Reward readers by revealing new insights and informations with every few paragraphs. If you don’t start with your best material, you’ll lose them before they get into the story, sidebar elements, or even other photos. At this point, they have invested a little effort and been rewarded with some intriguing information.Now they want to know more, so they look at the headline, then the first couple of paragraphs to see if the rewards will continue. The caption should be written to offer tantalizing insights that make the reader look back at the picture to completely understand it. Here’s what readers do: They look at the biggest picture on the page, then look under it for a caption and read it. Focus on the action, and kep the action going with each new phrase, clause and sentence.Captions are great places for those bits and pieces that got left on the cutting room floor during editing, or that are not essential to the primary narrative.Ĭutlines should inform, surprise, delight and intrigue readers. Let caption information move the story forward. Use prepositional phrases, and recast the lines until you have picture nouns and action verbs. Strip the story down to its essence by moving story elements not essential to the immediate story to the captions and sidebars. Also, use captions and texts to extend the basic story.
Each has a role to play, and together the overall effect of the combination is what’s important. Great pictures deserve great copy, but they complement each other. There are some things a picture is great at showing (at its best, action/reaction), and some things it can’t tell you ( the 5W’s and H ) such as listing names, grades, classes, teams, titles, places, dates, significance of event, context. You have an opportunity with every caption you write to complete the picture. And the story better be ready to reward them immediately for taking a chance and glancing at the first paragraph or two. BINGO! People look at the photograph first, then the caption, then back to the photo as they become intrigued, and then to the story. They intrigue you, and make you want to read the story. As a strategy, the captions work from either specific to general, or general to specific. National Geographic captions are excellent examples. If the picture and caption work well together, they’ll look at the headline and then the story. When someone looks at a picture, they’ll look at the caption for the specifics (name, place, context), but every caption should also intrigue in a way that makes them look back at the picture because they just learned something they didn't know before they read the caption. There are a few simple techniques you can use to consistently write great captions. When it comes to copywriting, captions are the one-two punch that delivers. Some stories can be told exclusively through pictures and captions. The loop, as we call it, satisfies your curiosity, and compels you to read the story and sidebars.Įvery single photo must have a caption (newspaper people like to call them cutlines), and each must quickly tell the reader what the picture itself cannot say: Names, stories, dates, places, significance. The caption tells the reader what, where and when while the photo provokes a visceral, emotional reaction. The photo and caption complement each other.
Then you looked back at the photo to fully appreciate what you know now that you didn't know just a few seconds before that. (Photo and caption by Sean Heavey) Notice what you just did? You looked at the featured photo, then you looked under the photo for the words to help you understand what you just viewed. A supercell thunderstorm rolls across the Montana prairie at sunset.
0 kommentar(er)
