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Description: We investigate how task and visual context affect referring expressions for objects in natural scenes. Participants were asked to produce referring expressions to unequivocally identify one of two objects highlighted in a scene. Results show that participants provided more informative responses if the two objects shared a common name (e.g., ``car'') by using either lexical specification (e.g., ``SUV'') or syntactic modification (e.g., ``large car'') to avoid ambiguity. Compared to a purely descriptive task, the frequency specification was increased even in contexts in which no specification was required. Moreover, in contexts in which both lexical specification and syntactic modification were viable options to avoid ambiguity, participants tended to prefer the lexical route over the syntactic route. This suggests that it may be less demanding to increase informativity of referring expressions with lexical specification than syntactic modification.