Writing photo captions

        

    Captions are often the first elements of a publication to be read. Writing photo captions is an essential part of the news photographer’s job. A photo caption should provide the reader basic information needed to understand a photograph and its relevance to the news. It should be written in a consistent, concise format that allows news organizations to move the photo to publication without delay.

Professional standards of clarity, accuracy and completeness in caption writing should be as high or higher than any other writing that appears in a publication. A poorly written caption that is uninformative or worse, misleading, can diminish the impact of a good photo and undermine its credibility as journalism. If readers can’t trust the accuracy of the simple information included in a caption, why should they trust what they read in the rest of the publication?

Writing captions

In most photo captions, the first sentence identifies the people and place in the photograph, and the date and location where it was taken. The second (and perhaps third) sentence should provide contextual information to help readers understand what they are looking at.

The exact format for captions vary from publication to publication, but a basic photo captions should:

• Clearly identify the people and locations that appear in the photo. Professional titles should be included as well as the formal name of the location. SPELL NAMES CORRECTLY (check against the spellings in the article if necessary). For photographs of more than one person, identifications typically go from left to right. In the case of large groups, identifications of only notable people may be required and sometimes no identifications are required at all. Your publication should establish a standard for its photographers.
• Include the date and day the photograph was taken. This is essential information for a news publication. The more current a photo is, the better. If an archive photograph or photograph taken prior to the event being illustrated is used, the caption should make it clear that it is a “file photo.”
• Provide some context or background to the reader so he or she can understand the news value of the photograph. A sentence or two is usually sufficient.
• Photo captions should be written in complete sentences and in the present tense. The present tense gives the image a sense of immediacy. When it is not logical to write the entire caption in the present tense, the first sentence is written in the present tense and the following sentences are not.
• Be brief. Most captions are one or two short, declarative sentences. Some may extend to a third sentence if complex contextual information is needed to explain the image completely.

• Here are a few examples:

• • A school bus is towed following a collision with a car on the Major Deagan Expressway (I-87) in the Bronx on Friday, Sept. 30, 2005. There were no major injuries reported among the 42 students and eight adults on board from St. Joseph School in the Bronx. (AP Photo/John Smock)
  • General Pervez Musharraf, President of Pakistan, addresses the audience at the Columbia University World Leadership Forum in New York on Friday, Sept. 16, 2005. In town for the United Nations World Summit this week, several heads of state are speaking at the university . (AP Photo/John Smock)

  • Here are some things to watch out for:

    • Don’t be vague in your caption, and make sure names of people and places are correctly identified and spelled. Be accurate. A photojournalist is a journalist.
    • If a photo is manipulated digitally beyond sizing and color control, it should be labeled as a “photo illustration” in the caption, or in the photo credit. If unusual photo techniques are used, such as time-lapse photography, it should be noted. Explanations are also needed for special effects, such as the use of an inset or a picture sequence.
    • Sorce:
    • https://ijnet.org/en/resource/writing-photocaptions: