photo credit vs cite

photo credit and cite both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
photo credit	Yes	No	No	No
cite	Yes	No	Yes	No

As nouns, cite is a hypernym of photo credit; that is, cite is a word with a broader meaning than photo credit:

photo credit: a note acknowledging the source of a published photograph
cite: a short note recognizing a source of information or of a quoted passage

Other hypernyms of photo credit include acknowledgment, citation, credit, mention, quotation, reference.

photo credit (noun)	cite (noun)
a note acknowledging the source of a published photograph	a short note recognizing a source of information or of a quoted passage

photo credit (verb)	cite (verb)
	make reference to
	commend
	repeat a passage from
	refer to for illustration or proof
	advance evidence for
	call in an official matter, such as to attend court
	refer to