Caption Writing Tips

What is the purpose of a caption?

• A caption should provide information about a photo.

• A caption should entice the viewer to learn more about the subject and read the story.

• A caption should NOT leave any questions in the reader’s mind.

• A caption is like a mini news story.

Importance of captions

• According to Ken Kobre, a caption is the most read but least carefully written text in most publications!

• Readers often decide if they will read an article based on what they glean from a picture and caption.

What information should be in your caption?

5 Ws and H

• Who?• What?• When?• Where? • Why?• How (How much/How many?)

A one-sentence caption

• A caption is generally a single sentence but a second sentence can be added if additional context or explanation is needed. (Reuters handbook)

• A second sentence could also include an interesting fact or a quote.

AP Caption formula

• The first sentence describes who is doing what in the photo and states where and when the photo was made (in that order.) It must always include the day and date the photo was made.

• Use present tense.

Second sentence

• Gives the background of the news event and describes why the photo is significant (news value.)

WHO

• Who is in the picture?• Name, age, occupation• Organization name and title• Connection with the incident

being reported• Identify people from left to right

(L to R)

CQ

• cq is used to indicate to the copy desk that an unusual spelling of a name is correct

Examples• Mary Gima, 89, a resident at

Nikkei Senior Gardens• San Francisco State University

senior Kelly Goff• Artist Monika (cq) Del Bosque• Pierce College speech professor

Jennifer Rosenberg• Pre-schooler Kaden Will, age 4,

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger,

right, laughs with Ms. International winner Yaxeni Oriquen, of

Brazil, after presenting her with the trophy Friday, Feb. 29, 2008, in Columbus, Ohio. Oriquen won her

fourth Ms. International

competition. (AP Photo/Jay LaPrete)

• The second sentence explains why or how this image is an important piece of news.

•Oriquen won her fourth Ms. International competition. (AP Photo/Jay LaPrete)

• The second sentence explains why or how this image is an important piece of news.

•Oriquen won her fourth Ms. International competition. (AP Photo/Jay LaPrete)

To publish or not to publish?

• Many editors will not run a photograph if the caption doesn’t include the full names of the identifiable people in the image.

6 is a Crowd

• For close-up shots with 5 people or fewer, you need to get everyone’s name.

• For a crowd, it is not necessary -- or even possible -- to identify everyone.

• For a crowd, identify the groupings, such as football fans, striking teachers, Occupy protesters, etc.

The crew of the U.S. Navy's nuclear-powered submarine USS Georgia bow their heads in prayer aboard the sub during a return to service ceremony,

Friday, March 28, 2008 in Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base, Ga. The Georgia is the last of four submarines in the Ohio class to undergo the $1 billion conversion. The others are Florida, Ohio and Michigan. The subs are converted to carry cruise missiles instead of intercontinental ballistic

missiles. (AP Photo/Stephen Morton)

WHAT

• What is happening in the picture? Be specific. Don’t assume the reader can tell. Use an action verb.

• Remember to write in present tense to make it more immediate.

When

• When did this happen?• Use the month, day and year.• Time is only necessary if it is

relevant to the story. • Strict AP Style includes the day.

David Wentz, 16, holds a fossilized shark tooth, Wednesday, March 26, 2008, inside his home in Port Huron, Mich. Wentz

found the tooth while snorkeling with his brother Shaun, 21, off a Marysville (Michigan) beach at the end of summer last year. (AP

Photo/Times Herald, Melissa Wawzysko)

AP style note for the Date

• Abbreviate Jan., Feb. Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov. and Dec.

• Write out March, April, May, June, July

Where

• Where did it happen?• Include city and state.• If relevant, include a specific

location such as a building or classroom on campus.

AP Style Note

• Use the abbreviations, not the Postal Service designations. For example, California is Calif., NOT CA.

• Do not abbreviate Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Ohio, Texas and Utah.

Why• Explain why something is

happening.• The why part of the caption

provides a depth of news value to your photograph and puts the image in context.

• This is where the real reporting begins.

• Look for a news peg.

14-02-2005  Beirut, Lebanon    A man shouts for help at the scene of the truck-bomb explosion that killed former

Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri. Twenty other people were killed in the blast, which appeared aimed at the politician's motorcade. Hariri had resigned as

premier to join the opposition four months earlier, and was aiming at making a comeback in May elections. Opposition leaders blamed the Lebanese and Syrian

governments for the killing, calling for the government's resignation and the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon.  (Photo: Mohamad Azakir /Reuters )

How

• This could be how much (damages, cost, profits, etc.)

• How many (in attendance, injuries, etc.)

• How something came about (the cause of the accident, the reason for the arrest)

Stand alone

• When you have a stand alone photo (sometimes called wild art when it is a feature photo), the longer the caption and the more information, the better. It is like a mini news story.

• The fingers of malnourished Alassa Galisou (1) are pressed against the lips of his mother Fatou Ousseini at an emergency feeding center. One of the worst droughts in recent times, together with a particularly heavy plague of locusts that had destroyed the previous year's harvest, left millions of people severely short of food. Heavy rains promised well for the 2005 crops, but hindered aid workers bringing supplies. Relief had been slow to come. Accusations were leveled variously blaming the United Nations, Western governments, the international aid community and officials in Niger itself for failing to respond early enough to an imminent crisis.  (Photo: Finbarr O’Reilly)

Be Concise, be precise• Accuracy is important.• Ask people how to spell their names.• Don’t get information secondhand.• Stick to what the photos show and

what you know. • Explain only what you have

witnessed.• All other info must be sourced.

Don’t editorialize

• Stick to the facts.• Don’t assume what people are

thinking or feeling.• Refrain from using descriptive

terms.

Some other info to include

• A caption can point out a small detail in a photo that a reader may overlook.

• A caption should clearly explain if any unusual photo techniques were used to make the image.

Photo credit

• Photographers should include their photo credit in the caption. Style varies by publication.

• Jill Connelly for the New York Times

• Jill Connelly/AP• AP Photo/Jill Connelly

Los Angeles Clippers' Corey Maggette makes a pass around Philadelphia 76ers' Samuel Dalembert of Haiti during the first quarter Friday, Dec. 26, 2003, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jill Connelly)

Spot News

• Get the name, phone number, department affiliation and station of police officers on the scene.

• The fire station and engine numbers of fire equipment.

• Victims, if safe and possible.

• Get location of where victims are transported.

Other Types of photos• •A handout photo is provided by someone else to the

publication, not taken by the newspaper’s staff or• freelance photographers. The source should be credited.• Photo courtesy of the Smith family

• • A photo illustration can be set up or made in Photoshop; it should be clearly labeled.

• Photo Illustration by Jill Connelly

• • A file photo is not current, it is taken from the archives and should be labeled as such.

• File Photo

Firefighters Jeffrey Bredstrand, left, of the Seattle Fire Dept., Cody Ramstad, of Eastside Fire & Rescue of Issaquah, Wash., and Kelly McNab, of New Zealand Fire, rest after racing up 1,311 stairs in competition Sunday, March 2, 2008, in

the Columbia Center tower in Seattle. More than 1,000 firefighters from throughout the U.S., as well as Canada and New Zealand, raced 788 vertical feet

up 69 floors in the 17th annual stair climb at the tower, in a benefit for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

Additional info for sports captions

• A sports photo often sums up the game in a single image.

• Sports captions should include the 5Ws and H.

• Include the final score as the second sentence of the caption.

• Explain the significance of a play.

Spain's Rafael Nadal returns the ball to Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber during the second day of the Emirates Dubai

Tennis Championships in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Tuesday, March. 4, 2008.(AP Photo/Nousha Salimi)

Tips for getting good sports captions

• Get a roster for both teams.• Confirm the info on the roster,

including spelling of players’ names.

• Keep shooting after the peak action so you get a clear shot of the numbers to identify the players for captions.

• Take notes during the game.

Sports captions

• Photograph the scoreboard to help you keep track of when plays occur.

the copy desk

• Published captions will often be different than the caption you submit with your photo.

• The caption you attach to the photo is important for archival purposes as a historical record even if it doesn’t end up in the published caption.

A copy editor• Reads the caption.• Reads the story.• The copy editor then edits the

caption into a synopsis that explains the photo and its relationship to the story.

• A caption might also be edited for reasons of space and design.

Caption or cutline?

• Some use the terms interchangeably.

• Others say one is a newspaper term, the other a magazine.

troubleshooting captions

Contest Caption examples

• Distraught mom and Teenimpactdrivers.org advocate, Martha Tessmer states how distracted teen drivers took away her son.Photo by 555-1556 No date or place, would have been improved with a WHY.

Martha Tessmer speaks about her son, Donovan Haley Tessmer, who died in a car accident, because his girlfriend got distracted at the wheel while driving. Donovan was a high school football player with great chances at getting a scholarship, and

displayed next to her is his football signed by his high school football team. As family photos display behind her, she speaks about the fatal risks of being distracted

while driving, at a press conference in the Wilshire Grand Hotel in Los Angeles, Calif. promoting safer driving for teens. 555-444

Great caption but no date!

Martha Tessmer spoke at a press conference April 9, 2010 at the Wilshire Grand Hotel in Los Angeles, Calif., regarding the dangers of distracted driving. Donovan, Tessmer's 17-year-old son, died in a auto accident

caused be a distracted driver on July 8, 2007. According to the United Service Automobile Association, teen drivers have the highest crash

involvemnet and fatalitly rates of any group. 555-3333Great image. This was a tough one. Judges were in the audience and recalled Tessmer saying they would celebrate his birthday in two weeks. So technically he was probably still 16 when he died. However, it was possible that he was 17 and they were having a party in two weeks. Photographer  got a fact wrong. Photog should have asked the mother to clarify. There were also spelling errors.

• Officer Ran Narayan reflects on traaffic flow do to The Big Build project at the Sacramento International Airport on Friday, April 8, 2011. "No problems withtraffic. Just a little congested." Said officer Narayan. "People understand there is construction going on." Photo By 555-1949

• Great to get quotes, no city or state.

• 4/08/11 Construction nears end at Sacramento International airport's new terminal B by:555-1969 There is a lot missing here: no who, what they are doing and why, city, state, date should be part of sentence and written out. (Also as far as composition, photo is taken from too far away, has a lot of dead space and no center of interest.)

resources

• http://handbook.reuters.com/index.php/A_Brief_Guide_to_Standards%2C_Photoshop_and_Captions

• The Associated Press Style Book and Libel Manual

Thanks

• Photos credits: Jill Connelly Photogaphy, AP, JACC, World Press, the New York Times, sacbee.com, The Globe and Mail, CPOY.

• Photo research: Jill Connelly and Gerard Burkhart