENTIRELY of pictures...

I think many of those who complain about the images being distracting would complain less if the images were sized to a reasonable size that didn't break up the review and make it so hard to read.

Some of the pictures folks are using are absolutely huge, taking up 10 times more space than the meat (text) of the review.

I love pictures in reviews, but I hate seeing multiple pictures of the exact same thing. I don't want to scroll through 4 pictures of the same angle, same view, etc. Otherwise, I don't really care, unless it prevents me from reading the text.

I appreciate the photos. Since we are all different and may be looking for different things, one picture may have meaning to one person when it doesn't another. I have seen some reviews with some pictures that didn't seem to add value, but that's just me. I certainly would not rate someone's review low because they added "too many".

So far I have not seen many reviews with ton's of pics in it.

I thought it was funny that someone contacted me about my photos and gave me tips on how to improve them - and I was gracious and said "thanks" (cause I like to learn from constructive criticism).

The conversation went on for a few more notes and so I decided to go check out their reviews and see how they did photos - especially if they did lingerie photos.

Hmm...no lingerie photos (which is what they were critiquing for me).

I don't know - I did learn from what they shared but I feel frustrated. Like "you're gonna tell me how to do it when you don't do it yourself.." know what I mean?

I don't know- as a plus size woman doing lingerie reviews - I hate showing my body - but the fact is - it does help others see how it will look on them. So maybe I'll save them a purchase (or help them make a good purchase).

But I have gone back and forth on the idea of doing pictures in my lingerie reviews of me in it because I am not happy with the way my body looks.

I know I put a lot of pictures into my reviews, but it never occurred to me that people wouldn't want to see lots of pictures of something they were considering to buy. Do my reviews (all lingerie reviews) have unnecessary pictures? I'd be thrilled to get some constructive criticism for my reviews, since I didn't have a mentor or anything, and the people who rate my reviews less than EU never give me any feedback to tell me what I was missing.

So I have debated responding to this thread pretty much all day. I decided to put my two cents in, but I may regret it later. We shall see.

I put many pictures in my reviews. I put as many pictures as I feel are needed for the item in question. Sometimes this means four pictures and sometimes this means double digit numbers. If it's lingerie and there are lots of details to show, I like to show them. The product page does not show these details and I feel it is something important to see that words would not do as well as a photo. If it's a toy, I take photos for size, texture, flexibility, and packaging. I place these photos within the review along with the text that goes with it.

I do this for a few reasons. My selfish reason is that pictures are my personal preference for reviews. I am ADD and a visual learner. I cannot read large blocks of text without getting very bored. The pictures hold my interest and allow me to get through the review. I also will not grasp a concept fully if it is just in written word, so the picture is more useful to me than 1000 words describing what is in the photo. So I include any photo that I would personally want to see as well as any photo I think may be useful to someone else.

My other reason has to do with my professional background. I am in sales. In sales, you learn that in public forums you must cater to a variety of learning styles. Some people learn better from the written form, some from hearing, some from seeing. When doing a presentation for a large audience, you must cater to as many learning styles as possible. I have trouble doing video reviews since I have a small child and a hectic work schedule, so audio is out for me. As such, I play up visual and textual aspects of my reviews. I include as much of a visual description as possible as well as a written one. This way the review reaches a larger audience of people.

The only time I find lots of photos will make a review less useful is if they are included IN LIEU of a text review. Photos do not exempt you from writing a review that should stand on its own merit. The review should be able to be read if, say, the pictures don't load for someone or if you pretend they aren't there. If the photos are there to mask the fact that the text review sucks, the review is less useful by default. Also, if the photos are very blurry where the product cannot be made out, that will make it less useful to me. Otherwise, I say the more pictures that are included the better.

I find it incredibly distasteful to vote less useful on a review that includes a full text review with all the information SIMPLY because it included more pictures than you would prefer. I understand if the review itself is lacking, but if not, the inclusion of photos should not bring down the vote. If the photos themselves are poorly shot, I can also understand that - as in blurry, etc.

I tend to learn who posts reviews with the most pictures and I will read those reviews before others. They are simply more useful to me personally. In fact, when I open a new review, the first thing I do is scroll through and look for pictures. If they aren't there and I am feeling very ADD that day, I won't read the review at all.

My suggestion is simply the opposite of that. There are many "regular" reviewers that post reviews with lots of pictures. This thread is a good way to spot them! The people that have said they post pictures or find them very useful will have the reviews with the most pictures. If you don't like pictures, don't read reviews by that person rather reading their reviews and letting yourself get annoyed with the known inclusion of photos. There are reviewers that I like and those I'm not as fond of their style. It's not too difficult to pay a bit of attention to the screen name attached to a review before clicking on it to save yourself some frustration.

To those who post photos - please don't stop! I will be so upset if I start to see less pictures.

If you don't like pictures in reviews, my fair warning is not to read mine.

how ELSE do you propose i review a deck of hot dude platying cards? "there's this one guy in a shirt, and he's kinda hot. also there's another card that features a man with quite a bit of muscle! just wait till you see the jack of diamonds!"

not that i posted all 52 cards, but i think i did about 7 or so. i don't see that as a problem.

For those who are interested in being able to edit their photos more, there is free software you can download that does almost everything Photoshop does. I've used it for years and can't speak highly enough of it, it's fantastic software. It's called Photofiltre. Just google it, it's a quick download and gives you a TON of photo editing options.

For me personally, I like most of the pictures I see in reviews. I've seen some who (as someone up thread mentioned) consistently post blurry / too close up / too dark / too bright / etc. pictures - and I don't find those helpful at all. I wouldn't down vote due to that though. I'd only down vote the review if the review itself was lacking.

I personally don't feel that pictures of someone else wearing a piece of lingerie is very helpful to me. It's only helpful to me if they have the exact same body as me. I am in the minority though, as I know those pictures are extremely helpful to most people browsing the site. Since I know those photos are useful to others (just not me) I certainly would NOT down vote a review based on that.

In conclusion, good pictures in a review are a HUGE help. Bad pictures in a review... well I just skip over them.