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| FEEL THE POWER: Captions can say so much |
SUPER picture of the Flying Scotsman in full steam passing by Holy
Island in Northumberland in the i newspaper.
But why no caption for the 99 per cent of readers who have no clue where
this is and no picture credit to recognise the work of increasingly put upon
photographers?
In fact, the missing caption is endemic in i. Perhaps it's time to
recognise what an important function it performs and insist on one wherever
possible?
As those poor souls who have attended one of my ‘caption workshops’ will
testify, the caption is the hard-working undersung hero of the design toolbox
able to draw readers in and say so much more than just identify what is in the picture.
It’s been a fun few days up here chasing the Flying Scotsman up and down
the coast with some tremendous pictures posted by amateurs and professionals
(is there still a distinction?) alike, including this one below from Raoul
Dixon of North News in the Sunday Express.
I’ve asked the i for an explanation of their missing captions. Watch
this space…
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PROFESSIONAL: Raoul Dixon’s spread in the Sunday Express |
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AMATEUR: My picture taken from the other side of the tracks as the un-captioned one |
