“Seen vs. simulated” situations

“Seen vs Simulated” explains the most common way that of two identical-looking images, one may qualify as TTG while the other does not qualify.

  • 1. Lens anomalies

    Was the visual effect seen by the camera or simulated later?

    “Seen”     — A TTG photograph can show the effects of actual lens anomalies like corner/edge darkening, barrel distortion, pincushion distortion, lens flare, and chromatic aberrations. As noted in #4 of the Allowable Changes list, in a TTG photograph (assuming the result meets rinairs), each of these may be left as is, may be partially corrected, or may be fully corrected.

    . . . or “simulated”?     — A photograph is always disqualified from TTG if any of these effects are introduced or accentuated after the light hits the recording surface.

  • 2. Contents of the scene (subject matter)

    Was the visual effect seen by the camera or simulated later?

    “Seen”     — A TTG photograph can record any three-dimensional subject in the world that is possible to photograph.

    . . . or “simulated”? — A photograph is always disqualified from P2 — and from TTG — if after the light hits the recording surface, anything within the photo is added, deleted, replaced, resized, moved, modified, reshaped, aigmented, or blurred (apart from the effects of TTG’s Allowable Changes).

    This disqualification covers anything that “could have” been present, absent, or of a different position/size/shape/focus than was the case when the photo was recorded.

  • 3. Weather effects

    Was the visual effect seen by the camera or simulated later?

    “Seen”     — A TTG photograph can record any atmospheric effects present in the scene at the time of exposure, including things like fog, snow, rain, dramatic skies, brightness or darkness, and lightning.

    . . . or “simulated”? — A photograph is always disqualified from P7 — and from TTG — if it depicts weather effects that were not present during the exposure.

  • 4. Lighting effects

    Was the visual effect seen by the camera or simulated later?

    “Seen”     — Apart from limitations imposed by P4, a TTG photograph can record any lighting direction and effect that was present in the scene at the time of exposure, from sidelighting to backlighting to silhouetting to front lighting to overhead lighting to uplighting to any combinations of these (the result will of course have to meet both P7 and P8 if the image is to qualify as TTG).

    . . . or “simulated”? — A photograph is always disqualified from P7 — and from TTG — if a lighting effect is depicted that was not present in the scene photographed at the time of exposure (“popularity on smartphones” does not equate with “TTG-qualified”).

  • 5. Depiction of the background

    Was the visual effect seen by the camera or simulated later?

    “Seen”     — A TTG photograph can record a “blown-out” background, whether it results from overexposing a bright background or underexposing a dark background (the result will of course have to meet both P7 and P8 if the image is to qualify as TTG).

    . . . or “simulated”? — A photograph is always disqualified from P7 — and from TTG — if the background is “cut out” after the light hits the recording surface (or if a substitute background or sky is inserted).

    See also cropping

  • 6. Panoramas

    Was the visual effect seen by the camera or simulated later?

    “Seen”     — A single exposure that was cropped to, or recorded as, a long, thin “panorama” can qualify as TTG, as can multiple combined exposures that were made without repositioning or re-aiming the camera between exposures, as per P3.

    . . . or “simulated”? — A photograph is always disqualified from P3 — and from TTG — if, after an exposure is recorded, it is combined with one or more other exposures before which the camera was repositioned or the lens was re-aimed (as is the case with the “Pano” mode on smartphones and digital cameras).

  • 7. Perspective

    Was the visual effect seen by the camera or simulated later?

    “Seen”     — TTG photographers can position and point the camera wherever they choose, knowing that they are committing to the exact “perspective” that the camera lens is seeing when the shutter is clicked.

    . . . or “simulated”?     — A photograph is always disqualified from P2 — and from TTG — if after the light hits the recording surface, the apparent perspective is changed (or “corrected”) by reshaping things in the photograph, even if only a tiny bit.

    (As per P2’s prohibition of non-optical perspective correction, this disqualification includes digital reshaping that was decided on before the shutter was clicked, such as Leica’s electronic “Perspective correction” feature and its smartphone equivalents. {TTG photographs depict what the recording surface actually saw, not what the photographer wishes it had seen.})

    TTG’s how-to guide on perspective says the same thing.

  • 8. Blurring out-of-focus areas

    Was the visual effect seen by the camera or simulated later?

    “Seen”     — A TTG photograph can be focused anywhere in the scene, using whichever aperture and focal length the photographer chooses (accounting for #5 and #7 here).

    . . . or “simulated”?     — A photograph is always disqualified from P3 — and from TTG — if it does not depict everything in the scene as in focus as it can be based on what the camera recorded.

    That disqualification includes introducing non-optical bokeh-blur with a smartphone’s “Portrait” mode (an effect that can easily be undone [see #832] if the photographer wants the photograph to be eligible for TTG).

    How-to guide on focus and bokeh blur

 

What is the “before vs. after” distinction?