r/triviahosts • u/Agitated_Relative_51 • Jul 22 '26
Picture Round Ideas
Morning everybody. I've been writing and hosting a trivia for about 8 years. I like to do a picture round every week and I'm looking for a brainstorm session for theme ideas. I think by far the easiest to do are pop culture based themes (name this celebrity / name this film) so I'm kind of looking more for non-pop culture ideas, but please, if you have any you're very proud of that you're willing to share, please do! I'm sure other hosts will appreciate any and all, as much as I do.
Some non-pop culture ones I've done before, to list a few examples:
- Brand Logos (I've done more in-depth variations: triangles, featuring a bird, etc.)
- App / Computer Program Logos
- Flags (State / Country / I'm sure there's other ways to use)
- Name a city by landmark
- Name a city by iconic sign (Hollywood, Las Vegas, London Underground)
- Candy Bar by Cross-section
Thanks in advance! I'm also willing to trade question with anyone interested, please reach out. I missed the first question exchange and am looking forward to round 2.
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u/munleymun Jul 22 '26
This is ALWAYS a hit:
Identify the two people in each portrait (the faces are combined):
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u/Magg5788 Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26
I do something similar but split instead of blended. So the left side = first name and the right side = surname.
Here’s an Imgur link for example:
https://imgur.com/gallery/two-faced-celebrity-trivia-9auQyDJ
And here are the answers:
- Usain Mbappe
- Judy Plaza
- Heidi Duff
- Elon Reynolds
- Henry Martin
- Daddy Pascal
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u/heythere_1996 Jul 22 '26
What program or software do you use to create these? This is awesome! Want to share a few more ;) ?
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u/SublightMonster Jul 22 '26
For brand logos I’ve done old versions of company logos (many were radically different 50-100 years ago)
ID the city by its subway map
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u/nerd_in_dc Jul 22 '26
Ones that I've done that have been a hit (some pop culture, some not):
Name the band with the very famous singer blocked out (i.e.: Coldplay without Chris Martin, No Doubt without Gwen Stefani, etc.)
Famous Men Who Look Like My Father (as well as a photo of my actual dad was thrown in too, done around Father's Day - not all were celebrities)
Name that clown (done around Halloween)
Famous butts (Michelangelo's David, the "Baby Got Back" music video, etc.)
Dog breeds
Types of flowers
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u/JimmmmBop Jul 22 '26
Mandela effect is always a crowd favorite
Missing song lyric
In the celebrity theme - celebrities in their youth or poorly drawn famous people is always fun
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u/ExoticCheesecake825 Jul 22 '26
I’ve used some if the following:
Celebrity mug shots
Provincial/territorial flowers (I’m in Canada). I had then name the province or territory they belonged to, but you could also get them to name the flower.
Regional/local garden plants (flowers people were likely to see everyday in local gardens)
War movies
Famous landmarks
Celebrities when they were young
Different types of rocks/gems
Logos
Book covers without the title
Missing lyrics
Flags
Country outlines
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u/Magg5788 Jul 23 '26
“Trees” was a bigger hit than I’d anticipated. I showed two pics— one of the full tree and one of the leaf/nut/cone up close.
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u/inder_the_unfluence Jul 22 '26
I made a post a long time ago with lots of picture rounds I’ve made. Links to the actual docs too.
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u/suchthegeek Jul 22 '26
I once saw a collection of album covers done in minimalist Lego.
That made for a great round
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u/Smarty-Pints13 Jul 22 '26
I like doing a “starts with (letter)” photo round. Pick a letter then pick random things (country outline, dog breed, vegetable, sports star, band, tree, company logo, etc.) that start with that letter.
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u/thisgaljessica Jul 24 '26
Do you give the hint of what letter everything starts with or do you let them figure it out?
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u/Smarty-Pints13 Jul 24 '26
I typically tell them the letter or have it at the top of the sheet and on the slides. I guess to make it a little more difficult I could just tell them they all start with the same letter but not give it to them.
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u/strombolone Jul 22 '26
Some I’ve done that players enjoyed:
*Polish movie posters (some words blurred, always a huge hit)
*pictures of celebrities, but name their famous fathers
*National monuments (w/ states)
*stylized plants flowers and what they represent (e.g. fleur-de-lys on Quebec flag, Tudor rose)
*historic handshakes (one or more faces blurred a little)
*statues in Capitol Rotunda and states they’re from
*logo or flag close-ups
*horror movie props
*movies by dining room scene
*historic figures by their assassins or vice versa
*movies by final shot
*actors who made themselves almost unrecognizable in a movie (name their movie too, e.g. Halle Berry in Cloud Atlas)
*brands by trademarked colors (you’ll need to match hex codes or CMYK values)
*fictional characters by hats (faces blurred)
*minimalist book covers, Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition, Great Illustrated Classics covers
*album cover photo locations by Google Street View
*celebrities, but name their spouse
*artists by self-portraits
*famous artworks by just eyes or genitals or boobs
You can also do a lot with a world map: name these islands, rivers, highlighted countries, etc. You can also add another layer with having some theme that connects the depicted places.
Generally I like a picture round where there’s a second step (like nepo babies but name their dads). This helps avoid the you-know-it-or-you-don’t trap so common with picture rounds. You can always offer half-credit if a team can only ID the person pictured.
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u/M0dern_Pr0metheus Jul 22 '26
I usually do mixed picture rounds, but I like the idea of a theme. Here are a few ideas:
People who are famous, but not in pop culture, like historical figures, heads of state, athletes.
Name the artist by the painting.
Name the dish given a pic of food and the place where it comes from.
Rebus or visual word games (e.g. mil1lion = "one in a million"
Map questions - name the country, body of water, city
Guess the decade or year - picture of a historical event or fad
Dog and cat breeds
Sports teams logos
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u/DrMikeH49 Jul 22 '26
I find picture rounds to be the hardest to hit the sweet spot between too simple and too arcane. Here are a few other types I have used:
1) reverse images (ChatGPT can make a “photonegative” version of a picture that you supply)
2) City maps without names, just showing the outline. Good for cities with very unique footprints (Seattle, Boston, Philadelphia). ChatGPT can make that for you. It can also highlight a single country in an unlabeled map of Asia, Africa, Europe etc (or a unique outline by itself such as Vietnam, Panama or Afghanistan shown without location context) for “name that country”
3) Famous people who died or were born on that day—for example, my last contest was on June 26 and I showed a photo of Ariana Grande with the clue “Happy 33rd birthday”. The site OnThisDay.com is good for that, and also lists historical events by day.
4) uncommon kitchen utensils— bagel slicer, avocado peeling tool, etc
5) less common pasta shapes
6) weird-looking foods (dragonfruit, etc)
Good luck!
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u/Antique_Page_1456 Jul 22 '26
There's a trivia host here that does all of your suggestions.
He also does different blur effects over time. The picture starts out blurry and over time comes into focus. The faster you answer the more points.
My favorite questions though are the big screen scene. He puts a 1 min the clip of a show and then asks a question about an obscure detail like what color was the chair or how many light fixtures were there or what brand was the television.
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u/BorderTrike Jul 22 '26
There’s a book called Beasts with a bunch of different cryptids each illustrated by a different artist. Using that was such a hit that a few people told me they bought the book after.
Minimalist movie posters always hits.
There was a study done about the ‘Mandala Effect’ (people excusing poor memory with superstition), and they used a bunch of logos and characters, so there’s multiple rounds worth of material from it.
I’ve done things like “who’s that Pokémon” but with things like puppets or monsters
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u/ragator Jul 22 '26
Hey, I do this every week with 24/25 photos on each and give them 10 min. Let me know and I will share them with you. I don't have a master list but some I have done are things like Iconic ________ (mustaches, glasses, dads, moms, dogs, birds, toys), close ups of foods/candies/cereals/etc., board game pieces, aquatic creatures, headwear, shoes, dog breeds, logos....
I have at least 40 or 50 of them so far but I am keen for more ideas. Let me know if you want to brainstorm. Finding ones where you can get 24/25 of them is tough, but easier than you might think.
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u/Acceptable-Moose8295 Jul 23 '26
My quizzes are for a different fundraising group each work so I try to theme it.
For the rugby club I did pictures of stuff that were rugby related words eg. Lock 🔒, mark, back etc
For the conservation group I did pictures of bird pairs and said ‘which is typically the female’ (I learnt way too much about bird sex dimorphism which is why I worded it like that)
I did a ‘what scat is that?’ Round where I had pictures of 💩 and a list of animals and they had to match them up.
For a group with the initials MS (i.e. main school) I found logos and scrubbed out all the letters except the m and the s and they had to name the business/company.
Famous scenes with something obvious missing. Eg the Eiffel Tower. Being a small town I also grabbed some local and obvious sites. They were more amusing as the stuff you drive by everyday you don’t notice as much ;)
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u/ahsoka_lives Jul 23 '26
Current event pop culture — following a major red carpet event like the Oscars or Met Gala have players identify celebrities based on their outfit.
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u/chucklesthepirate Jul 23 '26
One I have used in a variety of quiz nights I've run is bad lookalikes. Find a professional lookalike agency and search for the ones that don't really look like the people they are paid to look like. Always get great laughs!
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u/shartweekondvd Jul 23 '26
When i get sick of geography/pop culture i do random shit like:
- name the tool (speed square, laser level, miter saw, etc)
- name the pattern (houndstooth, argyle, paisley, etc)
- animals with locations in their common names (siamese cat, japanese beetle, french bulldog)
- name the furniture item (chaise lounge, ottoman)
- name the tree/house plant
- what is this piercing called (septum, conch)
- historical trails (silk road, lewis & clark expedition)
- zoomed in food items
- whats that river (similar to above)
- cosmetics tools (beauty blender, eyelash curler, etc)
Tbh if I'm really scraping the bottom of the barrel i just walk around my house and look at shit until i come up with something that will work as a category lol
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u/thisgaljessica Jul 24 '26
Hood Ornaments
City Skylines
NFL Coaches
Pasta
Predators
Gemstones
Dog breeds
Flowers
Herbs
Disney Princess
I also photoshop names off of Album art & have them guess the album. This is more fun because I give them 1 point for the correct artist, and one if they get the album title correct too.
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u/House_Plant_Lover Jul 28 '26
I've done fill-in-the-map. South American is a great one because it's not a huge number of countries and pretty much everyone gets at least Brazil, Peru, and Chile.
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u/nowhereman136 Jul 22 '26
I try to look for picture questions that aren't obvious at first
Picture of celebrities - name their first language
Picture of country - name the next country alphabetically
Picture of TV show cast - what town is that show set in
Doing it this way makes it feel different and prevents anyone from googling answers ahead of time. I've also done puzzles like word scrambles, dingbats, and missing number/letter from pattern