Caption Gathering and Writing

"Looking at a photo or a group of photos without reading the related captions is like --

watching a documentary video without sound and narration." (try this link but mute the sound)

It is true that some photos need only very little captioning, such as

this , and this .

But 95% of photojournalism or documentary photos require a more detail and definite description. Try taking a close look at the following photos:

Who was this victim? Where was this happen? When? How did it happen? Is this a pedestrain? Is there something I need to concern just in case it might happen to me?	In what situation was this happen? Where? Was this a class or a research lab? Who were these people? What exactly they were doing? Was it a real pig? Why did they do this? How often?	What was happening here? Are you curious? What was that bright thing up there? Was it the moon? What were those two people doing there? Why was there smoke all around them? Where and how did this strange scene appeared? What was the time of the day?

You are the messenger, you are the photographer, you eye-witnessed the event,
you are responsible for answering the viewers' questions. Let's see some more ...

Who am I looking at? Who was the person reflecting off the painting? Who was the painting depicting? Why would they appearing in the news? If the person or the painting is important, where can I get to see them?	Pretty funny. What was the story behind this? Who was the head belongs to? Who was the hands belongs to? Alright, I am confused. Just tell me in your caption, what was belongs to whom? Just tell me where, when, how this happened?	Hey, seems like an exciting game. Did SAC won the game? What's the score? Who was that aggressive player on the ground? Who was the player having her legs stretched? Which side of the court did this happen? Are SAC defensing or offending at this moment?

If we are seriously looking at news photos without being shown any descriptive words, we will often end up raising more questions than answers. This is why caption comes into place.

How do we gather useful caption informations?

5W1H is our friend. Who did What at When and Where because of what (Why) and How?

How do we present (write) caption informations?

Always write in two layers:

1. Real-time description: State what was happening right at the time the photo was taken.

2. Background description: Add and explain information that was not immediately shown in the photo but contributes important informations to the photo. Such as the why and how, the before and after happenings.

Example to put the two layers together:

	1st layer: Real-time description	Instructor Houston Carruth (the head and the legs) and Assistant Professor Darin Dobson (the hands) tell the Tale About Shorty at the American Sign Language talent show, Apr. 13 in Loftin.
	2nd layer: Background description	That evening, ASL raised $3,100 for the Rea & Barbara Hinrichs Scholarship Fund, which is to be distributed in $250 dollar increments to deserving ASL students.

More about writing cutline

Nuts & bolts of cutline writing

Dr. Lo's advice in cultine writing

Poynter Institute advice on cutline writing

Assignment - caption writing

1. Create detail cutlines from the two photos you assigned in class. Answer each question we asked.

Due day: Beginning of next meet in class.