ANTICIPATE THE BUYER'S REQUEST
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Advance Notes: In the last century, "captions" were used to help photo researchers identify an image. Today, the new technology can take captions a step further. Rather than have your image descriptions brief and graphic, it's to your advantage to use even more words in your descriptions. If you include not only who, what, where and when, but also assign emotional, mood, and conceptual descriptors to your images, you'll help buyers zero in on that "just right" image.
Can you anticipate what a photobuyer might search for in the database description in your stock list? It's difficult -- so cover your bases.
Photo editors will often use search words that go beyond the general description you've assigned to your image. Adding to the mix, a researcher in Florida might search for a 'rug,' another in New York might search for a 'carpet.' A researcher in Ohio might look for aviation, and a person in California, flying.
To attract more photobuyers (who search by specific keywords) to your website, offer more words describing each photo. Example: the word "jump" might also be expressed as: hurdle, leap, bound, vault, spring, hop, skip, bounce, caper. In your keyword list, you could write, "boy jumping, hurdle, leap, bound, vault, spring, hop, skip, bounce, caper." This way you have built yourself a search-proof safety net. Few photo researchers would miss your webpage who are looking for: a boy skipping.
Where do you find these synonyms? In the tools section of your word processor. HOW TO: Place the cursor over the word you are expanding, press the appropriate alt key of your processor, and several synonyms will come up. Use them all! You'll never know what word the photo researcher will be using.
Since webcrawlers (a search engine tech term for indexing software that takes words from your site and places them in their search engine for surfers to utilize) use the same philosophy (more is better) it behooves you to increase the wordage in your captions to attract more researchers to your website.
ADDITIONAL HELP
Keywords have become a popular exercise for researchers who use our PhotoSourceBank (each member gets to use 3,000 words to describe specific photos in their files). Not only is it important to use the usual who, what, why, where, and when to describe your image, but also to include text that could describe the mood, emotion, or conceptual nature of your image. For example, the boy skipping might also illustrate joy, delight, bliss, rapture, fun, play, pastime, and amusement. Conversely, if the boy were jumping across a chasm, the mood of your picture might be danger, hazard, peril, jeopardy, and risk. In that case, your caption would also include: boy jumping, danger, hazard, peril, jeopardy, risk
Welcome to the Internet way of captioning! -RE
Note: At our website, you can find a list of dozens of helpful "word ideas" that can be applied as conceptual words to caption your images. Visit: > http://www.photosourcebook.com/wordideas.php <.
Rohn Engh is director of PhotoSource International and publisher of PhotoStockNotes.
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