In the paper, the possibility of application of various experimental methods to the analysis of elastic-plastic states at different levels of material plastifying is presented. For tests carried out on two-dimensional elements with different stress concentrators and loaded by tensile stresses, three experimental methods have been selected: Moir´e method, method of photoelastic coating and the thermography method. On the basis of the tests results, the range of the applicability of chosen methods and their suitability to the elastic-plastic strain analysis at the development of material plastifying has been determined. The strain components distribution obtained from the Moir´e method and the method of photoelastic coating has been compared. The possibility of increasing the accuracy of strain determination for the Moir´e method by additional tests at the grid rotated by an angle of 45◦ with respect to the direction of tensile stress has been shown. The results of the investigations have been discussed.