When writing about sources, how should I approach a picture differently from a written source?

History GCSE and A Level qualifications all require you to look at and evaluate sources. When you are looking at a source, your main goal is to consider its NOP (Nature, Origin, and Purpose). Whether a source is pictorial or written determines its nature, which immediately gives you an insight into both its benefits and limitations.You can approach a picture source (photograph, poster, artwork, etc.) uniquely because you know immediately that its scope is very limited: it only offers one snapshot or a real or artistic scene. Next, you should ask whether or not the picture is staged; artworks are always staged constructions, with everything (even down to the colours) having been chosen for a (typically propagandist) reason. Photographs, on the other hand, can be staged or candid. In contrast, a written source immediately guarantees that it is a construction, with all the words being chosen specifically and for a purpose. In this case, the intended audience of the writing can tell you just how candid and honest the writer could have been. A written source also requires more attention to just how much information is being revealed, because written sources are able to have a far greater scope than single-image sources.