The aim of this paper is to show that recent advances made in the field of speckle image processing give valuable information useful in understanding and modelling of localisation phenomena. The potentialities of the proposed imaging method are illustrated by examples extracted from tensile tests performed on steel specimens. Having introduced the underlying motivations of this experimental work, this paper briefly focuses on the image processing technique and its reliability. Then, it describes the characteristics of the strain field within and outside of a propagating Lüders band. The properties of strain states associated with diffuse and localised necking are also investigated. The catalyst role of possible geometrical defects is pointed out. Finally, a method is proposed to construct, despite localisation, a local stress–strain correspondence.