Check your facts. One of the most important aspects of any type of journalism is accuracy. If you use incorrect information, the story or photo loses credibility. Before creating any photo captions, make sure you’ve checked that anything stated in the caption is accurate.
2. Describe something that isn’t obvious. If a photo caption simply describes the visuals in the photo, it’s useless. If you have a photo of a sunset and simply caption is as “a sunset” you’re not adding any additional information for the reader. Instead, describe details of the photo that are not obvious, like the location, the time of day or year, or a specific event that is taking place. For example, if you have a photo of a sunset you might want to caption it as: “Pacific coast sunset, March 2016, from Long Beach, Vancouver Island." Also avoid using terms like: “is shown,” “is pictured,” “and looks on,” or “above." 3. Do not start a caption with certain words. A caption should not begin with the words ‘a,’ ‘an,’ or ‘the.’ These words are too basic and take up valuable captioning room when they aren’t necessary. For example, i instead of saying: “A blue jay in the boreal forest;” simply say: “Blue jay flying through boreal forest.”
Also, do not start a caption with the name of someone, start the caption with a description first and then include the name. For example, don’t say: “Stan Theman near Sunshine Meadow Park.” Instead say: “Jogger Stan Theman near Sunshine Meadow Park."
When identifying where someone is in a photo, you can say “from left.” You do not have to say, “from left to right."
4. Identify the main people in the photo. If your photo includes important people, identify who they are. If you know their names, include them. If you don’t know their names, you might want to put a description of who they are instead (e.g. “protesters on the streets of Washington, DC”).
Make sure any and all names you use are spelled correctly and have the proper title.
If the photo includes a group of people, or some people who are not relevant to the story (i.e. their names are not required to tell the story), you do not have to name each of them in the caption.
5. Label historical photos properly. If you’re using an historical photo in your story, make sure it’s labelled properly and includes the date (at least the year) it was taken. Depending on who owns the photo, you may also need to credit another photography and/or organization (e.g. museum, archive, etc.). 6. Utilize effective word choice. When writing a caption be sure to use descriptive words that describe the mood or tone of the photograph. Using vivid verbs to tell about the actions in the photo is necessary to capture the essence of the photo.