![]() Northwest Scholastic Press put it best when they said that a caption should “inform, surprise, delight, and intrigue” a reader. The Characteristics of Great Yearbook Captions ![]() A caption completely guides them through the process of viewing a photo. This “context loop” means that a reader, on average, actually looks at a caption for 30% of the time they’ve dedicated to viewing a photo. They look at the photo, read part of the caption, look back at the photo, read more of the caption…so on and so forth until they’ve completed the caption. They also help readers see a photo in a new light.Īn eye-tracking study by the National Press Photographers Association actually explored this phenomenon during a larger study and found that readers constantly use captions to better understand what’s happening in a photo. In a sense, yearbook captions serve as bridges to the rest of the page.Ĭaptions, though, do more than deliver more information and connect a reader to the page they’re about to read. (If you were wondering, by the way, it always starts with “who.” Studies show that people’s faces are the first place readers look in a photo.) ![]() Which means it’s the perfect vehicle for answering all the immediate questions a reader is likely to have.īy telling a reader who’s in a photo, what’s going on, where it’s taking place, and why you’re showing that particular photo, a caption can quickly put a reader at ease and send them on their way to exploring the rest of the page with a sense of purpose. (Ouch.)Ī caption’s proximity to a photo (or, in this case, your point of entry to a page) makes it the next natural place someone will look. Think about it: if a yearbook page’s first point of entry creates a bunch of questions for your reader, they’re going to momentarily feel lost every time they turn to a new page. While that “tease” is the sign of a great photo, it’s also the first problem you need to solve for a reader. And since good photos convey a lot of things-action, emotion, sense of place-they end up teasing readers into wanting more information about what’s going on. ![]() The photo, then, is the point of entry to the page. (That’s the science behind it, but, come on, when it comes to the yearbook, we all know we’re looking to spot ourselves and our friends.) Why Great Photo Captions Benefit Your Yearbook Readersīecause the brain processes images about 60,000 times faster than text, photos are pretty much always the first place on a yearbook page that people look. Read on and you’ll learn why a great yearbook caption benefits your reader, what the characteristics of a great caption are, what great captions look like (with real, live yearbook examples!), and how you can write great captions yourself-for every photo, every time. Of course, getting a lot of details for a lot of captions can take a lot of work. And a story, chock full of great details, is a whole lot different than a caption that simply makes sure a reader knows who is who in a photo (which is still good to do, by the way)-even if it’s intended purpose is relatively similar. The trick to writing great yearbook captions, then, is the same as the trick to telling a great story: details. Said another way, the captions you add to your yearbook photos should tell stories. ![]() Great yearbook captions do two things: they inform readers and they entertain while doing it. ![]()
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