Referencing Images & Tables
When referencing images & tables that you have inserted in your assignment/thesis, use the word Figure to refer to all images including Photographs, Paintings, Drawings, Charts, Diagrams, Graphs. Tables are separate and should be labelled with the word Table. All these items should be placed as closely after the first place where they are referenced in the text of your work.
Completing a Thesis or Dissertation? You must seek permission to use any images from copyrighted materials.
All figures and tables require a short caption. They should be numbered sequentially in arabic numerals.
A longer caption for each figure or table also needs to be included in a List of Illustrations. (Check with your lecturer/supervisor whether you are required to complete a List of Illustrations for your assignment. Theses and Dissertations would definitely require a List of Illustrations. If you are not required to complete a List of Illustrations, you might need to include the source of images in your reference list.
Own/Personal image or table
Short Caption (underneath the figure or table)
Figure 1. Turtle sanctuary (Photo by author).
Table 1. Fatigue amongst architects (Table by author)
Long Caption (to include in your List of Illustrations or List of Tables).
Figure 1. Turtle sanctuary. By Author.
Table 1. Fatigue amongst architects. By Author.
Note: You can follow this example if the figure is original, or the table and all data within it are your own. If you have adapted a figure or table from another source, see "Adapted Figures & Tables". If you have created a table with data sourced from other sources, see "Self-created table with data taken from somewhere else". Both of these are in the right-hand column. If you have taken your own photo of an artwork, there is a special citation format for that. Talk to the Student Learning & Achievement team.
Someone else's image or table
Place a caption under the work The basic format of a Short Caption to go under is:
Figure 1. Description of image/figure as it relates to your work. OR Table 1. Description of table as it relates to your work.
The basic format for a Long Caption to go in a List of Illustrations is:
Fig 1. Description of image/figure as it relates to your work. Format by Creator Name, "Original Title," in/from Author, Title of Source (publication details), page number, original figure/table number. Copyright permission information if necessary.)
Note: If the Creator/Photographer name is not given or clear, there is no different original title of the image, or the original source does not have a table or figure number, these can be omitted).
Image/Table taken from a print book
Short Caption (underneath the figure or table)
Figure 2. Model of Steven Holl's unbuilt entry to the Palazzo del Cinema competition, Venice, Italy, 1990.
Long Caption (to include in your List of Illustrations or List of Tables)
Fig. 2. Model of Steven Holl's unbuilt entry to the Palazzo del Cinema competition, Venice, Italy, 1990, Photograph, in Michael Hensel, Performance-Oriented Architecture: Rethinking Architectural Design and the Built Environment (West Sussex, England: Wiley, 2013), 38.
Image/Table taken from an ebook
Short Caption (underneath the figure or table)
Table 2. Points in rating tool for Green Star categories.
Long Caption (to include in your List of Illustrations or List of Tables)
Table 2. Points in rating tool for Green Star categories, Table, "Categories and Points in the Rating Tool, Green Star Design and As-Built," in Charles J. Kibert, Sustainable Construction: Green Building Design and Delivery. 4th ed. (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2016),143, table 4.9.
Image/Table taken from a journal article
Short Caption (underneath the figure or table)
Figure 3. Cross-section of compressed arched frame of Maori meeting house.
Long Caption (to include in your List of Illustrations or List of Tables)
Fig. 3. Cross-section of compressed arched frame of Maori meeting house, Drawing by John Treadwell, "Schematic Cross-Section of the Compressed Arched Frame of the Whare," in Jeremy Treadwell, "Cosmology and Structure: The 'Tauhu' in the 19th Century 'Whare' Mari," The Journal of the Polynesian Society, 126, no. 1 (2017): 96, fig. 1, https://doi.org/10.15286.jps.126.1.93.122.
Image/Table taken from the internet
Short Caption (underneath the figure or table)
Figure 4. Edifice of Auckland Ferry Building.
Long Caption (to include in your List of Illustrations or List of Tables)
Fig 4. Edifice of Auckland Ferry Building, Photograph by Engineering New Zealand, "Auckland Ferry Terminal from the Corner of Queens Street," from Engineering New Zealand, "Auckland Ferry Terminal Building," accessed July 3, 2019. https://www.engineeringnz.org/programmes/heritage/heritage-records/auckland-ferry-terminal-building/
Painting or Print held in a gallery (with an image in your work)
Available online
Short Caption (underneath the figure or table)
Figure 5. John Kinder's painting of the Church of San Zeno.
Long Caption (to include in your List of Illustrations or List of Tables)
Fig. 5. John Kinder's painting of the Church of San Zeno, Painting by John Kinder, "Church of San Zeno, Verona," c. 1845, pen and sepia and wash, 258 x 173 mm, from Auckland Art Gallery, "Church of San Zeno. Verona," John Kinder, accessed July 3, 2019, https://www.aucklandartgallery.com/explore-art-and-ideas/artwork/4877/church-of-san-zeno-verona
Available in a book
Short Caption (underneath the figure or table)
Figure 6. Image of Māori life in the early 20th century.
Long Caption (to include in your List of Illustrations or List of Tables)
Fig. 6. Image of Māori life in the early 20th century, Painting by H. Linley Richardson, "Life in an Olden Time Maori Pah," 1914, oil, 990 x 1880mm, in Leonard Bell, Colonial Constructs: European Images of the Maori, 1840-1914 (Auckland: Auckland University Press, 1992), 194, ProQuest Ebook Central Ebook.
Painting or Print held in a gallery (cited, but with no image in your work)
In this situation, you use a Long Footnote on the first mention, a Short footnote for any subsequent mentions and a Bibliography entry.
Long Footnote
1. Gottfried Lindauer. Maoris Plaiting Flax Baskets, 1903, oil on canvas, 2175 x 2650 mm, Auckland Art Gallery.
Shortened Footnote
2. Lindauer, Maoris Plaiting Flax Baskets.
Bibliography