Visual literacy

This is a key element of understanding media texts. Students should be able to 'read' individual pictures, and consider aspects such as camera position and angle, background and setting, posture and body language, colour and how the picture has been cropped or otherwise manipulated. They can do this by labelling individual pictures or by collecting a number of pictures which convey a particular mood or theme, and examine how the mood or them is conveyed.

Visual literacy: Student activity

Work on a photograph from a magazine, glued to a larger sheet of paper.

Label elements of the picture which contribute to its meaning.

1 What sort of people are in it?

How old are they?
What sex, class and race are they?
What tells us this? Consider clues like clothes, hair, expression, posture, and position.
Are they large or small in the picture's 'frame'?
Is the camera pointing up or down at them? Why?

2 What objects are featured, and why?

3 Where is it set? How do you know? What is in the background?

4 Is it black and white or colour?
If it's in colour, what colours are used and why?

5 Does the lighting look natural or artificial?

6 Has the image been changed in any way, and why? For example, colour could have been changed, it could have been cropped or retouched, several pictures could have been combined.

Once students have labelled their picture, they can consider the following questions:

What sort of picture is this?

Why do you think it was taken?

What is the photographer trying to convey about the subject

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