Which needs more skill, painting or photography?

It must be painting, painting is the foundation, and photography is nothing more than taking a "shadow". In addition to color, it is the relationship between light and shade. You will find that those who have an art foundation will look much better than those who study photography directly. Whether it is ideological composition or other things, photography is largely limited by equipment (to put it bluntly, they can't afford to play), and it is difficult to greatly improve their technology. Painting is different. Just think about it yourself and see how many painting forms you can come up with, which is just the threshold of photography.