Effective pictures engage the viewer by eliciting an emotional response. They can be so simple that there is no doubt as to the photographers intentions, but they may require more than one look to make sense of them.

 When people are the subjects we draw instinctive conclusions from their expressions and body language. We look to the eyes to provide clues and if none are forthcoming we use imagination to fill in the gaps, our conclusions conditioned by environment and personal experience. 

The staring eyes of Chelsea Manager Jose Mourinho in Dylan Martinezs picture speak volumes. His team have just been knocked out in the semi-final stages of Europes top club tournament and it was clearly important to him but we dont need to know the details to sense his disappointment.

In Rupak de Chowdhuris picture the faces are harder to find but once located they stare expressionlessly straight at the camera through the sea of hands which are pressed against the glass in an attempt to make contact with the occupants of the vehicle. This is an appeal for help. These children of tea workers on a closed-down tea estate in West Bengal are asking for food in an area where more than 150 people have died of malnutrition in the past year but without knowing that you can tell that these kids are in trouble.

The consumer of news images needs to be able to ascertain the who, what, why, when and how, but a good picture will always work on some level without the need for explanation.

In among the many news and sports images generated daily by our photographers around the world are real gems which have nothing to do with breaking news or deadlines. Leo Langs picture of Peking Opera performers in full costume playing cards and smoking during a break in a performance is one such.

The costumes are sumptuous; the tension palpable despite the masks and heavy makeup and it seems that at times of stress good guys and bad guys alike smoke their cigarettes down to the filter.

Last Fridays Editors Choice of the best images of the previous 24 hours contained three images from the Middle East with widely differing views of lives lead by young women from across the region.The appearance of these three pictures on the same day was entirely coincidental, but once juxtaposed in this way the stark contrasts are hard to ignore. 

In the first picture by Ali Jarekji, three little girls in pink ballet dresses and tights caper merrily at a dance festival in Amman. The body language of the dancers is comfortable, the gestures expansive and one of them looks out at the audience smiling, perhaps hoping to catch the approving eye of a doting parent.

In Ceerwan Azizs from Baghdad, two girls examine the riddled remains of a car, concern etched on the face of one of them. How could it be otherwise in such an environment where only hours before a car bomb had killed six people and injured 15?

In Mohammed Salems image from Gaza, armed women members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades arrive at a press conference. Black hoods obscure their identities and deny the viewer access to their humanity; the message of the hoods and guns is unequivocal.