#22 in a series of background briefs

The sasibe standard

“standard automatic settings’ invisibility/blur effects”

  • 1. What is the “sasibe” standard?

    The “sasibe” standard is what ensures that in a TTG photograph, moving objects are not rendered less visibly than standard automatic settings’ invisibility/blur effects (“sasibe”) render the same subject.

    sasibe is listed as a requirement in both P4 and P5.

  • 2. What is the purpose of “sasibe”?

    Sasibe ensures that viewers of a TTG-labeled photograph are shown moving objects with the same visibility that the public is accustomed to when seeing depictions of moving objects in photographs.

    For example, the sasibe standard ensures that TTG photographers do not manually choose an exposure so lengthy that familiar moving objects — cars moving on a city street, people walking on the sidewalk, waves on a body of water — are rendered invisible or unrecognizably blurred.

    On the other hand, the sasibe standard allows depictions of objects moving at very high speeds — a bullet fired from a gun, the wire spokes of a bicycle being ridden at speed, the blades of a high-speed vertical fan — to be rendered as invisible or unrecognizably blurred.

  • 3. How many photographers have to worry about “sasibe”?

    Very few.

    The photographers who most often need to pay attention to sasibe are photographers who manually choose long exposures.

    (Smartphones on automatic settings will not create sasibe issues, because sasibe is literally defined as “what happens when cameras are on automatic settings.”)

  • 4. What ways of depicting moving objects are permitted in TTG photographs?

    There are a total of four ways that moving objects can be depicted in a TTG photograph, although sometimes only one or two of them are available when depicting a particular scene:

    A. frozen (“still”)
    B. blurred but recognizable
    C. unrecognizably blurred
    D. not visible at all

    The faster an object is moving through the frame — and/or the slower the shutter speed — the further down the A–D list (above) the rendition of the object will be.

  • 5. How does “sasibe” work?

    It’s simple: TTG photographs cannot depict moving objects at a level lower than sasibe determines:

    A. frozen (“still”)
    B. blurred but recognizable
    C. unrecognizably blurred
    D. not visible at all

    Example of using sasibe: If a smartphone set to Auto settings in “Photo” mode indicates that a moving subject would be rendered as motion-“blurred but recognizable” (“B” above)...

    . . . then the TTG photographer could depict the moving subject as “A” or “B” — but depicting it as either of the two levels below where the Auto setting placed it (“C” or “D”) would disqualify the photo from P4, P5, and TTG.

    (Note that TTG photographs can always depict moving objects at a level higher than the Auto setting determines: for almost a century and a half, photography has been valued for its ability to “freeze” motion. See here.)

  • 6. When manually choosing their shutter speed, how do TTG photographers determine which of #4's four “levels” various moving objects fall under?

    They snap a test photo of the scene with any camera or smartphone that is set to automatic settings and then refer to that test photo when choosing their camera settings.

  • FURTHER READING

    Guide to photographing moving subjects

    Photographing waves

    Photographing waterfalls and fountains

    Why doesn’t TTG allow my favorite manipulation?