Baysitter11 Loc: Cincinnati

Maybe ask, “What elevates a picture to a photograph?” It should contain an element that makes the viewer follow throughout the entire image all that it offers or says.

Ex. Winter scene with snow, fence, farm house, beautiful,….but add a red cardinal on the fence, or a far away horse in the field,…elevated.
Ex. Ocean sunset, again, beautiful but bring in a small boat, a sailboat, a bit of the rocky shore in the foreground, a flying pelican silhouetted against the sky….elevated and more interesting.

You get the idea. Good luck and thanks for paying it forward to the young people. Great hobby.

Wilderness Images Loc: Apache Junction, AZ.

I've always worked with the thought that a photograph is what has come from the camera, a picture is what you have created from that photograph.

Jack Olson

bbq4270 Loc: Blainville, Quebec Canada

excellent response!

1Feathercrest Loc: NEPA

Semantics: as in, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder".

ELNikkor

Agree more with Shapiro's approach. Might want to show examples of "picture" such as all the boring, camera-staring selfies or group shots they take with their phones, to "photograph" showing more context of the scene/event/personalities/story-telling composition of the subjects.

Jeffcs Loc: Myrtle Beach South Carolina

Question you should ask yourself
Are you trying to make the difference between “snap shot”(family memory) or “photograph”(art work)

starlifter Loc: Towson, MD

I have a hard time saying picture. It comes out Pixture. So I say photograph. But photograph does sound more professional.

Picture Taker Loc: Michigan Thumb

A photo designated then process. In a picture the process is undefined.

Schoee Loc: Europe

ALL photographs are pictures but not all pictures are photographs. I can draw a picture with a pencil or make one with paint or use a camera etc

Tjohn Loc: Inverness, FL formerly Arivaca, AZ

A picture can be any painting, etching, scratching or drawing on any base material. A photo is any image created by light traveling through a lens (including pin hole) and falling on a light sensitive material, to be processed and presented later by various means.

Celtis87

Would “snapshot” instead of “picture” make the point with less controversy?

sodapop Loc: Bel Air, MD

Tonight we are going to watch a motion photograph (Movie)

hawleyrw Loc: Dayton, OH

I’ve had this discussion before, and then I don’t use the word picture versus photograph. I use the word snapshot versus photograph. Where a snapshot is simply hold the camera up take a picture without any regard to lighting or composition. snapshots being Candid for the most part. Candid for the most part, very brief discussion needed.

Then go into your conversation about taking a picture or a photograph, where you have the students learn about proper composition for a nice photograph, to include not only composition but lighting. lighting plays such a valid part in what people do when taking pictures.

Example, my granddaughter was going to shoot a photo of me and the grandkids the other day just outside of a restaurant, we were actually in the foyer. Her first attempted try, was going to put us right in front of the window. I stopped her and position is on the other side with the light not behind us, something as simple as that, and teaching the young ones to observe what they see in the other photographs, taken and trying to replicate the artistic point of photography

Schoee Loc: Europe

The OP talks about ‘elevating’ to a photograph. But I don’t think the word photograph has that elevated sense in it. You are trying to ascribe something to the word that is not really there. What you really mean is the difference between a snapshot and a masterpiece. Or maybe a snapshot and ‘wall hanger’. You need a word that has the sense of being better than average about it; photograph does not do that

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

It would certainly be preferable to making up all these definitions of the word "picture" that have nothing to do with the actual definition of the word.