Photography / Art Vocabulary

• Subject - The main thing depicted in a photograph.
• Framing - What the photographer has placed within the boundaries of the photograph.
• Vantage Point - Where the photographer positioned the camera to take the picture.
• Dominance - What is most influential or important in the image. In a work of art, the dominant point is where your eye is drawn first.
• Contrast - Opposition or juxtaposition of different forms, lines, or colors in a work of art to intensify each other's properties and produce a more dynamic expression.
• Balance - To arrange or adjust parts in a symmetrical way.
• Depth of Field - The range between the nearest and farthest things that appear in focus.

Subject / Time

• What is the main subject of the image?
• What is going on in this image?
• What do you see that makes you say that?
• What do you think interested the artist/photographer/creator about this subject?
• What is the purpose of the image?
• For a photo: when was it taken?
• What happened before and after the photo was taken?

Light / Color / Focus

• Does the light seem to be natural or artificial?
• Harsh or soft?
• From what direction is the light coming?
• What colors do you see, if any?
• Do you see visual textures within the photograph?
• What parts of the image are clearly in focus?
• Are some parts out of focus?

Arrangement

• How would the picture change if you moved the camera to the right or left, or up or down?
• What has the photographer left out of the picture?
• Where do you think the photographer was standing when he/she took this picture?
• How far was the photographer from what you see in the picture?
• How could you change the vantage point to make the picture look different?

Dominance / Contrast

• What is the first thing you notice in this image?
• Why is your attention drawn there?
• Are there other centers of interest?
• How are the centers of interest created?
• Is there strong visual contrast - lights and darks, varying textures, etc.?
• Is the visual weight on one side of the photograph about the same as the other?
• How about from top to bottom? Diagonally?

Historical Context

• Where do you think the image was made?
• Who do you think the people in the picture are? What does it look like they are doing?
• Does this tell you anything about when, where, and what was going on when the photograph was made?
• What was happening in history during the time this photograph was taken?
• How was the photograph first seen or used? How is the photograph seen today?
• What do you think the photographer was trying to express through the image?

Photo Altering

• How to spot altered photos:
• Lighting: direction of the light for various parts of the image.
• Eye focus: if the center of attention is far from the center of the image.
• Specular reflections: indicate a light source close by.
• Cloning: when parts of an image, especially texture, are identical to others.
• Borders, proportions, difference in color schemes.