Amongst one of the biggest fears for a journalist is to misquote or make an error in naming a location, event, person etc. As a result, more often than not, a journalist not able to confirm the identity of a picture will simply refrain from using an illustration and may simply decide to move on to publish another story altogether. In short, “your great photo is not worth a 1000 words” to the media unless an identifying caption is provided.
What makes a caption:
- One sentence: (25-50 words)
- 4 words : Location, Object (or person), Date taken, Picture provider
- Optional: Instruction on copyright. (ie. if you want it to appear with publication)
What makes a GREAT caption?
- Adding some zest and pizzaz to your caption (20-40 words).
Here is an example on adding “LIFE” to a caption.
The ordinary caption:
“Hockey goal and skating ring on Lake-Louise, winter scene.”
The Zesty caption:
“Located in the winter wonderland of Lake Louise in the Rockies, despite its frosty appearance, it has become the hottest site in town as staff and clients from surrounding hotels join for a casual evening of hockey. By far, the best evening fun in town.”
(Lake-Louise, Canadian Rockies. Hockey ring. Photo: N.Vigneault)
If you have a better idea for a zesty comment, let us know!
The point to remember is that if you have a great shot with no caption, journalists likely will not use it. If the picture is THAT awesome, someone may use it but without the proper information (linked to you) and this will simply negate your promotional effort. If your picture has no caption, the smart thing right now is to make one and then polish it later when you feel creative.
Embedded Metadata
While this is technical in nature, it is good to be aware that modern systems and applications are able to read a myriad of information (text) that gets embedded into many different kinds of files.
SMART photo captions are plain SMART
Amongst one of the biggest fears for a journalist is to misquote or make an error in naming a location, event, person etc. As a result, more often than not, a journalist not able to confirm the identity of a picture will simply refrain from using an illustration and may simply decide to move on to publish another story altogether. In short, “your great photo is not worth a 1000 words” to the media unless an identifying caption is provided.
What makes a caption:
- One sentence: (25-50 words)
- 4 words : Location, Object (or person), Date taken, Picture provider
- Optional: Instruction on copyright. (ie. if you want it to appear with publication)
What makes a GREAT caption?
Here is an example on adding “LIFE” to a caption.
The ordinary caption:
“Hockey goal and skating ring on Lake-Louise, winter scene.”
The Zesty caption:
“Located in the winter wonderland of Lake Louise in the Rockies, despite its frosty appearance, it has become the hottest site in town as staff and clients from surrounding hotels join for a casual evening of hockey. By far, the best evening fun in town.”
(Lake-Louise, Canadian Rockies. Hockey ring. Photo: N.Vigneault)
If you have a better idea for a zesty comment, let us know!
The point to remember is that if you have a great shot with no caption, journalists likely will not use it. If the picture is THAT awesome, someone may use it but without the proper information (linked to you) and this will simply negate your promotional effort. If your picture has no caption, the smart thing right now is to make one and then polish it later when you feel creative.
Embedded Metadata
While this is technical in nature, it is good to be aware that modern systems and applications are able to read a myriad of information (text) that gets embedded into many different kinds of files.
When a photo is downloaded from a proper digital asset management system like the CleanPix service all of the metadata you entered in for that image will be embedded straight into the file. This includes caption and copyright. This same information is viewable from the “View Caption” button on our website. Top media outlets such as L.A. Times, Condé Nast Publications, Stern Germany, Paris Match (to name a few) source this embedded metadata regularly. Editors and journalists have contacted us to verify information if it is missing. With the proper metadata included with your photo, it can be sent all over the world and journalists will not hesitate to use your photos with their stories and link them to you.
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This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 28th, 2009 at 5:46 pm and is filed under Captions and Copyright, CleanPix Tools, General, Great ways to use CleanPix, Photography, Tips and Comments. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.