TTG Plus > FAQs > This is FAQ 17


On P7 of the Trust Test

“Without misrepresentation”

  • 1701. What’s the point of P7?

    In light of Characteristic #7 of trusted photographs, P7 ensures that the photograph doesn’t misrepresent the appearance of the scene as the camera lens saw it during the exposure(s), as judged by rinairs.

    P7 can play an important gate-keeping role for publishers; see #1707.

  • 1702. Why does TTG say that P7 plays a “cleanup” role?

    Because P7 “mops up” after the first six requirements.

    P7 looks at the combination of all visual effects after a photograph meets P1 through P6 and ensures that the final result does not misrepresent the appearance of the scene (again, “misrepresentation” is judged by rinairs).

  • 1703. What does the phrase mean in P7, “As the camera lens saw [the scene]”?

    Simply that the reference point for TTG photos is the view from the camera and not from somewhere else.

    Note that P7 specifies what the camera lens saw, not what the camera recorded. Those two are often not the same thing when it comes to “light”-related aspects of the image (tones and colors).

  • 1704. What if “what the camera recorded” misrepresents the scene’s appearance because of lens imperfections?

    Things like routine lens flare, corner/edge darkening, and barrel or pincushion distortion do not disqualify a photograph from TTG — even though they aren’t visible in the actual scene being photographed — because those effects are allowed by respected news agencies.

    Respected international news agencies use the same cameras and lenses available to everyone else. Thus those agencies face (and allow for) the same limitations of the medium that everyone else faces — including the factors listed in the paragraph above.

    That’s why correction of “lens/camera anomalies” is one of TTG’s 10 kinds of Allowable Changes (see #4).

  • 1705. If (as TTG says) no photo can perfectly represent a three-dimensional scene, how does TTG decide which “imperfect” representations are allowable and which ones are disqualifiers?

    In a word, rinairs, because the sources of that standard are the world’s largest providers of trusted photographs.

    For decades those news organizations have dealt countless times every day with all of the limitations of the medium that keep photographs from “perfectly representing” the scene depicted.

    rinairs is also the arbiter of TTG’s Allowable Changes

  • 1706. But why does P7 use the information-reportage standards of “respected international news agencies” and not some other standard?

    Because there are no other photographic “non-misrepresentation” standards that are anywhere near as well-known and respected all around the world.

    Nothing is even close.

    (P7 is here)

  • 1707. Many photographers will not feel as familiar with the rinairs practices as trusted image-providing organizations feel. Is P7 intended for photographers or for image-providing organizations?

    It’s intended for both.

    P7 is an important tool for any image-providing organizations     that do not want to have their credibility compromised by publishing unqualified photos that are labeled TTG.

    Gatekeepers of any TTG-ready publisher can cite rinairs and P7 when rejecting the TTG-label on a photo even if the photographer thinks the image would meet rinairs and P7. (For more on this, see here.)

    Most photographers are more familiar with rinairs than they realize: virtually all of the most of the most-famous photographs in the world meet not only rinairs but also the entire Trust Test.

  • 1708. Why does P7 specify that it applies to the appearance of the scene “as it was during the exposure(s)”?

    Because photographers often want to doctor a photo so that it looks the way it would have looked if they had photographed it “just little bit earlier” or “just a little bit later.”

    But a TTG photograph is never about “what the photographer wishes the camera had seen” or “what the scene might have looked like” at some other time.

    Common rationales that don’t cut it with TTG.

    See also the viewpoint page on “seen vs. simulated”

 

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