Setting the filter to an OpenFileDialog to allow the typical image formats?

From the docs, the filter syntax that you need is as follows:

Office Files|*.doc;*.xls;*.ppt

i.e. separate the multiple extensions with a semicolon -- thus, Image Files|*.jpg;*.jpeg;*.png;....

For images, you could get the available codecs from GDI (System.Drawing) and build your list from that with a little work. This would be the most flexible way to go.

ImageCodecInfo[] codecs = ImageCodecInfo.GetImageEncoders();

In order to match a list of different categories of file, you can use the filter like this:

        var dlg = new Microsoft.Win32.OpenFileDialog()
        {
            DefaultExt = ".xlsx",
            Filter = "Excel Files (*.xls, *.xlsx)|*.xls;*.xlsx|CSV Files (*.csv)|*.csv"
        };

Write out the types that your application wants. (ref. FileDialog.Filter). Here are all the most common image formats.

private static string GetImageFilter()
{
    return
        "All Files (*.*)|*.*" +
        "|All Pictures (*.emf;*.wmf;*.jpg;*.jpeg;*.jfif;*.jpe;*.png;*.bmp;*.dib;*.rle;*.gif;*.emz;*.wmz;*.tif;*.tiff;*.svg;*.ico)" +
            "|*.emf;*.wmf;*.jpg;*.jpeg;*.jfif;*.jpe;*.png;*.bmp;*.dib;*.rle;*.gif;*.emz;*.wmz;*.tif;*.tiff;*.svg;*.ico" +
        "|Windows Enhanced Metafile (*.emf)|*.emf" +
        "|Windows Metafile (*.wmf)|*.wmf" +
        "|JPEG File Interchange Format (*.jpg;*.jpeg;*.jfif;*.jpe)|*.jpg;*.jpeg;*.jfif;*.jpe" +
        "|Portable Network Graphics (*.png)|*.png" +
        "|Bitmap Image File (*.bmp;*.dib;*.rle)|*.bmp;*.dib;*.rle" +
        "|Compressed Windows Enhanced Metafile (*.emz)|*.emz" +
        "|Compressed Windows MetaFile (*.wmz)|*.wmz" +
        "|Tag Image File Format (*.tif;*.tiff)|*.tif;*.tiff" +
        "|Scalable Vector Graphics (*.svg)|*.svg" +
        "|Icon (*.ico)|*.ico";
}

Example use

Set FilterIndex = 2 to preselect 'All pictures'. Don't set openFileDialog.InitialDirectory unless you have a good reason.

void OpenImageFile()
{
    var openFileDialog  = new OpenFileDialog
    {
        Filter = GetImageFilter(),
        FilterIndex = 2,
        RestoreDirectory = true
    };
    DialogResult result = openFileDialog.ShowDialog();

    // do something with your file
    // bool resultOk = (result == System.Windows.Forms.DialogResult.OK);
    // string filePath = openFileDialog.FileName;
    // ...
}

This is extreme, but I built a dynamic, database-driven filter using a 2 column database table named FILE_TYPES, with field names EXTENSION and DOCTYPE:

---------------------------------
| EXTENSION  |  DOCTYPE         |
---------------------------------
|   .doc     |  Document        |
|   .docx    |  Document        |
|   .pdf     |  Document        |
|   ...      |  ...             |
|   .bmp     |  Image           |
|   .jpg     |  Image           |
|   ...      |  ...             |
---------------------------------

Obviously I had many different types and extensions, but I'm simplifying it for this example. Here is my function:

    private static string GetUploadFilter()
    {
        // Desired format:
        // "Document files (*.doc, *.docx, *.pdf)|*.doc;*.docx;*.pdf|"
        // "Image files (*.bmp, *.jpg)|*.bmp;*.jpg|"

        string filter = String.Empty;
        string nameFilter = String.Empty;
        string extFilter = String.Empty;

        // Used to get extensions
        DataTable dt = new DataTable();
        dt = DataLayer.Get_DataTable("SELECT * FROM FILE_TYPES ORDER BY EXTENSION");

        // Used to cycle through doctype groupings ("Images", "Documents", etc.)
        DataTable dtDocTypes = new DataTable();
        dtDocTypes = DataLayer.Get_DataTable("SELECT DISTINCT DOCTYPE FROM FILE_TYPES ORDER BY DOCTYPE");

        // For each doctype grouping...
        foreach (DataRow drDocType in dtDocTypes.Rows)
        {
            nameFilter = drDocType["DOCTYPE"].ToString() + " files (";

            // ... add its associated extensions
            foreach (DataRow dr in dt.Rows)
            {
                if (dr["DOCTYPE"].ToString() == drDocType["DOCTYPE"].ToString())
                {
                    nameFilter += "*" + dr["EXTENSION"].ToString() + ", ";
                    extFilter += "*" + dr["EXTENSION"].ToString() + ";";
                }                    
            }

            // Remove endings put in place in case there was another to add, and end them with pipe characters:
            nameFilter = nameFilter.TrimEnd(' ').TrimEnd(',');
            nameFilter += ")|";
            extFilter = extFilter.TrimEnd(';');
            extFilter += "|";

            // Add the name and its extensions to our main filter
            filter += nameFilter + extFilter;

            extFilter = ""; // clear it for next round; nameFilter will be reset to the next DOCTYPE on next pass
        }

        filter = filter.TrimEnd('|');
        return filter;
    }

    private void UploadFile(string fileType, object sender)
    {            
        Microsoft.Win32.OpenFileDialog dlg = new Microsoft.Win32.OpenFileDialog();
        string filter = GetUploadFilter();
        dlg.Filter = filter;

        if (dlg.ShowDialog().Value == true)
        {
            string fileName = dlg.FileName;

            System.IO.FileStream fs = System.IO.File.OpenRead(fileName);
            byte[] array = new byte[fs.Length];

            // This will give you just the filename
            fileName = fileName.Split('\\')[fileName.Split('\\').Length - 1];
            ...

Should yield a filter that looks like this:

Use this method to return a Filter compatible string built from ImageCodecInfo supporting image formats the current system understands.

        /// <summary>
        /// Get the Filter string for all supported image types.
        /// To be used in the FileDialog class Filter Property.
        /// </summary>
        /// <returns></returns>
        public static string GetImageFilter()
        {
            string imageExtensions = string.Empty;
            string separator = "";
            ImageCodecInfo[] codecs = ImageCodecInfo.GetImageEncoders();
            Dictionary<string, string> imageFilters = new Dictionary<string, string>();
            foreach (ImageCodecInfo codec in codecs)
            {
                imageExtensions = $"{imageExtensions}{separator}{codec.FilenameExtension.ToLower()}";
                separator = ";";
                imageFilters.Add($"{codec.FormatDescription} files ({codec.FilenameExtension.ToLower()})", codec.FilenameExtension.ToLower());
            }
            string result = string.Empty;
            separator = "";
            foreach (KeyValuePair<string, string> filter in imageFilters)
            {
                result += $"{separator}{filter.Key}|{filter.Value}";
                separator = "|";
            }
            if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(imageExtensions))
            {
                result += $"{separator}Image files|{imageExtensions}";
            }
            return result;
        }

Will result as shown:

You must include all image type extensions and allow for all files as an option.

All Files|.|All images|.jpg;.jpeg;.png;.gif;.tif;.bmp|JPEG Images|.jpg|PNG Images|.png";