More on FAQ #120


AI is just another way of showing something other than what the camera saw.

  • A. Won’t all of the amazing new ways of changing photographs after they are recorded make TTG obsolete?

    No, there’s no chance of that happening.

    To qualify as TTG a photograph has to be left essentially as recorded, so most of those flashy new ways of changing photographs after they are recorded will not apply to TTG at all.

    In fact, one of the most universal attitudes about making changes to images in the digital age — “I’ll fix it in post” — is generally meaningless when it comes to making any non-“light”-related changes to TTG photographs.

  • B. Why can't TTG photographers just “fix it in post”?

    Because (as was noted in “B” of #113) TTG photographs are records.

    Whenever “fixing” involves making substantive changes, “fixing” a record after it is recorded ruins its value as a record.

    The “I’ll fix it in post” approach works fine when all that matters is “the appearance of the final image.” But as it says at the bottom of every page of this website, in the age of AIFI, “it’s not just about ‘how the picture looks’ anymore.”

    Contrary to the way many photographs are handled in the digital age, when making a TTG photograph the light hitting the recording surface of the camera largely marks the end of shaping how the photograph will look. More on this

  • C. The importance of depicting “what the camera lens saw”

    “C” is the crux of trusted photographs — and of TTG.

    The principle is of ageless value, unaffected by whatever technologies are currently being used to make photographs.

    Phrased another way, if a photo is doctored after it is recorded, it cannot qualify for TTG regardless of how it was doctored — whether it’s with the oldest darkroom techniques available, with the latest AI wizardry, or with some future technology we can’t even conceive of.

    The one thing AI can never do

    There is no question that in the years ahead, smartphones will offer remarkable new ways of “augmenting reality” and adding 3D-like capabilities and other features to photographs.

    But even the most gee-whiz ways of manipulating photos after they are taken will never eclipse the timelessness of the authentic, undoctored, still image.

  • D. What it’s really about

    Making trustworthy photographs is not about what the photographer wishes the camera lens had seen, nor is it about what the mind (or a computer) can imagine.

    No, trustworthy photographs always have been, and always will be, about actual seeing.

    From ancient cave paintings created thousands of years ago to an unforgettable photograph that will be recorded somewhere on the planet tomorrow afternoon...

    . . . humankind will always attach a unique value to the undoctored record of what one person saw, in one small corner of the world, at one unrepeatable moment in time.

    That is the essence of TTG.


Unaugmented reality
will always have a power
that “Augmented Reality”
can never have.