Using an image caption in Markdown Jekyll

I know this is an old question but I thought I'd still share my method of adding image captions. You won't be able to use the caption or figcaption tags, but this would be a simple alternative without using any plugins.

In your markdown, you can wrap your caption with the emphasis tag and put it directly underneath the image without inserting a new line like so:

![](path_to_image)
*image_caption*

This would generate the following HTML:

<p>
    <img src="path_to_image" alt>
    <em>image_caption</em>
</p>

Then in your CSS you can style it using the following selector without interfering with other em tags on the page:

img + em { }

Note that you must not have a blank line between the image and the caption because that would instead generate:

<p>
    <img src="path_to_image" alt>
</p>
<p>
    <em>image_caption</em>
</p>

You can also use whatever tag you want other than em. Just make sure there is a tag, otherwise you won't be able to style it.