Caption Rejection

I just had one of my first editorial rejected and was wondering if I could have some input.





The rejected caption was


Uckfield, UK - March 7, 2011: HSBC branch wall sign


Any ideas on what I should have put?

Your caption is very short doesn't tell a explain what HSBC is. What is the full name? Is it a bank? Is it a large international bank? Not being exposed to it on a daily basis I honestly don't know what HSBC stands for. We must remember that buyers come from all over the world and may use photos in ways we don't think of. A clear, derscriptive caption will help them choose photos and also avoid photos that may not fit in with their ideals. The sticky notes at the tops of the editorials forum page gives some good explanation about captioning.

Personally I think your caption is fine - after all if the buyer doesn't know what HSBC means then they wouldn't be searching for it anyway! However iStock seems to think we are also in the education business, so I would add a bit of waffle about the bank, and that should be fine.

Captions are important for editors to find files and when they are too short and not informative, the editor will most probable go and look for another one. They might look for a specific HSBC sign, a sepcific bank's one and the loction shot, there might have been a robery in that specific one you uploaded, etc etc.


 

One thing contributors should remember is that if a buyer looks for "signs" under editorial rather than "HSBC" they may download it and later find that the business HSBC represents doesn't fit with what they had intended their signs to show. Educating the buyer makes sense and could increase sales. A good thing is that istockphoto has no limits on the length of the description so one can write enough to be clear. One popular microstock site allows only 200 characters and you must include the place name and date twice within that limit.