Photographers’ Questions
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401. I sometimes use AI generative fill in my photos. Why doesn’t TTG allow “even a single pixel” of AI-fabricated imaging?
Because viewers want to know if everything in the photograph is depicted “as the camera saw it at the time of exposure” ... or if it is not.
Viewers depend on TTG-qualified photographs to show nothing that the camera did not see at the time of exposure.
“Adding AI-fabricated imaging never increases a photo's trustworthiness”
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402. What if for my own photography “the appearance of the final image” is more important than the picture's “trustworthiness”?
That's fine; it just means TTG is not for you.
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403. Why would a viewer I’ve never met, who lives on the other side of the world, be curious whether a photo that I put online is “undoctored”?
Because anytime a photo is deliberately put before the public, it becomes part of the public discourse — and becomes fair game for public curiosity.
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404. How is making TTG photos different from making non-TTG photos?
The biggest difference is this:
• A photographer making a non-TTG photo has unlimited freedom to do whatever they want to their photo (see “B” here).
• But a photographer making a TTG photograph has very limited options after light from the scene hits the recording surface.
The difference described above is explored in this brief.
TTG requires more changes for some photographers than for others
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405. What if I’m a photographer with an established online presence and I’m interested in TTG — but many of the photos I’ve put out there are not TTG-qualified? How should I deal with TTG?
You can do whatever feels most natural with your personal philosophy and the kind of photos you want to make.
If you want to engage with TTG for even just some of your photos, you have multiple options.
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406. How do I know that my TTG photo won’t be mishandled when I submit it to a third party for publication?
That is clearly addressed in the list of expectations of publishers.
Summary: it is in the interest of TTG-ready providers to not abuse the trust implied in use of the TTG label.
(Note that the publisher will have expectations of the photographer)
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407. Why does TTG disqualify photos made using my favorite manipulation?
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408. What if my photo is disqualified from the Trust Test because I changed it to look exactly how it would have looked if I had taken it just a little bit earlier?
If a photo doesn’t fully meet the Trust Test, it is disqualified from TTG. Period. (To use an American idiom, viewers don’t care to hear about “how the dog ate your homework.”)
See also the brief on “seen vs. simulated”
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409. What if I like to set my photos apart from other photographers’ photos by using super-long exposures so that things are unrecognizably blurred or invisible?
What if I like to stand apart by applying a distinctive tonality through my unique recipe of post-exposure changes?Then you’ll have to choose between making photographs that look the way you like them vs. making TTG-qualified photos.
As it says in multiple places on this website:
“Photographers can do whatever they want to their own photos, but they cannot do ‘whatever they want’ to a photo and then expect viewers to trust it.”
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410. How can I make impressive photographs that qualify as TTG if I can’t use my unique post-processing “look”?
The same way that photographers have been making impressive photographs for almost 200 years.
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411. What if I think TTG looks too complicated?
You can just ignore it — but first you might review the three simple steps involved in making a TTG photo and ask if TTG really is that complicated.
Learning what makes photographs trustworthy is no harder than learning other aspects of photography, but use of TTG is always completely optional — so anyone who has no need for TTG can just not use it.
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412. Why are the kinds of photographs on the “Unsuited to TTG” list not suited to TTG?
Because — often to please clients and viewers — those types of photographs typically undergo changes that keep them from meeting the Trust Test.
As it says in #1 of this brief, “There are no limits to what can be done to a non-TTG photo ... Everything in the photo can be changed, moved, enhanced, erased, resized, replaced, reshaped, recolored, or blurred.”
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413. But it is possible to make TTG-qualified photos in the “unsuited to TTG” categories, correct?
Yes, certainly. Photographs in most of the “unsuited” categories obviously can be made to meet the Trust Test (and thus qualify for the TTG label).
Photographers at all levels may enjoy the challenge of making TTG-qualified photographs in one or more of those “unsuited” categories.
But those are all categories for which viewers and clients do not expect TTG levels of non-manipulation. Professionals in those categories could be at a competitive disadvantage if they used TTG for clients whose primary concern is “how the final image looks.”
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414. What if I think TTG doesn’t have enough gray areas, that it is too yes-or-no, too black-and-white in its judgment of which photos are “doctored” and which photos are “undoctored”?
TTG is a standard. The role of a “standard” is to identify examples that meet the standard vs. examples that do not meet the standard. (See #428}
There are many, many gray areas in TTG, especially with regard to the execution of various parts of TTG's Allowable Changes.
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415. What if I think TTG has too many gray areas, without enough clearly spelled-out limits for things like how much contrast or saturation is too much?
Any limits that are not currently present in TTG are absent because they would be arbitrary and unrealistic.
Particularly on “light”-related issues, there are far too many variables to establish any numerical limits. For example, one photographer using one brand of camera might choose to increase contrast by 20 percent to avoid “misrepresenting the appearance of the scene” (to meet P7), while another photographer shooting the exact same scene but with a different camera might reduce contrast by 20 percent to meet P7.
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416. Haven’t photographers always had to choose between “trustworthiness” and “appearance”?
(This is a reference to “the photographer’s choice”)
No, it wasn’t an issue until recently.
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417. Why have so many photographers in the digital age chosen “appearance” over “trustworthiness”?
(This is a reference to “the photographer’s choice”)
Most photographers have not consciously “chosen” appearance over trustworthiness.
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418. And that “appearance vs. trustworthiness” choice explains why it's so hard to make photos that are both “impressive” and “TTG-qualified”?
Yes. No matter what the subject, the surest way to improve a photograph’s appearance is usually going to be by doctoring or aigmenting it, not by leaving it largely “as is” so that it qualifies as TTG.
This is common knowledge, which is why, as noted in #610:
“Photographers routinely hope that viewers will think a doctored photograph is undoctored, but that hope rarely goes in the opposite direction:
“Photographers rarely hope that viewers will think an undoctored photograph is actually doctored.”
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419. Where’s the best place to view a wide variety of photos that are both impressive-looking and TTG-qualified?
On the websites linked under “Here” on the “Photos” page.
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420. The answer to #417 says that smartphone manufacturers spend billions of dollars a year improving the “appearance” of photographs. In the future will those companies devote significant resources to “trustworthiness” as well?
A greater emphasis on trustworthiness seems likely.
Questions of “Which online images can people trust?” are becoming increasingly urgent around the world, so “trustworthiness” may represent an important new frontier for any manufacturer of devices that can take photos.
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421. It’s one of the oldest photo-manipulation questions:
To maximize the level of viewer trust, should a photograph depict “what the photographer saw” or “what the camera recorded”?TTG photos depict “what the camera lens saw,” which is a combination of those two things.
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422. Why are viewers told to disregard the TTG label when the photographer is not identified?
Because no guarantee has value if people do not know who is standing behind the guarantee.
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423. How come no one can credibly apply the TTG label other than the photographer responsible for creating the photograph?
Because the guarantee has the most credibility when it is made by the person most responsible for the creation of the photograph.
#1904 and #1905 address ambiguous authorship cases.
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424. Why does TTG say that photographers are “staking their reputation” on the TTG label “every time they use it in a trusted context”?
(The quote is from here)
Because by definition a “trusted context” is one in which viewers trust what they see or read.
Anyone who violates that trust in that context is likely to suffer damage to their reputation.
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425. Since TTG doesn't judge photos, whom should I ask for a second opinion about whether a particular photo of mine qualifies as TTG?
TTG never judges photos, nor does anyone else do so on TTG's behalf
The best choice would usually be to ask other photographers whose opinion you respect.
It would be easy to set up specific “TTG or not?” online forums. (The infrastructure for it is already there: photographers around the world post every day their photos for others to comment on.)
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426. FAQ #112 says there are no rules for attaching the TTG label to a photograph, but is there a “best way” to do it?
(FAQ #112)
No, there is no single “best” way, because it depends on the setting.
Basically any way the photographer wants to attach the label — or any way the publisher wants to reproduce the label — is fine.
It usually pays to keep in mind the list of reasons that viewers disregard the label.
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427. Do I have to check all 9 points of the Trust Test each time I want to attach the TTG label?
No, that should never be necessary.
After an initial read, most photographers won’t need to check the Trust Test any more than a typical car owner has to read the owners’ manual each day before they start their car and drive off.
Most photographers who skim the Trust Test only once will usually know which steps of it they are already fulfilling vs. which steps aren’t part of their usual workflow. They can always consult the Trust Test again if needed.
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428. Is it fair that photos that are disqualified by something minor are lumped in some gigantic “Non-TTG” category alongside photos that are disqualified by something major?
Yes, it is fair.
TTG is a standard. The purpose of any standard is to separate examples that meet the standard from examples that do not meet the standard.
For example, it may seem harsh, but a distance runner who misses the Olympics trials qualifying time by less than 1 second is just as much a “non-Olympian” as is a runner who misses the mark by 20 seconds.
• If a photograph misses qualifying for TTG because of something that is indeed minor, then it should be a simple matter to correct or undo whatever is keeping the photo from qualifying so that it does qualify.
• But if it is not a simple matter to make the photo qualified, then the disqualifier may not be so “minor” after all.
See also the brief on creating a less-strict standard
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429. Does using the TTG label increase the photographer’s chances of being credited for a photo?
Yes, at least with any TTG-ready provider, because “publishing the label” effectively means “naming the photographer.”
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430. Is the TTG label only for “impressive” photos?
No, definitely not. There are many cases when “non-impressive” photos would get labeled.
The TTG label is helpful anytime any image provider — whether an individual photographer or a large publisher or news provider — wants to reassure viewers that no photos in a specific setting contain AI-fabricated elements.
In such cases all of the TTG-qualified images in that setting would wear the TTG label, regardless of how unimpressive any individual photo may look.
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431. What if I make undoctored-looking photos but I don’t feeling like saying anything to viewers about whether my photos are or are not TTG-qualified?
That’s fine. No photographer is ever obligated to explain or say anything about any photograph they put before viewers.
But viewers are going to be increasingly curious
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.