1. Bringing Pictures To Life
Captions
Bringing Pictures To Life

2. Caption Basics
Well-written captions combine with a picture to tell a story.
Captions should do more than state the obvious.
Becky smiles for the camera. (BAD caption!)
Johnny reads a book in the library. (BAD caption!)
Captions should ADD TO what is obvious.
To go beyond the obvious, you could give details about what is happening, what happened before the picture was taken, or what happened after the picture was taken.
Could also include quotes from the subjects of the photo.
Becky smiles for the camera. “I loved the dance! It was the first one I’d ever been to.”
Johnny reads his favorite book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, during lunch.
You WILL have to talk to the people in the pictures to get good captions.
Names are essential.

3. Caption Requirements . . .
Bare MINIMUM, captions must ALWAYS tell me who and what.
Every picture on a spread must tell me who is in it and what is going on.
GOOD captions also provide “go beyond” information.
tell readers about the event through the eyes of those who participated
describe the best memories of the event
tell us something we can’t see/know from the photo

4. What questions do you Have?

5. To write a Good Caption . . .
Answer the 5W-H Questions and then get Go Beyond Information:
Who: senior Jason Chastain
What: dances hat dance with mom
Where: commons area
When: final pep rally
Why: tradition, honor
How: selected by teammates
Go Beyond: “I barely remember shoving my way through the crowd to where my mom was waiting for me at the ‘W’. I just remember thinking that I couldn’t look at her or I would start crying. She danced the dance with me—that moment I will never ever forget.”

6. Bare Minimum: ident Caption
Senior Jason Chastain dances the traditional hat dance at the pep rally.
Instructor: Consider telling the students the following:
When longer captions are impractical or unnecessary, the simple ident is the way to go. It is particularly effective to use with photo collections.
Ident Captions: Identify individuals and offer a BRIEF explanation of the photo’s content. Use ident captions with smaller pictures.

7. But Why miss an Opportunity to tell a Great story?
Amid a frenzied crowd of fans, senior Jason Chastain joins his mother to perform the traditional hat dance as the finale to the state championship football playoff game rally.
Instructor: Consider telling the students the following:
The summary caption provides the basic information and it is written in present tense. It is necessary to vary sentence structure, avoiding names of people or groups as openers.
Summary Captions: Highlight the most important aspects of the 5W’s and H. Use summary captions for medium pictures.

8. But Why miss an Opportunity to tell a Great story?
Amid a frenzied crowd of fans, senior Jason Chastain joins his mother to perform the traditional hat dance as the finale to the state championship football playoff game rally. The Chaps won the game posting its first state championship in the history of the school.
Instructor: Consider telling the students the following:
The summary caption provides the basic information and it is written in present tense. It is necessary to vary sentence structure, avoiding names of people or groups as openers.
Expanded Captions: Answer the 5Ws and H AND provide details that go beyond the picture. Use expanded captions with dominant photos.

9. But Why miss an Opportunity to tell a Great story?
Senior Jason Chastain dances the traditional hat dance with his mom at the state football championship pep rally. “I barely remember shoving my way through the crowd to where my mom was waiting for me at the ‘W’. I just remember thinking that I couldn’t look at her or I would start crying. She danced the dance with me—that moment I will never ever forget.”
Instructor: Consider telling the students the following:
The summary caption provides the basic information and it is written in present tense. It is necessary to vary sentence structure, avoiding names of people or groups as openers.
Quote Captions: Provide insight and information through the words of the subject of the photo or someone closely related to the activity. Use quote captions with dominant photos.

10. Good Captions Vs. Bad Captions

11. Caption Practice
You now get to practice writing captions. Before we do that a few more words about the actual writing of captions:
1st Sentence: identifies individuals and explains what is happening.
Written in PRESENT tense
i.e. Jessica swims to the end of the pool, NOT Jessica is swimming to the end of the pool. –ing verb endings are BAD, BAD, BAD!
You are supposed to be describing the action as if it is happening right now.
Gives first and last names of individuals
Gives grade of each individual
reports who and what in 5-10 words (ish)
2nd+ Sentence: adds information and details not obvious in the photo.
Written in PAST tense
Information should enhance the story
2nd + Sentence is not always needed (depending on the type of caption)

12. Practice Makes Perfect
Write an ident caption for this photo.
Make sure to include:
Identification of the photo subjects (WHO)
Brief explanation of what is happening

13. Practice Makes Perfect
Write a summary caption for this picture.
Make sure to include:
Who and What.
Further detail about other 5Ws and H (where, when, why, and/or how).

14. Practice Makes Perfect
Write an expanded or quote caption for this picture.
Make sure to include:
Detailed 1st sentence in present tense that reports the most important 5Ws and H (REMEMBER—who and what are always required).
2nd + sentence in past tense that provides details not obvious in the photo.