I've been fortunate this year with a nice crop so far and am able to play around a bit so I let a few almost sun dry on tree. In these pics I show figs at different stage of ripeness top to bottom, bottom figs being what I consider very ripe almost dry They are all same unknown fig

I prefer very ripe my wife not so much. How bout some feed back????

They are over-ripe/shriveled just the way I like figs (past any vermin).

Hi Sal,
I like figs "nice and ripe" and sometimes less than that its weird i know.
Sal you can try this for fun if you have enough figs use that plate or similar and put whole fig on plate with skin and peel a few as well, cover with cheese cloth for bug protection and put on table in full sun turn them each day. In your hot sun and temps within 3-5 days you have much much better than any store bought dried figs if there good quality to begin with.
Use nice and ripe ones though Sal but not overly ripe ones. 

Martin, lol way ahead of you. I ate a few and picked a few more.
Starting a new post on trying to dry figs
George no vermin here as these are grown in my vermin free cage other than those figgin ants at times ;-)
Sorry I've been kept in the dark and crapped on, but I've been told I'm a fungi ;) 

Different people like different stages of ripeness - but different varieties will also look different when at the same stage of ripeness. Some need to be really saggy and just plain ugly before they are really ripe, others not near as much. Some, such as Violette de Bordeaux and Celeste will almost dehydrate on the tree, while others will just get rotten.

Sal the only ones I can comment on is Celeste. Here in La. they usually start ripening after the spring drought and during the early summer rains. If these rains are not to persistent, some of the figs will overripe as those towards the bottom of your picture. Those are the best, the sugars and flavor are concentrated into the most delicious figs. Other than than that I like them as ripe as possible without being spoiled.  

"gene"

Jon is right about the different ripening with different varieties. Most varieties I like to wait for the skin to show cracks, hardy chicago will look like the bottom ones in the photo when overly ripe, but it gets molded quickly with high humidity or rain.

I like to pick my Hardy Chicago figs like row four.  Beyond that the flavor and sweetness starts to go down for me.  I find there is a narrow 2 day perfect picking stage.  They need to be much softer than a ripe peach, but not so soft they are liquidy.