I find that just voicing a factual description automatically conjures up feelings and story lines to weave your tale with in a reading.
By saying, "A man raises his sword and looks into the past. There are other "people" around him," I already get ideas about someone who may be protecting or guarding something important.
the hard part for me is isolating and expanding on what's important and disregarding what isn't. In the current example, those swords JUMP out. They are a key element to use in the "story line" of a reading.
As you mentioned, there are so many ways to go when interpreting. For all I know this spread may have more to do with the "beasts" than the King and his sword. This is why a
question is so important as it anchors down the images and sets up parameters. Riffing as we are doing here is great practice, though.
The way you noticed that blue cuff as an extension of the blue base was so perfect. I don't think I would have noticed that but once you said it, all these ideas came up. Of course, I thought. And who holds the sword? The king. This is the Kings hand! He's saying something important, or severing ties with the past, or emasculating or knighting someone or... well, you get the idea
Even though we are riffing, I believe these are very important first steps