“The use of visible light”
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1101. What’s the point of P1?
In light of Characteristic #1 of trusted photographs (“uses visible light”), P1 ensures that the entire image area recorded during the relevant exposure(s) used the portion of the light spectrum that is visible to humans.
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1102. What kind of images are disqualified by P1?
In addition to the current technologies listed in P1 — AIFI, x-ray, infrared, sonograms, CT scans, MRIs — the disqualification will also apply to any future imaging technologies that also employ non-visible portions of the electromagnetic spectrum.
TTG, like photography itself, will always be about “recording with light.”
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1103. I understand TTG’s prohibition of AI-fabricated imaging, but why are all images depicting things captured in ranges outside of human vision disqualified by P1?
On a philosophical level, P1 reflects TTG’s commitment to celebrating human seeing — “what one person saw, in one small corner of the world, at one unrepeatable moment in time,” as it says in FAQ #120.
But there is a practical reason as well.
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1104. Is TTG saying that things like infrared, x-ray, and thermal images do not qualify as photographs?
No, TTG never gets involved in declaring what is or is not “a photograph” — only in declaring what is a TTG-qualified photograph (which is what the Trust Test list decides).
TTG accepts any common definition of the noun “photograph.” Millions of images that meet those common definitions do not qualify as TTG.
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1105. But people were making photographs on infrared film decades ago. Why are infrared photographs disqualified by P1?
The fact that photographs were made with this or that technique “back in an era when the public trusted photographs more” doesn’t mean that photos made with those techniques have all of the characteristics of the most-widely trusted photographs in the free world.
(X-rays have been around for more than 100 years, and they don’t meet P1 either.)
In the 21st century, numerous things that were done to photographs back in the film era disqualify photographs from rinairs and from TTG.
“Film-era technology” does not automatically make photographs trustworthy any more than “digital-era technology” automatically makes photos untrustworthy. More
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1106. P1 says that x-rays cannot qualify as TTG, so does that mean that a photo of a doctor talking to a patient while holding an x-ray is disqualified from TTG because it has a non-TTG image in it?
No. P8 says that a non-TTG image cannot be “a primary subject” of a TTG photo (so that viewers don't think the non-TTG image is actually TTG-qualified).
Thus unless the x-ray image is “a primary subject” of the photograph, the presence of an x-ray photo in the scene does not disqualify the photo from TTG.
A normal photograph of a doctor holding an x-ray does indeed use “the portion of the light spectrum that is visible to humans in its depiction of what the camera lens saw during the exposure(s),” which is why such a photo would not be disqualified by P1.
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1107. What’s the harm in the photographer putting words or graphics onto the image area?
As with #1103 (above), there's both a principled and a practical reason.
As a matter of principle, the public is told that no photograph can meet the Trust Test (see P1) if it depicts anything that was not “recorded during the relevant exposure(s) using the portion of the light spectrum that is visible to humans.”
On a practical level, if the policy were otherwise a photographer could overlay something onto the image area to obscure a deceptive or important aspect of the photo.
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1108. So who is allowed to overlay any words/graphics/logos onto the image area of a TTG-labeled photo?
Only the image-providing organization that publishes the photo.
• Third-party image providers should regard as TTG-disqualified any photos that are submitted from photographers with words/graphics/logos overlaid on the image area.
• Viewers are told to disregard the TTG label (see #4 here) if they believe that any words, graphics, or logos in the image area were applied by anyone other than the image provider that published the photo.
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1109. Why is the image-providing organization allowed to print on the image area of a TTG-labeled photo when no one else can?
Because it is standard practice for some news organizations to print the photographer's name on an image when it is published.
Since established news organizations are built on trust, they would be highly unlikely to put anything untrustworthy into the image area.
On the other hand, anyone else publishing the photo — for example, someone who “republishes” someone else's photo on social media — is not staking their reputation on the TTG label, so they have nothing to lose by adding something deceptive to the image.
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1110. Can the image provider put words onto the image area when the image provider is the photographer, as on one's own monosite?
(Monosite)
If the photos in any context are all by the same photographer, there is no need to put that photographer's name on the photograph.
(When news organizations publish a photo with the photographer's name on it, it is because they are publishing photographs by multiple photographers.)
It is easy to label multiple TTG photographs with one mention when desired.
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1111. What about putting a watermark on a photo?
{Good question}
See also the “P1” tab on the page “What the public knows about how undoctored photographs work”
The numbering of the FAQ questions will not change — any new questions are added at the bottom and given new numbers — so users can safely make a link to any specific question.