Captions for photos

[Barnbarroch]

The image supplied by KirkS is exactly what I'm seeking. I'll scan the photos then try Preview to achieve this. Thanks to all.

Something like Photoshop will allow you do do that, and on a separate layer sp that you can always access the photo without annotations very easily.

[Michael Talibard]

It needn't be either/or. One can imbed names in a copy and keep both.

[Blaise A. Darveaux]

Personally I hate when people embed text in a vintage photo...

Allen

I understand completely your sentiments and was like-minded about adding ANYTHING to photos.......until, one day, my hard drive crashed. I had to send the drive to an expert recovery service to just get SOME of the files back. Some of the files that were recovered were recently added photos where only the image was able to be restored. There was no metadata or file name, just the image. It took several years before I was able to locate the names of the people in those photos. And if I don't know who those people are, it's a sure bet that someone looking at the photo a hundred years from is not going to know. THAT is why I imbed the names right into the photo.

[AlPrunty]

Personally I hate when people embed text in a vintage photo... there are ways to embed comments into the EXIF of the file so that the text is there as hidden metadata. but still accessible if you know where to look for it. I like to see the people in context with the whole scene. I have a friend who posts a lot of vintage photos on the hometown website, but he colorizes (horribly) all of the vintage black and white photos.. and embeds text into them. TO me this ruins the experience of learning how our ancestors lived and takes away from the story. I do like to see my Grandmother, but in a photo of her restaurant I also see her waffle iron I have on my counter... I see things mom has in her china cabinet and now know where they come from and other family treasures that my Grandmother had displayed in her restaurant... but with all the tags and clutter that this friend posts I miss seeing the items that make the photo even more special to my family.

Allen

[KirkS]

For the record, I don't actually use or endorse any of these software applications or methods. Coincidentally, I stumbled across this video today about file naming based on the "John Zimmerman Method" https://youtu.be/X3w99SN7fOE ( you can watch this video at 2X speed and still not miss anything )


The full version of the Zimmerman Paper is available at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uy4...xOhZboAN4/view

[Blaise A. Darveaux]

If you just wanted to add a caption:...

I do a similar thing when I digitize my photos. I simply add a text block in a non-consequential part of the image OR leave a white space at the bottom when designating the scan area. I add captions in Preview. First photo.

Family2 small.jpg





With Preview, you can also add arrows, ovals, and other shapes. Second. photo.

Ladies small.jpg

[kam]

If you just wanted to add a caption:
I use LibreOffice, and when inserting an image or photo, there is an option to add a caption (Insert > Caption, enter caption text, select Category, Numbering, etc. options as needed). MS Word might do this as well, but I haven't used it in years, so don't know. With LibreOffice, usually you can enter a caption and customize the text and position (above or below). I suppose to use such a captioned image for Reunion, you could take a screenshot of the image when the LibreOffice document is open. Example:

Enumerator_and_large_family.png

[Tony Goring]

There seem to have been major advances in Preview in recent versions of MacOS. It now has an effective photo editor which hitherto I was unaware of.
Kirk's solution fits the bill exactly for me. Thanks again.

[Bob White]

If I do what Kirk is doing, I do it on a duplicate photo. I suspect you really want what is Facebook and a couple genealogy apps can do. Usually, that is a right click on the person which brings up a dialog to enter their name and then you OK it. Subsequently, if your mouse pointer hovers on that person you get a popup with their name (see my FB sample below). Move the pointer and the popup disappears.

(20+) Facebook 2022-07-18 22-56-07.png

[Tony Goring]

The image supplied by KirkS is exactly what I'm seeking. I'll scan the photos then try Preview to achieve this. Thanks to all.

[alan]

I have always used the built-in Preview app to add names of individuals to photos and then selected "markup" and then added a border.

PS; KirkS beat me to it.

[KirkS]

Tony: Based on the website you provided, I assume you're trying to do something like the image below.

One way to do this would be using Preview or some other application that will "annotate" your image. These programs actually save the edits in your photos.

Another method would be tagging areas of the photo and connecting a name to that 'hotspot'; similar to Facebook tagging. This method is obviously more complicated because it requires a way to save/embed the locations and names of the people in your photo.

Now that I have repeated the question, I don't have an elegant solution. Any image editor will handle the first method of annotation. I don't know of an application that uses the second method.



Photo-Tags.jpg

[Tony Goring]

A distant relative has given me a collection of 1930s and 1940s b/w photos of groups of people, some of whom I can identify. The Windows program I referred to provides caption tags with arrows so that individuals can be pinpointed and named. I don’t see that the programs you mention provide this facility, but stand to be corrected.

[Bob White]

Not knowing exactly what you want, here are several things you can look at: LIghtroom Classic, QromaTag and ACDSee. Happy hunting!

[Tony Goring]

The website www.heritagecollector.com provides what it terms ‘a complete photo organization & management system’. One of the facilities on offer is the ability to use ‘hotspots’ or ‘tags’ to identify people in photos with a name and/or other information – in a caption.There is a choice of shapes, fonts, and colors, and the aim is to identify anyone in a group photo where people may not be standing in straight rows.

The downside is that it’s only for Windows. Does anyone know of a similar program that runs under MacOS?