Content

• Steps
• Advice
• Warning

Photo captions are an important part of journalism. Captions must be accurate and convey information. In fact, most readers often look at all the pictures first, then read the captions, and then decide if they want to read the full story. Use the following guidelines to write a curious caption that will make your audience read the whole article.

Steps

Method 1 of 3: Understand the basics of annotations

1. 

   Check information. One of the most important aspects of all journalism is accuracy. If you use the wrong information, the story or images will lose credibility. Before uploading or printing any photo captions, make sure you check that everything in the captions is correct.
   • Do not print if the photo has incorrect captions if you have difficulty verifying, possibly because there is no reliable source, or the deadline is close. It is best to discard that information if you are not sure if it is correct.

   

   
   
   Heather Gallagher
   

   Experts agree that:In photo reporting, it is important that captions be objective and vivid. Try not to put your feelings in there - just tell the real story that happened.

2. 

   Description is not clear. If the photo caption simply depicts what is in the picture, it would be quite redundant. If you have a photo of a sunset with the caption "sunset", it means that it has no further information for readers. Instead add more unknown details in the photo, such as location, time of day or year, or specific events that are taking place.
   • For example with a photo of a sunset, you should note: “Sunset at the Pacific coast, March 2016, from Long Beach, Vancouver Island”.
   • Also avoid phrases like "shown in the picture", "taken", "see", or "as above".

3. 

   
   
   Do not start captions with specific words. A good caption doesn't start with ‘a’ or ‘this is’. Those words are too basic and take up space that are not strictly necessary. For example, instead of writing "A blue jay in the northern forest" write: "Blue jay bird flying over the northern forest".
   • Also, don't start captions with someone's name, start captions with a profile description first and mention the name. For example, don't write: “Stan Theman appeared near Sunshine Meadow Park”, but write: “Jogger Stan Theman appeared near Sunshine Meadow Park”.
   • When locating a character in the picture, you can say "left to right", but not "left to right".

4. 

   
   
   Identify the main character in the photo. If the photo includes important characters, identify who they are if you know the name (unless they want to remain anonymous). If you don't have a name, you can describe your background (for example, "protesters on the streets of Washington, DC").
   • The most important basic thing is to make sure you write the characters' names and their titles correctly.
   • If the picture includes a group of people, or a few people who are not involved in the story (their names are not required to fully understand the story either), then you do not need to list each name in the caption.

5. 

   Be as specific as possible. Annotation specificity needs to be coupled with accuracy. If you are not sure where the picture was taken, or who was in the picture, find out. Inserting a picture without any specific information can be difficult for the reader, especially if you cannot tell them the context in which the picture was taken.
   • If you work together with other journalists in the report, please contact them for more information if needed.
   • If you need to identify a person in a photo, portraying them is a good way.For example, if Bob Smith is the only person wearing a hat in the photo, describe: “Bob Smith, back row is wearing a hat”.
   • While the specific is good, you can also express it by opening the caption in general and then getting more specific, or a specific opening but a general ending. Both methods guarantee specificity but are also easy to deploy.

6. 

   Accurate historical photo annotation. If you are using historical photographs in this article, make sure the images are properly captioned and include the date (at least five) of the pictures taken. Depending on who owns the photo, you may need to include a source of the photographer and / or an organization (such as a museum, archives) that holds the rights to use the photo.

7. 

   Use present tense in comments. Since the photos are used as part of the current "now" news report, you should use the present tense to caption. With the exception of historical photographs, the past tense must be clearly used.
   • The beauty of using current tense is to create a new sense of updating for readers and increase the impact of the photo on readers more.

8. 

   Avoid misplaced humor. If the picture you caption is about a serious or bleak event, don't write it jokingly. Comedy captions should only be used for amusing photos of a happy event that will make readers laugh.

9. 

   Always remember to include photo sources and quotes. All photos should be accompanied by the name of the photographer and / or the organization that owns the photograph. In photography magazines and publications also include the technical details and how the photo was taken (such as aperture, film speed, f-stop, lens, etc.).
   • When citing a source, you do not need to write "photo belongs", "owned by" if the source of the image has a consistent presentation pattern and it is easy for viewers to understand that it is the source. For example, the image source is always italicized or printed in a smaller size.
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Method 2 of 3: Highlight stories with photo captions

1. 

   Use captions to tell readers something new. When readers look at pictures, they often arise emotions and receive information (based on what they see in the picture). The caption should provide information that is not known to the reader just by looking at the picture. In short, the caption should help readers understand more about the picture.
   • Captions should make the reader curious to investigate the story and find out more information.
   • Comments should not be repeated in any part of the article either. The caption and story should be complementary and not repeated.

2. 

   
   
   Avoid judgment. Comments should be for informational purposes only, not for judgment or criticism. Unless you have actually talked to the people in the picture and asked about their feelings or thoughts, avoid shooting them down based on how they look in the picture. For example, avoid writing “buyers in line are not happy”, unless you really know they're unhappy.
   • Journalism is an industry that needs to be objective and informative for its readers. Journalists are people who reflect reality in an unbiased manner and let readers make their own opinions.

3. 

   
   
   Don't worry about caption length. The picture itself can speak a thousand words, but sometimes it still takes a few more words to bring the picture into context. If it takes a long caption to understand the picture, that's fine. While you want your captions to be clear and succinct, don't limit the information if it's essential.

4. 

   
   
   Use spoken language. Newspapers generally do not use overly complex language. But at the same time don't use slang or cliché. Comments should follow a basic language requirement. Write voice captions, similar to how you would talk to your family when you show them a picture. Avoid clichés and slang (and abbreviations). Don't use complicated words if you don't need them.
   • If the picture accompanies the story, keep the tone of the post and captions the same.

5. 

   Captions of unnecessary news for the story. Photo-based reports often tell a specific, clear story. If there is a piece of information that is useful for understanding an image, but not essential to the whole story, include it in a caption.
   • This does not mean that the caption only contains insignificant information in the story, rather that information is not too necessary to include in the main report. An annotation can be viewed as a separate mini story, and can contain news that is not used for the main article.
   • Again, remember that captions and stories should complement each other, not repeat.

6. 

   Determine which punctuation should be used. If the photo is simply about a character (such as a portrait) or a specific object (like an umbrella), you can caption that the person's name or the object has no punctuation. . In other cases you can still write incomplete sentence captions, this depends on publishing requirements.
   • Example for an unsigned caption: "Toyota 345X transmission"
   • Example of complete and incomplete caption: Complete - "Actress Ann Levy drives the Acura 325 for a lap on the London driving test". Incomplete sentences - "Drive the Acura 325 a turn".

7. 

   Simplify description in the following notes. If consecutive pictures in an article show the same place or character, you don't need to repeat the details in each caption. For example, if you have introduced your character with the full name in the first picture then in the next pictures you just need to use the first name or last name of the character.
   • You just assume that the reader has seen and read the caption of the first picture and then left because the story is told in a specific order anyway.
   • You can also skip going into detail in the caption if the story itself has a lot of details. For example, if a story has told the details of an event, you don't need to repeat it in the caption anymore.

8. 

   Let readers know the photo has been edited. Images are sometimes enlarged, reduced, or cropped to suit the situation, story, paper, space, etc. You do not need to notice these changes because they do not change what is contained in the picture. However, if you edit the photo in another way (for example, change the color, delete or add something, inflate something unnaturally, etc.) then you must report the change. in the caption
   • The caption does not need to state what you have changed, but should state "photo for illustration purposes".
   • This rule also applies to special imaging methods such as time-laspe, etc.

9. 

   Set up a caption pattern. After you get used to your caption writing skills, you can create a specific template for captions. Your captions will probably naturally follow this formula or some similar pattern without having to scrutinize the rule. But sometimes you will also need a formula to review, to make sure you have fully written down the necessary parts of the caption.
   • We have the typical pattern: transparency depends on,,. .
   • An example caption written on the above formula: “Dallas fireman (noun) fighting against (acting on present tense) fire (live object) in residential Fitzhugh (place) near intersection of Fitzhugh Avenue and Monarch Road in Dallas (city) on Thursday (weekday), July 1 (month), 2004 (year). "
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Method 3 of 3: Common errors in comments

1. 

   
   
   Avoid being conceited. The presumptuousness in the caption shows that the writer only knows how to write for himself and does not care about the reader. This can be seen as selfish because the writer cares about himself more than the reader is trying to analyze what the image and the story are about.
   • This also happens when the writer tries to be 'chic' and tries to write something new or wise. Actually, it doesn't have to be that complicated. Keep everything simple, clear, and accurate.

2. 

   
   
   Avoid shooting. You know what they say about people who are prone to blame…! This also applies to caption writing. The accusations can be part of the journalist, the photographer, or even someone in the crowd deducing what is happening. Don't be quick to pinpoint what's going on in the picture, or who the person is.
   • This also applies to styles and stereotypes. If you do not know if the publisher has a template for captions, do not write the way you like because you will have to correct it, because you did not ask the editor.

3. 

   
   
   Avoid negligence. Negligence occurs when writers do not care, do not take things seriously enough to check what they write. The result of such negligence could be misspellings, incorrect character names, incorrect captions with pictures, incorrect images, etc. If you are proud of your work, do well from top to bottom.
   • This also happens when the writer tries to use a different language in the comment, but fails to check that it was written correctly. Goodle Translate is not a good test if the language is correct.

4. 

   
   
   Remember your article will be considered true. As a journalist, anything you print, whether it's in an article or a caption, is seen by your readers as true. If you are lazy or sloppy, you risk giving inaccurate information to a large audience.
   • Also remember that once information is released “out there,” it will be very difficult to correct it. Especially if it relates to a tragic, stressful, or ongoing event.
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Advice

• In the newspaper industry, photo captions are called "cutlines".
• National Geographic photo captions are good examples of little photo reportage. National Geographic is famous for their photographs, but most of the images printed in magazines have stories. However, readers tend to look at the picture first, read the caption, see the picture again and then decide to read the whole article. A good caption will do the job of helping readers jump from viewing pictures to reading articles.
• Images and captions must complement each other. Together they tell the story. Photos and captions should be avoided. Captions must help a picture explain what it is about when, when, where. But a picture does the job of arousing the emotion.
• As a photographer, you must bring notebooks, pens / pencils with the events you photograph. Make use of the time between shots or while waiting for your subject, take note of the character's name in the pictures and make sure it's correct.

Warning

• When writing comments, remember the comments you've read and find confusing. For example, some news sites may use stock images because they do not have real photos of the event. This is fine too, but the stock image is not the actual image, should be mentioned in the caption.