Photo captioning is the art of writing captions for photos. It can be a lot of fun, but there are a few things to keep in mind if you want your captions to be as good as they can be.
In this article, we’ll look at some of the most common mistakes people make when writing photo captions, and how you can avoid them. By the end of the article, you should have a better idea of how to write captions that will make your photos stand out from the crowd, and get your visitors to click through to your website.
1. Don’t Overthink It
It’s tempting to overthink photo captioning, especially if you’ve never done it before. After all, you don’t want to come across as a bad writer, do you?
The truth is, the worst thing you can do is overthink the captions you write for your photos. You’re not writing a novel here, and you don’t have to worry about grammar, spelling, or punctuation. All you need to do is come up with a few good ideas, write them down, and then post them.
If you’re having trouble coming up with ideas, there’s a good chance that you’ll be able to think of at least one or two good caption ideas for every photo on your site. If you can’t think of anything, that’s fine. You can always come back to your photos later and add a few more captions.
As long as you’ve got a good idea of what you want to say, it’s not that hard to write a good photo caption.
2. Write for Your Audience
When you write a caption for a photo, you have to write it for your audience. You have to think about who’s going to see your photo, and what they’re going to be looking for when they see it.
For example, if you post a photo of a sunset, chances are that most of your visitors are going to want to know what time of day it is, and where they can see it for themselves. If your photo is of a wedding, your visitors will probably be interested in learning more about the bride and groom’s wedding day.
It’s important to remember that your audience will be looking at your photos in different ways, depending on who they are. For example, a visitor to your site might want to read a caption that tells them what time the photo was taken, while someone else might just want to see the photo itself.
Think about what your audience is looking for, and write the caption in a way that will help them get what they want. If they want to find out more information about the photo, they’ll probably want to click on the photo to see it in full size. If, on the other hand, your audience just wants to look at the photo for a few seconds before moving on to the next one, you can probably get away with just writing a short caption that includes a link to the full-size version of the photo.
There’s no right or wrong way of writing a photo caption, as long as it meets your audience’s needs. The only thing that matters is whether or not the caption helps your visitors get the information they want from your photos, and whether it makes them want to share your photos with their friends and family.
3. Make it Easy for Your Visitors to Click Through to Your Site
One of the best ways to make sure that your photos get shared is to make it as easy as possible for people to share them. The best way to do this is to include a link in your photo caption that will take your visitors directly to the page on your website where the photo can be found.
You can do this in a number of different ways. You could include the link in the caption itself, or you could write a separate caption for the photo that includes the link. Whichever option you choose, make sure you include your website’s URL in the link so that your visitors know where to go once they’ve clicked through.
The easiest way to make this happen is to simply include the URL of your website in the photo’s EXIF data, which is a standard feature of most digital cameras. You’ll find this information in the ‘Comments’ section of your photos’ details page.
If your photos are hosted on a free photo-hosting website like Flickr or Photobucket, you won’t need to include this information. However, if your photos aren’t hosted in this way, or if you’d prefer to use your own domain name for your website, you will need to add the URL yourself.
4. Keep It Short and Simple
Photo captions are a great way to add a little bit of personality to your blog or website, but they can also be a pain in the neck if you make them too long.
Your captions should be short and to the point. They’re not the place to show off your writing skills, or to tell your visitors about all of the wonderful things that they can do with their lives.
Instead, they should be a way of telling your visitors what the photo is about, and why they should take a look at it.