How to Write a News Photo Caption

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. However, providing a nameless photo to go along with a news article is insufficient. You have to provide a caption, or a short description of the image, to allow the reader to know what it is he is viewing. Here are some tips on how to write a good photo caption.

Things You'll Need

• A computer

Instructions

Show AND tell

1. Provide a photo credit. This is very important, for legal purposes. You must provide information on who owns the photograph. It may be a single photographer, or a photo agency, or both.

2. Write your photo caption in present tense. For instance: "A baby smiles as her mother hands her a bottle of milk."

3. Include the date and names in your caption, especially the place. Try to include as many details as possible -- such as the names of people that may be shown, their ages and a little bit about them. For instance: "John Smith, a 44-year-old lawyer, looks at two swans swimming in a pond in Central Park in New York on July 18, 2007."

4. Add a second sentence to provide background on the situation you described in the first, main sentence of the photo caption if you feel it adds something to your "story." For instance, if the photo has something to do with politics or current events, you may want to add a sentence that gives your first sentence more context. Example: "Presidential candidate John Smith smiles as he drops his paper ballot into the voting box. Recent opinion polls have predicted that Smith, a liberal Democrat, will beat opponent Joe Schmoe by a landslide."

5. Add directions in your caption, if needed. For instance, if the photo shows two people and you are naming them in your caption, you want to make sure the reader can tell which person is which, so you would write "UCLA students Jackie Jones (left) and Marcia Brown (right) stand in line to sign up for their fall semester classes on Sept. 5, 2007."

6. Check your caption for spelling or grammatical mistakes and compare the information in it to the one in the accompanying article, unless there is none, in which case the photo is a "stand alone" photo.