Picture Round Ideas Beyond Famous Faces: 12 Themes for Your Next Quiz

Coming from a celebrity face game, this may sound odd, but your quiz deserves more than one kind of picture round. A sheet of famous faces is the round everyone expects. The regulars have a system for it, and the newcomers either know pop culture or don't.

These 12 picture round ideas work for pub quizzes, house parties and office socials. Each one says what to show, how tight to crop, where the pictures can come from and what a set of answers looks like. You also get crop rules from people who crop faces all day, three ready-made rounds with answers, seasonal twists, and fixes for the things that go wrong on the night.

Key takeaways

• Every crop needs one "tell": a detail that points to the answer.
• A crop ladder (tight, medium, easy) lets you score 3, 2 or 1 points and suits every room.
• Your own photos are the easiest rights-safe source. Openly licensed and CC0 images come next.
• Ten to 12 pictures per round is a comfortable size to mark in a break.
• Silhouettes, shadows and textures survive a cheap printer and a dim pub screen.
• Always reveal the full image with the answer. The groan is half the fun.
• Mix one visual theme with one knowledge theme per night.

Contents

• How to make a picture round: crop rules from a face-cropping game
• How many pictures, and how hard?
• Where the pictures come from
• 12 picture round ideas
• Picture round ideas with answers: three ready rounds
• Twists for adults, Christmas and the office
• Printable sheet or screen?
• Putting it on the night
• Common mistakes
• Troubleshooting
• FAQ

How to make a picture round: crop rules from a face-cropping game

Our whole game is a tight crop followed by a reveal, so we have opinions about this. The same rules that make a face crop fair make a whisk or a shadow fair.

Keep one tell in frame

Every crop needs one detail that points to the answer: the curve of a handle, a seam, a stamp. If nothing in the frame is distinctive, it's a coin toss, and coin tosses feel unfair even when nobody complains out loud.

Build a crop ladder

Make three versions of each picture: very tight, medium, generous. Use the tight ones for a hard round, or reveal them in order and score 3, 2, 1 points depending on when a team gets it. This is the same idea as a celebrity game that goes from easy to the hard celebrity quiz: same subject, less to go on.

Test on fresh eyes

You already know the answer, so you're the worst judge. Show five crops to someone who hasn't seen them. If they get none, loosen. If they get all five in seconds, tighten. Two testers are better than one, because one person's blind spot can fool you.

Check the screen

Fine detail and subtle colour vanish on a pub TV or a dim projector. Silhouettes and strong shapes survive. Before the night, put one image on the actual screen and look at it from the back of the room.

Always reveal

Show the full image with each answer. The groan of "oh, obviously" is half the fun, and it settles arguments faster than any marking rule.

How many pictures, and how hard?

A picture round should feel generous, not like homework. Here is a quick guide by event type. If you are planning the whole evening, our guide on how to host a quiz night with friends covers rounds, teams and timing.

The best picture round suggestions share one habit: open with a gimme. Put the easiest picture first, so nobody stares at a blank sheet for the first two minutes.

Where the pictures come from

Picture rounds have a quiet problem: most of the images people grab online belong to someone. The UK Intellectual Property Office's copyright notice on digital images and photographs says plainly that most images on the internet are likely to be protected. Using one usually needs permission, a licence that covers your use, or a copyright term that has run out. The notice also points out that some Creative Commons licences rule out commercial use, which matters if your quiz is a paid pub night.

Your own photos first

The simple fix is to take the pictures yourself. Most themes below can be shot on a phone in an afternoon, and your own photos have no licence to check.

Openly licensed images second

Where you can't shoot something, use public-domain or openly licensed images and follow the licence. The Wikimedia Commons reuse guide explains attribution, and it notes that trademarks and personality rights can still apply even when a photo is free.

Logos, people and edited images

Keep other people's logos inside the room rather than posting your quiz online. Ask before you photograph anyone, and leave number plates and strangers out of street shots. If you are tempted to use edited or swapped images, label them as edited. Players deserve to know, and our guide to six tells of a face swap shows how easily they fool people.

This isn't legal advice, and the rules vary by country. As a habit: own photos first, licensed images second.

12 picture round ideas

Each theme below lists what to show, how to crop it, where the pictures come from and five example answers you can steal.

1. Perfume bottle silhouettes

Famous perfume bottles have shapes people know without ever reading the label. Backlight each bottle against a bright window so it turns into a black outline, then ask for the fragrance or the brand.

To pick bottles your room will actually recognise, skim the most popular perfumes ranked on Fragranxe and note which of those names you, your friends or your family already own. Then photograph those bottles yourself. Don't copy product shots from brand or retail sites.

Shape is everything here, so favour bottles with a story. Jean Paul Gaultier's Classique (1993) comes in a female torso wearing a corset, according to Wikipedia, and Highsnobiety describes Le Male (1995) as a male torso in sailor stripes. Seeing the two outlines next to each other is half the fun; fragrance fans can read Jean Paul Gaultier Classique vs Le Male side by side afterwards. Celebrity bottles work too: Ariana Grande's Cloud sits on a puffy cloud base, and the bottle of Reb'l Fleur by Rihanna was inspired by a stiletto heel, according to its launch coverage.

Crop: none needed. The silhouette is the challenge. Source: bottles you or your friends own. If your group is short of bottles, a night spent running a fragrance swap meetup doubles as a photo shoot. Example answers: whichever five recognisable bottles your group owns, with the brand as the answer and the fragrance name as a bonus point.

2. Name the brand from the cap

The perfume round's harder sibling, and it works for anything in a bathroom cabinet or kitchen. Shoot just the cap, the pump or one corner of the packaging. Players name the brand.

Crop: tight, but keep one shape or colour block that's distinctive. Source: products you own. Logos are trademarks, so keep this one in the room. Example answers: a ketchup lid, a toothpaste cap, a shampoo pump, a cola bottle cap, a spice jar lid.

3. Kitchen drawer close-ups

Garlic press, potato masher, bottle opener, whisk. Photographed from two centimetres away, everyday tools become abstract art.

Crop: the ladder works well here. Source: your kitchen. Example answers: cheese grater, tea strainer, rolling pin, tongs, ice cream scoop.

4. Fruit and veg cross-sections

Slice a kiwi, a fig, a red cabbage, a star fruit, a pomegranate. Shoot the cut face only.

Crop: fill the frame with the cut face. Source: the shop, then lunch. Example answers: kiwi, fig, red onion, dragon fruit, okra. For a bonus point with fragrance fans, ask which of the fruits also turn up as perfume notes; players can check later with a tool to search fragrances by notes like fig, pear and pomegranate.

5. Your street, up close

Pick a shop sign's corner, a distinctive door, a mural detail, a bench or the clock on a local landmark. Teams name the place. This one makes locals feel brilliant and visitors feel welcome to guess.

Crop: medium, so the setting still helps. Source: a walk. Leave people and number plates out of the frame. Example answers: the station clock, the bakery door, the temple gate, the bus stop mural, the park fountain.

6. Toy box and board game pieces

Game tokens, building bricks, a jigsaw corner, a spinning top. Ask for the game or the toy.

Crop: tight on one piece. Source: your shelf or a friend's. Example answers: a chess knight, a domino, a carrom striker, a Jenga block, a snakes and ladders die.

7. Old masters, zoomed

Crop a single hand, a hat or one flower from a famous painting. Players name the painting or the artist. The Cleveland Museum of Art's Open Access programme lets anyone download and reuse images of its public-domain artworks under CC0, without asking permission. The Met's Open Access programme works the same way for works it marks CC0. That makes this one of the easiest rights-clean rounds to build.

Crop: tight, with one recognisable detail. Source: museum open-access collections, checking each image's marking. Example answers: depend on what you find, so pick five paintings your room might know and confirm each one is marked CC0.

8. Whose nose: animal edition

Dog, cat, horse, pig, cow, rabbit, all nose-first. If your group would rather do the human version, we've already built one: guess the celebrity by their nose.

Crop: nose and a little fur, nothing more. Source: your pets, friends' pets (ask first) or openly licensed photos. Example answers: pug, tabby cat, goat, horse, rabbit.

9. Album covers, restaged

Instead of copying cover art, ask players to restage famous album covers before the night with props, poses and whatever's in the cupboard. You photograph the results. Teams name the album.

Crop: none. Bad costumes are the point. Source: your players, with their OK to show the photos. Example answers: whatever your players choose, which is the fun of it.

10. Sports kit textures

The dimples on a golf ball, the stitching on a cricket ball, the panels of a football, a shuttlecock's feathers, the felt on a tennis ball.

Crop: very tight. Texture is the clue. Source: the sports bag in your hallway. Example answers: golf ball, cricket ball, tennis ball, shuttlecock, basketball.

11. Shadows

Shine a torch at a stapler, a corkscrew or a pair of scissors and photograph only the shadow on the wall. Twist the object to make it harder.

Crop: shadow only. Source: a torch and a dark room. Example answers: stapler, scissors, corkscrew, comb, headphones.

12. Whose hair: the room edition

Collect photos of the backs of your players' heads before the night (with consent) and ask teams to name their friends. For the celebrity version, play guess the celebrity by their hair.

Crop: hair only, no faces. Source: your guests, who agreed to it. Example answers: your friends' names, which is exactly why this one gets loud.

Picture round ideas with answers: three ready rounds

If you want to skip the planning, here are three rounds you can shoot in an afternoon. Each has ten pictures, a suggested order and the answers. The order runs easy to hard with a gimme first.

Ready round A: The kitchen drawer (close-ups)

1. Fork (easy opener)
2. Whisk
3. Cheese grater
4. Bottle opener
5. Potato peeler
6. Tea strainer
7. Garlic press
8. Pizza cutter
9. Measuring spoons
10. Nutcracker (the hard closer)

Shoot each one about a hand's width away, then crop to the most distinctive third of the object.

Ready round B: Shadow play

1. Scissors
2. Mug
3. Stapler
4. Comb
5. Spectacles
6. Headphones
7. Corkscrew
8. Hair clip
9. Tape dispenser
10. Whistle

Twist the last three side-on so the outline is less obvious. Silhouettes are kind to bad printers, so this is the best round to hand out on paper.

Ready round C: Cut it open (fruit and veg)

1. Orange
2. Kiwi
3. Tomato
4. Pomegranate
5. Fig
6. Red cabbage
7. Star fruit
8. Bitter gourd
9. Okra
10. Passion fruit

Shoot on a plain white plate in daylight. Colour matters here, so this round belongs on a screen or a colour printout.

Twists for adults, Christmas and the office

The 12 themes stretch to fit almost any crowd. Here are picture round ideas for adults, seasonal nights and work events.

Picture round ideas for adults

• Behind the bar: a cocktail shaker, a bottle opener, a lime wedge, a jigger, a corkscrew. Keep brand labels out of frame.
• Cocktail garnish cross-sections: lemon, orange, cucumber, olive, cherry.
• Grown-up nostalgia: a cassette, a floppy disk, a landline phone cord, a camera film roll.

Picture round ideas for a Christmas quiz

• Bauble close-ups: shoot the reflection in a shiny bauble and ask what room it is.
• Wrapping paper textures: crop tightly into five rolls and ask which present each one wrapped.
• Festive food cross-sections: a mince pie, a slice of fruit cake, a sliced orange studded with cloves.
• Cookie cutter shadows: star, tree, reindeer, gingerbread figure.

The same idea works for any festival. A Diwali round of diya, rangoli and sweets close-ups is just as easy to shoot at home.

Office socials

• Desk drawer: stapler, hole punch, sticky notes, highlighter, lanyard.
• Whose mug? Photograph colleagues' mugs (with permission) and ask who owns each one.
• Keyboard keys: crop to one key at a time and ask which one it is.

Printable sheet or screen?

Both work. The choice depends on your room and your printer.

Printable picture quiz round

If you hand out a printable picture quiz round, number every image, leave a write-in line under each, and print in colour only for themes where colour is the clue (fruit, sports kit). Silhouettes and shadows survive a cheap black-and-white printer. Put the team name box at the top, not the bottom, so the sheet does not get handed in anonymous.

A free picture quiz round is easy to make with any slide or document tool: one image per box, a number in the corner, then export to PDF. You don't need special software. The hard part is choosing and cropping the pictures, which the rules above cover.

On a screen

Show one image at a time for 30 seconds, or all ten on one slide for a timed five minutes. Test the slide on the real screen first. If you use a crop ladder, a screen is the only practical way to reveal the three levels in order.

Putting it on the night

Pair two themes per night: one easy and visual (silhouettes, shadows) with one that rewards knowledge (old masters, brand caps). Open each round with a gimme so nobody starts on zero. Keep each sheet to a size you can mark during the break, and read the answers with the full image on screen.

Pair it with a smell or faces round

The perfume bottle round has a natural sequel: a blind smell round with numbered blotters or jars. Fragranxe's guide on how to run a blind fragrance test covers the setup if you want to try it with real fragrances.

And if the room really does want faces, give them faces with a twist. The guess the celebrity by their eyes round plays well on a big screen, and a free 10-face practice round needs no sign-in. For a live finale, Compete runs a live celebrity quiz for up to 10 players from their phones (players sign in with Google). Many of our faces are deliberate parody composites, so even the regulars get caught out. Our About page explains why many of our faces are edited composites.

Scoring options

• Flat: one point per picture. Simple and fair.
• Ladder: 3, 2 or 1 points depending on which crop a team gets it from.
• Half points: for "the right family" answers, such as "a citrus fruit" for a lime.
• Bonus: one extra point for a detail, such as the fragrance name as well as the brand.

Common mistakes

• No tell in the frame. If the crop shows nothing distinctive, nobody can reason their way to the answer.
• Testing only on yourself. You know the answer, so every crop looks easy.
• Grabbing images from a search engine. Most are protected. Shoot your own or use CC0 images.
• Too many pictures. Twenty pictures is a slog to mark. Ten to 12 is plenty.
• Colour clues on a black-and-white printout. Fruit and kit rounds need colour or a screen.
• Forgetting the reveal. Without the full image, teams argue instead of laughing.
• In-jokes at an open quiz. "Whose hair" works with friends, not with strangers.

Troubleshooting

FAQ

How many pictures should a picture round have?

Ten to 12 pictures is the sweet spot for a pub quiz picture round. It is enough to separate teams and small enough to mark during a break. For a house party on a TV, eight to ten pictures shown one at a time keeps the pace up. More than 15 starts to feel like homework.

How do I make a picture round harder?

Crop tighter, remove colour, or twist the object to an unusual angle. Shadows and silhouettes get much harder when you rotate the object side-on. You can also ask for more detail in the answer, such as the brand and the product, or the painting and the artist. Always test a hard crop on someone who has not seen it.

How do I make a picture round on PowerPoint or a phone?

Any slide or document tool works. Put one image per box or slide, add a number in a corner, and keep the answers on a separate sheet. Export to PDF for printing or present from a laptop. The tool matters far less than the crops, so spend your time choosing pictures with a clear tell.

Can I use images from Google in a picture round?

Usually not without checking. Most images online are protected by copyright, and using them needs permission, a licence or an expired copyright term. The safest options are your own photos and images marked public domain or CC0 by museums and archives. This is not legal advice, and the rules vary by country.

What are good picture round ideas for adults?

Behind-the-bar tools, cocktail garnish cross-sections, nostalgia objects such as cassettes and floppy disks, and perfume bottle silhouettes all work well for adults. Pair one visual theme with one knowledge theme, and keep brand labels inside the room rather than posting the quiz online.

Where can I find picture round ideas with answers?

The three ready rounds above each have ten answers in easy-to-hard order: kitchen close-ups, shadows and fruit cross-sections. Every theme in the list of 12 also has five example answers. Because you shoot the pictures yourself, the answers always match your photos.

Are celebrity faces a good picture round?

They are the round everyone expects, which is exactly why a second theme helps. If you do want faces, playing a ready-made face game on the big screen saves you pasting press photos into your own quiz sheet. In Guess the Celeb many faces are edited parody composites, so tell your players that up front.

Your next picture round

Pick two themes from the list, shoot them this weekend and test five crops on a friend. Start with Ready round B if your printer is unreliable. When you want a faces round with no prep at all, put a free easy round of famous faces on the big screen. For more hosting help, browse more quiz guides on the blog. And if your group loves the perfume bottle theme, Fragranxe's list of the most popular perfumes doubles as a shopping list of bottles to borrow from friends.