1. Choose the detail worth a second look
Pick one photograph rather than a whole album. Spend a moment naming three visible details: an empty chair, a folded napkin, a stripe of sunlight. Choose the detail that makes this picture different from another picture of the same subject.
The V&A’s gallery-text guide encourages writers to engage with the object and admit uncertainty. For a personal photograph, that means directing attention to something visible and checking any background information you add.
2. Separate the title from the explanation
Try a short title that introduces a thought rather than repeating every object in the frame. “After lunch” gives a different invitation from “Table with plates”. Neither is automatically better: choose the one that fits what you want to remember.
Then draft two sentences. Let the first point to the detail. Let the second add a memory or interpretation. Keep dates, locations and people’s names out of the text unless you know they are correct and want to share them.
3. A worked example
This invented example imagines a photograph of an empty kitchen table. It is a writing exercise, not a description of an app-generated result.
Example label
After the last cup
One chair remains pulled back from the table. The meal is over, but the room still seems arranged around the person who has just left.
The first sentence gives the eye a destination. The second offers an interpretation without inventing a person’s identity or a historical event. If this were your family photograph, you could replace that interpretation with a memory you can stand behind.
4. Write your own version
Use this prompt as a starting point: “Notice [visible detail]. For me, it recalls [memory or thought].” Remove the scaffolding once the idea is clear. Read the result aloud and cut any phrase you would never naturally say.
Place the label beside the photograph and view the combination at the size you plan to share. If the label feels cramped, shorten the words before making the type smaller. Check the exported image on a phone: a readable label is more useful than a paragraph that only works when enlarged.
Make a framed piece in Exhibit
Exhibit lets you edit a title and label, choose a frame, and keep or export the piece. You can write manually without AI. AI-assisted labels still need your review, particularly for names, places and interpretations. The public beta requires iOS 27 and TestFlight; AI features require compatible Apple Intelligence support.