In this paper a technique based on high-speed digital photography and the digital speckle correlation （DSC） method is used for the quantitative measurement of the displacement and strain fields of various Portevin Le Chatelier （PLC） bands （types A, B, and C）. The experimental results clearly show the nucleation process of a type-B band and the propagation of a type-A band. The results also reveal that there exists an elastic shrinkage deformation outside a PLC band during a large avalanche-like deformation inside the PLC band.
