Oxford 9280
WRITING/ SPEAKING
Describing a
picture
Blog/
writing letter
diary
Formal writing
Descriptive
speaking and
writing
DESCRIBING AN IMAGE
The BASICS: Who? What? L
VOCABULARY: Strong verbs,
Which…?Where? When?
powerful adjectives and
Whose? Why? How many/big
adverbs. Linking words and
etc…
time connectives
The SENSES: what can the
Here is what we need to
people see, hear, smell, feel, INFERENCES: What might have
consider to describe a
touch, taste? happened/ be happening?
visual.
What might happen next?
The CONTEXT: what happened CONNECTIONS/EMOTIONS:
leading up to the image? how does it relate to you?
The main subject
What the people are doing
What they look like
The appearance on their faces
The clothes they are wearing
You don’t know the people on the photos, so don’t relate yourself
to anything when describing
The photo may include people (speaking) or landscape (writing)
Surrounding
Once you have described the main
subject- the person, the object or the
animal- then you have to describe
the background or the foreground
Describe From General to Specific
Be logical. In order to be easily understood, image descriptions of pictures should be
described according to some logical sequence.
Begin with a general overview of what the picture is or portrays, focusing first on an
overview before providing details.
Following the overview, various portions of the picture can be detailed, in some type of
orderly fashion. One tactic is to explain the foreground, mid-ground, and background.
In general, provide directions from the perspective of the viewer looking at the picture. For
example, refer to the left or right side of a picture as if one was standing in front of it in a
gallery. However, when describing people within a photo, it is better to use their
perspective. This applies when mentioning a subject's "left hand" or "right shoulder."
Details
Describein details what you see in
the photo
Describe Objectively and Accurately.
Don't Describe Motivations or
Intentions.
Be objective. Descriptions of pictures should be
straightforward and factual. They should avoid
interpretations or emotional responses.
Dad teaching his daughter how to ride a bike.
1) Describe the man – what is he wearing? What is
he doing?.
2) Describe the child – what is she wearing? What
is she doing?
3) Describe the scene.
4) What is happening?
Image by imagerymajestic at
freedigitalphotos.net
TASK: Write about when you learned how
to ride a bike.
In the foreground, a man is standing with his arms outstretched. He
is dressed in white. He is smiling and is looking towards the child. He
looks absolutely delighted. The young girl, who is probably his daughter,
is riding her bike towards him. He has probably been teaching her how to
ride it. She is at an early stage of learning, because the bike still has the
stabilisers on. Maybe they are at some kind of training centre, or sports
ground, because the ground has tracks on it and crash barriers. In the
introduction
In this photo
This phot shows
In this picture I can see
By looking at this picture I can
see ...
He might be (in his thirties)
He / She seems to be (happy,
worried, tired...)
where
Café
City
Mountain
Park
Home
when
Morning
Evening
what
What clothes are they wearing?
What is the weather like?
Are they inside or outside?
AT THE TOP
ON THE IN THE ON THE
LEFT FOREGROUND RIGHT
AT THE BOTTOM
? can / could may / might must
Where The photo might have been taken in … as…
It might be some sort of a farmhouse.
I think it could be in the USA or maybe in Canada.
This must be somewhere tropical like the Caribbean.
When The photo might have been taken in 1999.
What He could be telling her smth she doesn’t know
I suppose it might be a kind of art object.
Who The man might be a farmer.
The footprints must have been made by a climber.
look
+ noun She looks like a teacher.
The room looks like a kind of hall.
+ adjective He looks furious.
+ sentence He looks as if he is poor.
It looks as if it is going to rain.
The boy looks as if he has been hurt.
+adj.+as if The woman looks so sad as if she has learnt bad
news.
+ sentence
seem to He seems to be puzzled.
Facial expressions
Happy
Sad
angry
(writing)Position
On the right
On the left
In the middle of the photo
In the background
In the foreground
Next to
Behind
In front of
If something is not clear:
It looks like ……
It might be ……
He could be ….. Ing
May be it’s ………
Describe clothes
Pattern
Colour
Material
Roles
A waiter
A student
A parent
Be Descriptive. Try to Use Vivid,
Imaginative Language.
Image descriptions should utilize vivid terminology to describe various features of the picture.
For instance:
Composition (or the arrangement of elements in a picture) can be described as:
In the foreground (or background), to the left (or right), low, high,
above, below, parallel, perpendicular.
Shapes can be described as:
Cylindrical, curved, rounded, square, cubed, rectangular, flat,
straight, circular, spherical, triangular, conical, pyramidal, angular,
irregular, jagged, sloped, diagonal, horizontal and vertical.
➢ Size can be described as:
Large, tall, monumental, thick, thin, narrow, wide, life-size, small, tiny,
short, miniature, true to size, large scale and small scale.
➢ Texture can be described as:
Smooth, glossy, coarse, grainy, rough, worn, weathered, scratched,
cracked, broken, rippled, grooved, patterned, striped, dotted and
perforated.
➢ Color can be described as:
Vivid, bright, intense, light, dark, muted, dull, pale, faint, solid or blended.
Don't omit reference to color on the assumption that it will be
meaningless to people who are blind. Most people who are blind were
able to see in the past and are able to recall colors
Remember
Use present continuous tense
Describe (Compare and contrast)
Similarities : Use (all, most, some, both, also, as well as too)
Differences: use (but, while, although)
Speculate: use (might, could, can’t be, seems to be,
appears to be)
