Caption Gallery suggestion

[cliveh]

Perhaps APUG should have a Caption Gallery where people post images without titles and others can suggest possible captions? I have probably put this in the wrong forum.

 

[blansky]

In my opinion if you have to caption your pictures then they don't have enough impact on their own in most cases.

Sometimes a description works to put things in context but cutesy captions suck.

 

[cliveh]

If you take a portrait of Mr Smith, do you not caption or title it as Mr Smith?

 

[batwister]

If you take a portrait of Mr Smith, do you not caption or title it as Mr Smith?

I prefer 'Working Man'.

 

[removed account4]

huh

i thought the standard gallery was the caption gallery
i have been adding my own captions for years ...

 

[cliveh]

Then I guess this means no.

 

[Stephanie Brim]

I could see it being interesting and somewhat funny.

 

[blansky]

If you take a portrait of Mr Smith, do you not caption or title it as Mr Smith?

I don't title or caption anything.

 

[tkamiya]

I can think of doing something like that if the photograph was a snap shot or meant to be funny - as in jokes. But many of us are photographers shooting and doing our best to express ourselves. I don't want someone else titling my work. If I left it untitled, that's because I want each person to have their own interpretation - not title it for me. If I wanted to guide the viewer in certain way as to what I meant, then I'll title it minimally. My image should say the rest.

I did ask a group at one time to help me title my work to convey what I wanted to say concisely. That's a bit different, too.

 

[benjiboy]

If your pictures need captions and have no meaning without them, they've failed.

 

[Chuck_P]

If your pictures need captions and have no meaning without them, they've failed.

I don't believe in coming up with cutesie titles for my pictures either, but just because the viewer can't find "a" meaning, does not mean the photographer failed, IMO. I would much rather have some kind of "impact" on the viewer, as stated by Blansky above, but let the viewer find his own meaning. I do believe in an "informative" type wording, stopping short of adding "meaning", afterall, there could be no meaning at all.

 

[BrianShaw]

I don't even sign my photos; if people can't figure out that I took them then I failed.

 

[batwister]

I do believe in an "informative" type wording, stopping short of adding "meaning", afterall, there could be no meaning at all.

I agree. Captions often work well, particularly with a series of photographs to inform the viewers interpretation of pictures. They can also work to subvert the 'meaning' of a picture which might come across visually obvious otherwise. Of course, if we're talking about decorative landscape pictures, a caption is useless and it should stand alone above the couch. But abstract or illustrative straight photographs often benefit from a subtle, even poetic directive.

 

[benjiboy]

Too many people expect pretentious titles to rescue mediocre work.

 

[MattKing]

Titles make it a lot easier to identify which photograph others are talking about - much better than "the one with the rocks and trees".

If you want to do this, just start a thread

 

[Stephanie Brim]

I think you're missing the point here.

Picture this: someone takes an off-the-wall photograph that could have any number of meanings to any number of people. It is put up in a gallery for people to come up with various ideas as to what's going on.

It can be fun, actually, even if the photographs *aren't* off the wall. It's interesting to see what others think the meaning of a photograph is.

 

[cliveh]

I think you're missing the point here.

Picture this: someone takes an off-the-wall photograph that could have any number of meanings to any number of people. It is put up in a gallery for people to come up with various ideas as to what's going on.

It can be fun, actually, even if the photographs *aren't* off the wall. It's interesting to see what others think the meaning of a photograph is.

Thank you Stephanie for outlining what I meant in my original post.

 

[batwister]

It is put up in a gallery for people to come up with various ideas as to what's going on.

Captions/titles don't have to be descriptive, they don't have to say 'think this', they can be used poetically to encourage a more receptive state of mind, or even, evoke senses which a photograph cannot record - 'napalm' for instance.