Image Caption

You can say a lot with an image. You can also say a lot with words. Instead of arguing about which one is better, why not have both? In your blog, you will want both images and captions to help guide your reader. In some blogs, images are all but mandatory, such as travel blogs. Even Lewis and Clark drew pictures of their travels! Here is how you can make the most of your images using captions.

Photo Caption

A photo caption or image caption is a written description that sits directly underneath an image. This image can be a photo, drawing, diagram, piece of art, or anything else rendered in an image file format.

In a blog, many of your images will have photo captions.

Image Caption Importance

Captioning your image is essential for four main reasons: to clarify your image, to enhance your image, to cite your image, and to optimize your blog for search engines.

Here is a process to help you create an image caption.

1. Clarify the Image With an Image Caption

Any image you include that might be unclear needs a caption. You can explain what a diagram means to your blog or argument. If you include a photo of a place, you can specify that place and time.

Fig. 1 - Passion Vine at the Norfolk Botanical Garden in Virginia.

The above image caption clarifies the kind of flower and its location.

2. Enhance the Image With an Image Caption

Improve your image by adding further context, including emotional context. You can make an image more dramatic or sadder with a caption, but captions are especially good at adding humor to an image.

Fig. 2 - Yellow Spotted Stink Bug on a hand, AKA waking nightmare

When enhancing an image, you can make it more amusing and engaging to your audience.

3. Cite the Image With an Image Caption

A citation is critical if you do not own the image. Photos and images you do not own should contain some kind of citation confirming where you got the photo or image. The citations are sometimes inserted directly in the caption, or else at the end of the article or piece of writing. Review the citation rules for your publication and follow the requirements outlined in the applicable photo licensing laws.

The citations for the images above are at the end of this explanation. How to cite your image in APA and MLA formats is included later on.

Image Captions and SEO

The final reason to caption your image is different from clarifying, enhancing, and citing. The final reason to capture your image is search engine optimization (SEO).

SEO is all about accessibility for the search engine and the reader. The more accessible your blog is, the higher it will climb in the search engines.

Because captions stick out, people naturally read captions while scanning a blog. If you have no captions, you will lose that avenue of accessibility. Include captions where you think it’s appropriate! If you don’t, you miss an entry point or gateway to bring in readers.

MLA Image Captions

Choose MLA-style captions if you want a strong academic style in your blog or if you need to caption images in an academic essay that uses MLA style. If you are captioning an online image in MLA format, and you don’t have a works-cited section, you need to include:

• Figure number (relative to your other images in the article or post)

• Title (your description)

• The artist or photographer (last name, first name)

• Source of image

• Date created (when the work or image was created)

• URL

• Date accessed

You might notice how academic this appears. You probably won’t use MLA citations in your blog, but here is how that would look. (Note that you should replace INSERT YOUR URL HERE with the actual URL, with no caps or colorful format.)

MLA Citation: Fig. 3- Rabich, Dietmar. “Beautiful cherry tree stump in Hausdülmen, Germany.” Wikimedia, 3 April 2021, INSERT YOUR URL HERE. Accessed 17 June 2022.

If you have a works-cited section, here is how your image caption should appear for an online image:

MLA Citation: Fig. 4. Charles J. Sharp, Ground agama in water, 2014.

This is how the image would be further annotated in the works-cited section.

APA Image Captions

Captioning your source in APA style is an alternate style to MLA, but it remains academic. Use APA if you want to capture a formal style. If you are captioning an online image in APA format, and you don’t have a works-cited section, you need to include:

• Figure number (relative to your other images in the article or post, placed above the image)

• Caption (placed above the image)

• Description

• Title of the website

• The artist or photographer (last name, first initial of first name)

• Year created (when the work or image was created)

• URL

• Copyright year

• Copyright holder

• Disclaimer

Here is how that would look. (Note again that you should replace INSERT YOUR URL HERE with the actual URL, with no caps or colorful format.)

Figure 3.

A tree stump with many rings.

Note: A ground Agama in water. (Sharp, 2014)

This is how the image would be further annotated in the works cited section (or reference list).

Suit your image captions to your needs and requirements for the publication (or whoever asked you to produce the piece of writing with images). In a more academic or business setting, go with something more formal like APA or MLA. If you are blogging casually or prefer a minimalist style, try one of the simpler methods of image caption and citation.