Expanding on FAQ #213

  • 1. In almost every respect, trusted news organizations are much stricter about photo manipulation than they were in the past

    Back during the height of weekly photo magazines in the 1930s/40s/50s, it was routine to make photo manipulations that would cost today's photojournalists their jobs and their reputations.

    For much of the film era — before digital technology began making inroads in the 1980s — options for manipulating photos without detection were extremely limited. There was a widespread sense that “it's not a substantive manipulation if viewers can't detect it.”

    Now, however, in recognition of the power of digital technology to make completely undetectable manipulations, trusted news organizations have much stricter policies in place, and photojournalists can lose their jobs even over things like excessive tonal changes.

  • 2. But TTG has to allow some manipulations that were not traditionally allowed in reportage photos

    Any newsphoto-compatible standard designed for the future (like TTG is) has to account for the way several billion photos a day are made — that is, with smartphones.

    To make up for their smaller sensor size compared to standalone cameras, smartphones have “baked in” to them various manipulations that were not traditionally allowed when making news photos with standalone cameras.

    The Trust Test is written to accommodate any “baked in” manipulations that smartphone users are unable to disable.

    There is no other option, because those manipulations will be performed on all photos generated by the relevant smartphones, including on photos that end being used in “news” settings.

    See also Smartphone makers don't “bake in” doctored photographs

  • 3. TTG allows those manipulations only under strict limitations

    The most prominent example of how TTG puts strong restrictions on “baked in” manipulations involves combining exposures:

    Most advanced smartphones instantly combine multiple exposures in a way that the user cannot separate (for example, Apple phones from the 11-series forward are reported to instantly combine 9 or more exposures in challenging lighting situations).

    How TTG deals with combining exposures:

    • TTG photographers who want to combine exposures without a smartphone will face a long list of limits

    • Why is the list of combined-exposure limits so long?

    • Regardless of how many exposures are combined to make it, every TTG-qualified photograph has to look like an undoctored, single-exposure photo

    • The changing role of combined-exposure photographs

  • 4. But many smartphone manipulations that are not “baked in” are disqualified by TTG

    Non-optical bokeh blur, Magic Erasing, panoramas, added lighting effects ...

    Numerous popular smartphone manipulations that are not “baked in” — that is, they can easily be turned off — always do disqualify photographs from TTG, for reasons explained in this brief.