Image Puzzles ??What the????

[+MouseAndCo]

Hi all, i recently broke my centenary ceiling and am now a very happy triple figure cacher. Im over a month into my upgraded membership and really getting into the mysteries. This weekend my geobuddy and I did our first night trail and absolutely loved it. We can't imagine it can be topped for location, container, route, novelty and pure ingenuity. No amount of thanks are enough to Caledonian Cachefest for adding to the birthday fun for my geobuddy. Anyway, we instantly wanted to do more laid by the same member and came across another, massive, set of relatively local mystery caches known as the Paws for Thought series, located near Peebles in the Scottish Borders.....

Herein lies the problem, many of the puzzles are just an image. No clues or anything on how to even attempt to start solving and creating a set of usable coordinates. We can identify the images, but how on earth you do anything with them we are completely stumped. What confuses and irritates us even more is that they aren't rated nearly as difficult as we have easily done before. Can anyone out there please please please guide us, even a little, as to how we can start to comprehend these type of puzzles??

[+niraD]

There is no single way to solve puzzles that are "just an image". Some use steganography of some sort. Some simply hide a faint image of the actual coordinates somewhere. Some put the solution in the metadata. Some use the object(s) displayed in the image as the solution to the puzzle. Some are red herrings, and the actual puzzle is elsewhere. And so on. 

Furthermore, according to section 2-D of the geocaching.com terms of use, "You agree not to: [...] xxiii. Publish on our websites the solutions, hints, spoilers, or any hidden coordinates for any geocache without consent from the geocache owner.” So we can't really discuss any specific puzzle caches here (at least, not without consent from the geocache owner). However, here are some general puzzle tips (based in part on a puzzle-solving class event presented by The Rat a while ago):

Identify the theme. Check the cache title, the hint, the HTML source, the graphics (including names/URLs), any links (including URLs), whatever is at the posted coordinates, etc. If you can figure out the theme, then you should look for numbering systems that are associated with that theme (zip codes, athletes’ jersey numbers, episode numbers, product codes, etc.).

Around here, coordinates will have 15 digits, and will look like "N 37° xx.xxx W 122° xx.xxx". So when I'm solving a nearby puzzle, I look for a group of 15 things, and then I look for ways to get the digits 37xxxxx122xxxxx from them. In general, I look for ways to get the number 37 (or the digits 3 and 7) from something near the beginning of the puzzle, and the number 122 (or the digits 1, 2, and 2) from something near the middle of the puzzle. (Of course, you'll need to adjust this for the coordinates near you.)

Other useful resources include:

Puzzle Solving 101 Series (bookmark list)
Calgary Puzzle Solving 101 (bookmark list)
Puzzle Shortcuts Series (bookmark list)
Solving Puzzle Caches (online article)
How Do I Solve All These &#$@! Puzzle Caches? (tutorial-style puzzle cache)
Geocaching Toolbox ("All geocaching tools a geocacher needs in one box.")
Puzzle FUNdamentals (archived event cache) and the Puzzle FUNdamentals resources on the GeocacheAlaska! education page
The GBA's Puzzle Cache FAQ (for puzzle designers, but useful for understanding how puzzle caches work)LANAKI's Classical Cryptography Course
How to Puzzle Cache (book)

[+noncentric]

niraD's advice is great for direction in how to tackle mystery/puzzle caches.

In regards to the "Paws for Thought" series, I looked through some of them and noticed that all of them include a geochecker.  If you're not familiar with geocheckers, then I'd suggest clicking on it. The box below the puzzle that says "know before you go" at the top is a link to a geochecker.

Some puzzle caches do not intend for you to find coords, but rather to find a specific word.  That word would then be entered into the geochecker and, if correct, the final coordinates will be revealed.