Story Photos

Why all the Fuss About Captions for Photos?

What does it really matter anyway?

If you have ever submitted a story to a mid-size or larger publication on Medium, you may have gotten some feedback if your story images were not captioned according to the publication’s guidelines.

So why do publications even care if, or how, you caption photos? After all Medium itself says that captions are optional, right?

I admit, that probably throws a lot of people off. However, Medium does also specifically say,

“By posting content you didn’t create to Medium, you are representing that you have the right to do so. For example, you are posting a work that’s in the public domain, used under license (including a free license, such as Creative Commons), or a fair use.”

But, this is in their Terms of Service which isn’t displayed under every added photo. So, let’s think for a second. When it comes to an image, what is the best way we could possibly express that we have the right to use the image?

YES! You guessed it. An image caption! A caption that tells who created the content and that they expressly said that you can use it.

That second part about having the right to use the image is important and we will get to that in a bit. However, the first part about crediting the source and artist is especially important as well.

Link to artist and source

If you take something that someone else writes or says and then present it as your original ideas, it is plagiarism. The same holds true with images. If you use someone else’s picture to promote your story, you should give them credit for the picture. Period. Otherwise it could easily come off as you trying to pass off the photography work as your own.

That is the moral and ethical component of captioning the image — crediting the artist. The technical and legal part of linking back to a source that assures that you have rights to that image is the other part.

Right to use an image

We could theoretically get deep in the weeds here, but let’s try and keep this simple. You either DO have rights to the image, you MIGHT have rights (or restricted rights), or you DO NOT have rights to an image.

Let’s start with the easy one. If an image is watermarked or hosted in a place where a disclaimer says the image is not to be reproduced, you DO NOT have rights to the photo. At all. Just don’t use it.

If the photo comes from a source where there is a free use license with a disclaimer that says something like, “All images are free for anyone to use for personal or commercial purpose”, then you DO have rights to use the image. For further guidance on getting images for free public or individual use, please consult this article:

The tricky images are the ones where you MIGHT have rights, or rights with limitations on use. In this area you will have some element of risk by using the photo. Medium happens to be very clear on this point regarding the liability they will assume on your behalf:

“You’re responsible for the content you post. This means you assume all risks related to it, including someone else’s reliance on its accuracy, or claims relating to intellectual property or other legal rights.”

Risk

First, I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice. However, I spent many years as a professional risk manager, and I am pretty good at analyzing risk profiles.

So, let’s talk about risk in using an image where you may, or may not have rights for use. There are three elements that have a compound relationship. We can think about it in a formula fashion like this:

Possible license conflict X Public exposure X Original artist’s reaction to use = Risk of bad outcome

Each number in the formula ranges from 0 to whatever, let’s say 10 to keep it clean.

For a control let’s apply this formula to a picture from Unsplash. Since it is free use, the potential for license conflict is none. Let’s say you story goes viral and a couple million people see it, so 10. And the artist, since they originally licensed it to Unsplash has no opposition to your use, your total risk of bad outcome is 0 X 10 X 0 = Zero risk.

Now let’s say you use an image of the singer Kelis in a story and it is a hit. It literally brings all the boys to the yard. But you got the image from a fan website. There is a possible license conflict; let’s say a 5. Exposure is once again a 10, and now the singer is upset that you used her photo without consent. Ooops, another 10. Your risk level is now at 500, and on a scale where you want to always be at zero, things could get ugly!

The moral to the risk story is that you may not have much control over the last two numbers, but you have all the control of the first one. As long as you assure that you have rights to use the photo your risk level stays at zero, or as close as possible, irrespective of the other two factors.

So, why does Medium say captions are optional under the photo?

That’s easy. They want the writer to have freedoms but also shoulder the responsibility of their actions. Medium has an ultimate recourse of suspending your account either temporarily or permanently as well as disallowing any payment for stories with content violations.

Medium limits their liability by holding the power to remove the content. Meanwhile, publications do not have that liability control. If something comes through the publication that brings risk, the publication exposes itself to that risk by sanctioning publication.

The lone tool a publication wields to limit their risk of exposure to bad outcome is refusing to publish work that does not meet their internal guidelines. This is why it seems like Medium could not care less about your image captions (Hint: really, they do), and publications seem ultra-persnickety and uptight about them.

At the end of the day though, it really all comes back around to the original artist and treating them the way you would like to have your original work treated. When you create a story or photo or illustration, you should get all the credit for doing so.

Now just turn that around and make sure you are giving the credit where it is due. Get out there and caption those photos!

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Timothy Key spent over 26 years in the fire service as a firefighter/paramedic and various fire chief management roles. He firmly believes that bad managers destroy more than companies, and good managers create a passion that is contagious. Compassion, grace and gratitude drive the world; or at least they should. Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, and join the mail list.