I would say you were seeing the energy of the pic. When I look at images of people, when I really, REALLY look, I can see that person's energy, I can see sometimes spirits around them, I get information about the person, their entities, their paths, their lives, all kinds of things. Sometimes the images move, to show me other aspects of the energies involved.
There used to be a... superstition, that images stole the soul of the person that the image was of. It's not quite that, but images DO connect you to what the image is of. The energy remains.
Remember when Foxy was attacked, and she painted the chakra that was attacked? She has two versions, two images of that painting. One is unshielded, and the moment you look at it, you feel the attack as if it were happening to you. The other image is shielded, and you simply see the image. That painting doesn't show the chakra, it doesn't show Foxy. It shows nothing except her feelings of the attack... and yet, when you see the unshielded version, you cannot help but know everything.
Images are like that. It's not the soul, and it's not based on time. I can look at an image of you from before you hit puberty and still see what's going on with you right now, or even what will be going on with you soon. Not far away, because paths branch out... but soon. So it's not soul... but definitely energy.
Congratulations on this new development in your Sight.
Blessings...
Selqet
Addition -
Because photos and images of things connect to those things... an image can take the place of an item in a spell. I've used images of expensive stones to take the place of those stones, etc.
But warning... if you use the image of a practitioner in a spell who knows how to ward against such use... the spell will backlash, and whatever you are attempting to do to or with them, will happen to you instead.
This energetic possibility is why many practitioners use fake names and do not share images of themselves or allow people to take their picture.