Just like texts, pictures contain a lot of information. The following tips will help you to interpret and understand pictures.
Discover information about the picture
- What are the most important colours in the picture?
- Where are noticeable shapes, patterns, lines?
- What is larger or smaller than normal?
- How big is the thing/person in the picture in reality?
- What time period (the past, the present) and what time of the year or day are presented in the picture?
- From what perspective do you see the subject of the picture: through the eyes of a frog, a bird or a person?
- What can you recognise in the picture?
- What type of picture is it (a picture, a poster, a painting, a wood engraving, a graphic, a collage, a portrait, a landscape, a caricature, etc.)?
- What is exaggerated or emphasised in the picture (light/dark, proportions, foreground/background, colourfulness, movement/stillness, gestures, facial expressions)?
Take in the picture
- What is particularly noteworthy about the picture?
- What do you like about it?
- What is characteristic of the picture?
- How do you feel when you look at the picture?
- Which part of the picture is the most beautiful?
- Which words come to mind when you look at the picture?
Discuss the picture
- Describe the picture in your own words.
- Tell one another what is meaningful, striking or important in the picture.
- Ask one another questions about the picture.
- Give short commands to one another, such as search for, find, show, explain …
- Discuss such questions as: Why were these pictures chosen? Which pictures complement the text that belongs to the pictures? Which pictures clash with what is written in the text?
Work with the pictures
- Choose a picture and act out the scene you see there.
- Introduce the person that you see in the picture.
- Alter the pictures and comment on them.
- Compare historical pictures with the pictures you have.
- Explain what would have been difficult to understand in the text if you hadn’t had the pictures to help you.
- Add suitable pictures that complement the text.
- Compare the pictures and appraise them. Do you like them? If not, why not?
- Write a description of the picture.
- Think about what happened just before the picture was taken or painted/drawn.
- Think about what would happen if the picture were to come alive.
- Add some speech bubbles with text to the picture.
- Describe the smells and sounds that the picture makes you think of.
- Collect pictures of similar subjects.
Interpret the picture
- What title would you give the picture?
- Where was the picture taken or painted/drawn?
- What did the photographer/artist want to say with this picture?
- Why was this picture taken or painted/drawn?
Key Concepts :
Media