Fireworks photos
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1. Many excellent single-exposure photographs of fireworks don’t qualify as TTG...
. . . because to meet P4, a photograph must depict one specific appearance that occurred during exposure—
— and many fireworks photos are made by holding the shutter open long enough to capture multiple successive bursts of fireworks.
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2. What does #1 mean?
It means that many of the most dramatic fireworks photos depict a visual combination that no one at the scene would have seen.
That doesn’t jibe with TTG; as it says in FAQ #2401, “TTG-qualified photos are like a momentary ‘glimpse’ of the subject.”
The fireworks photographs that viewers like most usually fail that test.
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3. So what are the photographer’s choices?
1. Don’t worry about meeting the Trust Test and make the exposure as long as desired.
• Fireworks photos that are not TTG-qualified are not a big deal. It is safe to say that outside of news contexts, most viewers probably are not looking for reportage-level “trustworthiness” in their fireworks photographs.
Or...
2. Choose a shutter speed that is short enough to capture good fireworks-streaking while ensuring that the photo does not depict an appearance that never occurred during the exposure(s).
• Any fireworks photo that was exposed for longer than 1 second and is labeled TTG is likely to be challenged on satode grounds. To avoid this, TTG photographers can limit their fireworks exposure length to 1 second or less. See also #413.
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4. What about when multiple bursts of fireworks appear simultaneously and a photo that looks like it is NOT qualified for TTG actually IS qualified?
The photographer can supply relevant exposure data, for example showing that the exposure was second or less (see #1 above).
VUOs/CUOs will make this sort of “proof” more persuasive.