Describing Photos & Illustrations
“There is no easy formula about how to go about describing a picture, or which area to describe first. Each work will have its own particular qualities, and each description will, therefore, need to reflect that.”
Audio descriptions of images should follow a similar structure composed of the five following:
- Image type (photo, painting, illustration, etc.),
- General overview or title,
- Source/credit/copyright,
- Caption, and
- Supporting details (including embedded text) dependent on image type and context of use.
Use the five sections below to get some ideas about the type of content you can potentially describe for various focal points in images. These are just suggestions; this list is not meant to be exhaustive and it is not expected that all of these items would be described in every audio description. Only describe the items listed if relevant and meaningful to the listening experience. Remember that the image purpose and placement should guide what details are necessary to include and how long the description should be.
Go through each topic below and try out your audio description technique.