Beyond tagging
Keywords categorize photographs. Sentences tell you about them.
Automatic keywording systems often say a picture contains a hill. Often they don't say which hill, or that you walked up before first light to be on it for this. PhotoWrite's read of an image, it's location, what's around it, time of day and year, gives context many systems miss. It can also combine across images to generate a cohesive narrative.
Detail and context from a single image, a story and the bigger picture from a batch.
Each image will give you details about where it is, what it is, perhaps some cultural or scientific background. All fields will be written to the photo's metadata. Optionally you can download all fields from one or more images to a text file for editorial drafts and writing about your images. The system will also write a summary narrative of a group of images.
Every geotagged frame in your catalogue already knows precisely where it was taken, and nothing whatsoever about what that is. A coordinate is a fact with no meaning attached. Ask PhotoWrite to turn it into words and it gives you the administrative unit the point falls inside — the location. Many automated systems stop short of the real location, the summit name, the lake's island, an arcade off a main street. PhotoWrite will often be able to identify these details and write them to your images.
So PhotoWrite doesn't look up the coordinate. It looks at the photograph — alongside the map, the terrain, the named places nearby and where the sun was at the moment the shutter fired — and describes what the picture is actually of.
Already tagged, and still not placed
Every photograph below arrived already captioned and keyworded by a leading AI caption and tag generator. The left column is what that tool wrote; the right is what PhotoWrite wrote over it. Nothing here is composed for this page — both columns are verbatim, one run each.
- Location
- —
- Title
- Wooden Beast Sculpture
- Caption
- A low-angle shot captures a dark, large wooden sculpture of a beast holding a staff, set against a cloudy sky.
- Extended Description
- —
- Alt Text
- —
- Then the rest of the address
- Keswick · England · United Kingdom
- Location
- The Gruffalo
- Title
- The Gruffalo at Whinlatter Forest
- Caption
- A wooden sculpture of the Gruffalo stands by a trail log in Whinlatter Forest near Thornthwaite.
- Extended Description
- A carved wooden sculpture of the Gruffalo stands holding a wooden walking stick along a forest clearing trail. Commissioned as part of the Forestry England Gruffalo trails, the life-size sculpture is installed within Whinlatter Forest near the Seat How Summit Trail. It offers an interactive character stop along the walking routes traversing Comb Plantation.
- Alt Text
- A wooden carved statue of the Gruffalo holding a tall stick stands behind a fallen log in a forest clearing.
- Then the rest of the address
- Thornthwaite · Cumberland · United Kingdom
A beast holding a staff is what the picture shows. The Gruffalo is what it is — and no gazetteer holds the name of a sculpture, which is why the left-hand Location is empty rather than merely wrong. The forest, the commission and the trail it stands on came from reading the photograph rather than the map. That is the half worth checking before you keep it.
- Location
- ถนนสีลม
- Title
- Bangkok Night Cityscape
- Caption
- An aerial night view of a sprawling metropolis with illuminated expressways and numerous high-rise buildings, showcasing urban development.
- Extended Description
- —
- Alt Text
- —
- Then the rest of the address
- กรุงเทพมหานคร · ประเทศไทย
- Location
- เลอบัว แอท สเตท ทาวเวอร์
- Title
- Night View from lebua at State Tower
- Caption
- Night cityscape and expressway seen from the high floors of lebua at State Tower in Bangkok.
- Extended Description
- A high-angle night view looks out across Bangkok and the glowing elevated lanes of the Si Rat Expressway. The photograph was taken from a high balcony of the lebua at State Tower skyscraper in Bang Rak district. Below, illuminated roads cut through the dense urban landscape of commercial buildings and residential quarters.
- Alt Text
- High-angle nighttime cityscape of illuminated buildings and a curving elevated highway filled with streetlights in Bangkok.
- Then the rest of the address
- Bangkok · Thailand
A sprawling metropolis with illuminated expressways is true of Bangkok, Shanghai, São Paulo and Jakarta. The expressway has a name, and so does the building the camera was standing on. The city and the country arrived in Thai and are now readable. The building keeps its own name, because PhotoWrite will only use a translation somebody has actually recorded — never one it invented.
- Location
- Rue Munster
- Title
- Alzette River in Grund
- Caption
- View of the Alzette River flowing through the Grund district, surrounded by historic buildings and lush greenery, in Luxembourg City.
- Extended Description
- —
- Alt Text
- —
- Then the rest of the address
- Luxembourg · Canton Luxembourg · Luxembourg
- Location
- Grund, Stadgronn-Bréck
- Title
- Grund Bridge View of Alzette
- Caption
- The Alzette river flows through the historic Grund district of Luxembourg City beneath the cliffs of the upper town.
- Extended Description
- The photograph looks north along the Alzette river from the Grund bridge in Luxembourg City's historic lower town. Historic buildings line the riverbanks below the elevated cliffside plateau of the upper city, where the fortress ramparts and Saint Michael's Church rise in the background. The Grund quarter is one of the oldest settlements in the capital and forms part of the UNESCO World Heritage-listed historic fortifications and old quarters.
- Alt Text
- A river flanked by traditional European stone houses and green trees, with church spires and buildings atop high cliff walls in the background under a blue sky.
- Then the rest of the address
- Luxembourg · Canton Luxembourg · Luxembourg
The left column names the river and the quarter and stops there. What it cannot say is where the camera was standing, or that the cliff above it is the fortification the city is listed for.
- Location
- Hopewell Street
- Title
- Beach View with Man
- Caption
- A man on a grassy cliff overlooking a vast sandy beach with breaking waves under a clear blue sky.
- Extended Description
- —
- Alt Text
- —
- Then the rest of the address
- Brisbane · Queensland · Australia
- Location
- Deadmans Beach
- Title
- Deadmans Beach from Headland
- Caption
- Deadmans Beach viewed from the coastal headland trail at Point Lookout on North Stradbroke Island.
- Extended Description
- This photograph shows Deadmans Beach stretching eastward from the headland below Point Lookout on North Stradbroke Island (Minjerribah). Pandanus palms, coastal shrubs, and a visitor stepping across the rocky foreground frame the surf breaking along the sandy shoreline. The beach is a popular unpatrolled coastal stretch tucked between Cylinder Beach and Frenchmans Beach along the island's northeastern tip.
- Alt Text
- A sandy ocean beach bordered by rolling green hills and surf, framed by a pandanus palm and grassy slope in the foreground.
- Then the rest of the address
- Redland City · Queensland · Australia
Everything on the left is true of several thousand beaches. The island is in Redland City rather than Brisbane, and the street the coordinate sits on is not what the photograph is of.
- Location
- Kentmere Road
- Title
- Rural Farm Gate Stall
- Caption
- A charming roadside farm gate stall offers potted plants, homemade jams, and fresh eggs for sale in Kentmere, England. This rural scene showcases local produce.
- Extended Description
- —
- Alt Text
- —
- Then the rest of the address
- Kentmere · England · United Kingdom
- Location
- Kentmere Road
- Title
- Kentmere Road Honesty Stall
- Caption
- A roadside farm-gate honesty stall along Kentmere Road stocked with potted plants, jars of preserves, and fresh eggs.
- Extended Description
- A rustic roadside honesty stall stands attached to a wooden gate and stone wall along Kentmere Road. It displays potted blueberry plants, jars of preserves, and fresh eggs for passing walkers and motorists to purchase via an honesty tin or digital payment. These self-service farm-gate stalls are a familiar fixture across rural Cumbria, providing a direct outlet for local smallholders.
- Alt Text
- A wooden roadside honesty stall with potted plants, jars of preserves, an egg carton, and a sign reading Welcome to our Homegrown Farm gate Stall.
- Then the rest of the address
- Kentmere · Westmorland and Furness · United Kingdom
The left column got the contents right. What it missed is the word on the sign — an honesty stall is a particular thing, not a farm shop — and the alt text is where the sign itself is written down, for the reader who cannot see it.