Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Photo Caption
By Andi Mulshine
Garden State Scholastic Press Association
For the Spring Adviser’s Conference
May 7, 2010
On the job, the reporter and
photographer discuss how best to
get the shot, based on the reporter’s
research and ideas on how he or she will
write the story. The photographer
meanwhile, also gets to write.
The caption, or cutline, is the one-
to two-sentence story under the photo,
which helps to tell the story.
Captions serve to:
1.Grab the reader’s attention.
2.Provide information for the
busy reader who may not read
the related story.
Two types of photo captions:
1. Photo with a story: the caption is
one to two sentences and aids in
getting the reader to read the
story.
2. Photo without a story: also
called ‘Stand-Alone Art,’ it needs
two sentences, usually has a
headline.
Captions should be:
Active
Complete
Interesting
1. Write one sentence,
usually the first, to
explaining what’s
happening in the
photo. The 5 Ws.
2. Write a second
sentence giving
additional
information about
the event.
Do’s for writing captions:
Do use the first three to five words to grab
attention.
Do state the obvious without
being obvious.
Do use second IDs.
Do include the 5 Ws and H.
In stand-alone art, the first three to five
words sometimes serve as the
headline, which is in all caps and
bolded. For example: