2. CAPTION [T]
/ˈkæp.ʃən/ /ˈkæp.ʃən/
a short piece of text under a picture in a book,magazine,
or newspaperthat describesthe picture or
explains what the people in it are doing.
3. To
inform
the basic
information of
some object.
FUNCTION Thepurpose of a caption is
explanatory-- describes the
scenein the photo (name of
person or persons
photographed, location, date
(sometimes), what they are
doing in the photo, etc.)
PURPOSE
6. 1. Check yourfacts.
One of themost important aspects of
any typeof journalism is accuracy.If
youuse incorrectinformation, the
story or photo loses credibility. Before
uploading orprinting any photo
captions, make sureyou’vechecked
that anythingstated inthe caption is
accurate
2. Describesomething that
isn’t obvious.
Ifa photo caption simply describes the
visuals inthe photo, it’s fairly useless. If you
havea photo of a sunset and simply
caption is as “a sunset” you’renot adding
anyadditional information for thereader.
Instead, describe details of the photo that
are not obvious, like the location, the time
of dayor year,or a specific event that is
takingplace.
For example, if youhavea photo of a sunset youmight
want to caption it as: “Pacific coast sunset,
March2016,fromLong Beach, VancouverIsland."
7. 3. Do not start a caption with
certain words.
Acaption should not begin with thewords ‘a,’ ‘an,’
or ‘the.’ Thesewords aretoo basic and takeup
valuable captioning room whenthey aren’t
necessary. For example, instead of saying: “A blue
jayin the boreal forest;” simply say: “Blue jayflying
throughboreal forest.”
4. Identify the main people
in thephoto.
Ifyour photo includes important
people, identify who they are.If you
knowtheir names, includethem
(unless they’veasked to remain
anonymous).If youdon’t knowtheir
names, youmight want to put a
description of who theyare instead
(e.g. “protesters onthe streets of
Washington, DC”).
If thephoto includes a group of people, or some people
who are not relevant to the story (i.e. their namesare not
required to tell the story), youdo not haveto nameeach of
them inthe caption.
8. 5. Be as specific as
possible.
This advice goes hand-and-hand
with being accurate. If you are
unsureof where the photo was
taken,or who is inthe photo, find
out. Showing a photo without any
specific information may not be
useful to the reader
7. Usethe presenttense
in captions.
Because most photos being shown
as part of a news story are of things
happening “right now,” usethe
present tense in the caption. An
obvious exception would be any
historical photos, whereusing the
past tense makessense.
6. Label historical photos
properly.
If you’reusing an historical photo in
yourstory, makesure it’s labelled
properly andincludes the date (at least
the year)it was taken.Depending on
who owns the photo, youmay also
need to credit another photography
and/or organization (e.g. museum,
archive,etc.).
9. 8. Avoid humourwhen the photo
isn’t intended tobe humorous.
If thephoto you’recaptioning is of a serious or
sombre event, don’t try to befunnyin thecaption.
Funnycaptions should only beused whenthe photo
itself is a jokeor of a funnyevent that is intended to
makethe reader laugh
9. Remember to always include
credits and citations.
Everyphoto should includethe nameof the
photographer and/or the organization that
owns the photograph. When writing the
credits, youdon’t have to use the term
“credited to” or “photo by” if the information
is presented in a consistent and
understandable format. For example, maybe
the credits are always italicized or area
smaller font size.