Guidelines for Cutlines Guidelines for Cutlines Few pictures are so self-explanatory that they need no words, and therein hangs many a sad tale.
Bad writing is at work there.
So is bad editing. Sometimes the cutline writer saw the picture, but the details didn't register. Sometimes the picture was seen, but later some of the details were cropped away. Or sometimes the cutline writer didn't read the accompanying story, and notice the discrepancies or redundancies between cutline information and story information. The photographer must supply full and accurate cutline information.