Guide to "light"-related changes

TTG Plus > Making

“Light”-related options are the first of TTG’s Allowable Changes

“Light”-related changes

Who is this page for?

This page is for TTG photographers who want to override their camera’s automatic settings and manually make “light”-related changes.
One question summarizes this page:

After all “light”-related changes have been made, would a TTG-ready publisher accept the TTG label on the photo?

A photo will not qualify for the TTG label if the combination of all “light”-related changes misrepresents the appearance of the scene depicted (as judged by rinairs in P7).

TTG-ready publishers can reject photos that they feel do not meet the Trust Test, or they can make any of TTG’s Allowable Changes they deem necessary to make the photo hew more closely to rinairs.

Specifics

Blown-out backgrounds

(When the background goes unrecorded because of under- or overexposure)

A photograph can remain eligible for the TTG label even when it is recorded in a situation in which

• the background is “blown out” to full white (the background is overexposed, for example when exposing for the subject’s face with a bright overcast sky in the background)

or

• “blown out” to full black (the background is underexposed, for example lighting the subject with flash while standing outdoors at night).

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Note that unlike “blown out” backgrounds, cutout backgrounds always disqualify photographs from TTG.

See also the “seen vs. simulated” page for an explanation of why TTG allows backgrounds to be “blown out” but not “cut out.”
Brightness

As always with TTG, a well functioning modern camera or smartphone, when set to normal settings and defaults, will almost always produce a TTG-eligible result.

It is only when significant variations from normal/default settings are manually programmed into the device — or manually implemented later — that photos are likely to risk being disqualified by P7.

For example, night cannot be depicted as day, or day as night, or the result will be disqualified by P7.

See #4 on this page on photographs in which dark interiors fill the frame.
Burning and dodging

•“burning” is the darkening of select areas of a photo

• “dodging” is the brightening of select areas of a photo

Any photograph that is reasonably well exposed (or has its overall brightness corrected after the exposure) will have brightness relationships that meet P7 without burning or dodging needed.

Any normal photograph made using a smartphone’s automatic settings will not need any burning or dodging to meet P7.

Then why is burning or dodging performed?

Respected news providers have been “burning” and “dodging” photos for more than a century, in both the film and the digital eras, to compensate for photographs’ limited dynamic range compared to the human eye.

Burning and dodging can reveal areas of photographs that would not otherwise be visible, a result that is often desired by news and information providers.

Note that when burning and dodging are used to obscure pictorial information, the result may be disqualified by P7.
Catchlights

As with any kind of reflections on the subject being photographed...

. . . if catchlights are added, removed, reshaped, moved, resized, or recolored in rinairs-incompatible ways, the result is disqualified by P2 and P7 and cannot qualify for the TTG label.

Of course, rinairs-acceptable tonal and color-related corrections can be made to catchlights, as per P7.
Color correction

Except when the photographer manually programs in alternate color settings, mainstream digital cameras and phones almost always depict colors well enough for the result to qualify as TTG.

In a color TTG photograph, no colors can be depicted that misrepresent the colors that the camera lens saw during the exposure, from eye color (see also redeye) to hair color to clothing to anything else pictured in the scene.

As per P7, rinairs is always the arbiter for judging misrepresentation

Note that when a color photo’s colors are off by an uncorrectable degree, the photo may converted to monochrome (black-and-white) to make it eligible for TTG.
Contrast

As part of the first of the Allowable Changes, the contrast may be varied in TTG photographs, but the result cannot misrepresent the scene photographed as determined by rinairs (as per P7).

This means that too much contrast can disqualify the photo from TTG (by P7) just as too little contrast can disqualify the photo from TTG (also by P7) — for example, if reducing contrast levels misrepresents the amount of fog, haze, smoke, fog, or blowing snow in the air at the time the exposure was made.

What if my personal “style” involves unconventional contrast levels?
Converting negative film to positive

The non-deceptive conversion of “negative” to “positive” has been integral to millions of trusted news photographs over the years, and such conversions do not disqualify photos from TTG.

(This kind of conversion is cited in multiple places on this website as an example of how even radical changes to “tones and colors” may be necessary in order for a photograph to meet P7 and qualify as TTG.)
Corner/edge darkening

The routine corner/edge darkening that is inherent in many lenses (especially wide-angle lenses) may be left as is, may be partially corrected, or may be fully corrected.

But disqualified by P7 are:

• any lens-caused edge/corner darkening that rinairs would judge to be excessive (as might happen with an image circle too small to cover the recording surface)

• Accentuating or exaggerating any lens-caused darkening

• The effects of attaching to the camera a device that causes vignetting

• Adding any corner/edge darkening after the exposure, by any means
Cross-processing

“Cross-processing” effects are used to render colors differently than they way they appeared in the scene that was photographed.

The result is disqualified by P7 unless the colors are changed to meet rinairs for non-misrepresentation.

If the initial recording or processing of any photograph results in tones or colors that are so misrepresentative that the photograph cannot be adjusted to meet rinairs, the photograph is considered TTG-ineligible and cannot qualify for the TTG label regardless of how it is presented. •

Note, however, that photos with super-wonky color-balance can often be “saved” with regard to TTG by converting them to monochrome; see #810.

“No one can have it both ways, having their photos looking different but being treated the same.”
Dynamic range

TTG allows for the limits of photographs’ dynamic range, including in single-exposure photographs (even color transparencies — “slides” — are eligible for TTG, and they have a much narrow dynamic range than do digital photographs).

Combining exposures to increase dynamic range is never necessary to meet the Trust Test.

Respected international news agencies acknowledge that the range of brightness (from light to dark) that photographs can portray is often less than what humans can see.

Thus those news organizations’ standards — and TTG — allow for photographs’ frequent inability to depict detail in the brightest and darkest areas of the photograph.

Silhouettes — depictions of things that have no details in dark areas — can qualify as TTG, just as blown-out skies can qualify as TTG.
Exposure length

• If the scene is motionless and unchanging, TTG photographers can make “a single uninterrupted exposure” of any length (per P5) as long as the result meets P7 for non-misrepresentation.

• But if the scene has movement or change in it, TTG photographers may face limits to the length of that “single uninterrupted exposure,” as per P4 and P5. Why might they face limits?
Highlights/shadows

There is no single “rule” regarding how much detail should be shown in “highlight” (bright) areas and “highlight” (dark) areas of a TTG photograph.

(The fact that TTG allows for both blown-out backgrounds and silhouettes means that there are times when no detail need be depicted in the lightest or darkest areas.)

But a TTG-ready publisher may question whether a photograph meets rinairs (as per P7) when highlight areas are selectively brightened more than the rest of the photograph, or shadow areas are selectively darkened more than the rest of the photograph, with the effect of obscuring detail in those areas.
HDR

High Dynamic Range photography is discussed in the Key.
Light beams, visible

(Includes “God beams” from the sun in landscape photos, car headlights in fog, sunbeams shining into a room in an old building, etc.)

Visible light beams are an example of things that were not a three-dimensional “object” in the scene that was photographed but are still considered “forms and shapes.”

Visible light beams are thus subject to the same restrictions as other forms and shapes listed in P2:

they cannot be added, removed, reshaped, resized, or otherwise altered (except for rinairs-acceptable changes to their tone or color)

. . . or the result will be disqualified by P2 and/or P7.
Lighting effects on smartphones

Most advanced smartphones offer “lighting effects” to depict something different from how the scene actually looks...

. . . but any photo depicting “something different from how the scene actually looks” is disqualified by P7.

TTG photographers must avoid all “lighting effects.”
Misexposure

In a TTG-labeled photograph, all “light”-related aspects (brightness, contrast, hue, saturation, etc.) must meet rinairs for non-misrepresentation of the scene that was photographed — regardless of how those aspects were originally recorded.

Usually the “light”-related aspects of a photograph can be corrected enough to meet P7.

But if a photograph is so extremely overexposed or underexposed that the “light”-related aspects cannot be sufficiently corrected to meet rinairs...

. . . then the photograph is considered TTG-ineligible (because it cannot meet P7).

It then cannot qualify for the TTG label.
Monochrome (black-and-white)

Black-and-white/monochrome photographs have been a staple of trusted reportage photography since the inception of the medium. Thus monochrome photos are eligible to qualify for the TTG label as long as the result meets rinairs for non-misrepresentation, as per P7.

This is true regardless of whether the photograph was originally recorded in black-and-white (the way most reportage photographs were made for roughly a century) or converted from color (the way most monochrome photos printed in 21st-century newspapers are created).

As noted below, tonal values cannot be reversed in any black-and-white/monochrome photo — i.e., darker colors in the scene cannot be portrayed in the photograph with lighter tones than lighter colors in the same scene, and vice-versa.

If tonal values are reversed, the photograph will be disqualified by P2 and P7 and cannot qualify for the TTG label no matter how it is explained.
Monochrome, conversion to from color

TTG allows for monochrome (black-and-white) photos that were converted from color originals.

This applies regardless of whether the monochrome conversion was done because the photo’s white balance was so far off that the colors could not be corrected enough to meet P7, or because the published output was to be in black-and-white.*

*Over the past 25 years, countless trusted news photographs in every corner of the world have been photographed in color and published in black-and-white, so there is nothing inherently problematic or untrustworthy about such conversions.

For more on issues surrounding such conversions, see FAQ #806.
Monochrome, partial

Any photograph that renders part of the scene in color and part of the scene in monochrome (black-and-white) — or desaturated almost to the point of monochrome — is disqualified from TTG by rinairs and P7.
Monochrome, tonal relationships in

Monochrome photographs must preserve tonal relationships — darker colors in the scene cannot be portrayed in the photograph with lighter tones than lighter colors in the same scene, and vice-versa — or the photo will be disqualified by rinairs and P7.

For example, in the buildings depicted in a night cityscape, darkened windows cannot be illuminated — just as windows that imply a light is on inside cannot be darkened.
Redeye

Correcting “redeye” in a photograph disqualifies the result from P2 and P7.

That’s because the blood vessels in many animals’ (including humans’) eyes actually can reflect red during the instant the determinative lighting source (the flash) is being recorded by the camera.

A photograph cannot meet P7 if, after recording, the color of the subject’s eyes in the photograph is selectively changed to something other than how it appeared to the camera at the time during which most of the light from the subject was recorded.

Note that the artificial post-exposure introduction of redeye — to make it appear that the photograph was recorded that way — would disqualify the photograph from both P2 and P7. (See also the page “seen vs. simulated”.)
Reflections

Reflections on the subject being photographed cannot be added, removed, reshaped, moved, resized, or recolored in rinairs-incompatible ways or the result is disqualified by P2 and P7 and cannot qualify for the TTG label.

Of course, rinairs-acceptable tonal and color-related corrections can be made to reflections, as per P7.
Saturation

“Saturation” refers to the vividness of colors as they are depicted in a photograph (Key entry).

While average saturation levels in cameras seem to have gone up in recent years, the default saturation settings of most devices will not disqualify the resulting photos from P7.

However, changing the defaults to radically increase or decrease saturation levels is likely to disqualify the result from P7 (note, however that full desaturation -- resulting in a monochrome/black-and-white photo -- does not disqualify the image from TTG.

See FAQs #807–808 for more on this.

Note that TTG-ready publishers are free to adjust the saturation of submitted photos to bring them to rinairs-compatible levels; see #103 here.
Silhouettes

Objects that are silhouetted in photographs generally present no problems in meeting rinairs (as per P7).

Photographs with silhouettes in them are eligible to qualify for the TTG label if they meet all 9 requirements of the Trust Test.

(Because it is so easy to superimpose a silhouette over any pretty photograph, TTG photographers who want to prove the appropriateness of the TTG label on a silhouette photograph may choose to make and save some neighboring frames in which the object or person is not silhouetted.)
White balance

In a TTG-labeled photograph, all “light”-related aspects (including brightness, contrast, hue, and saturation) must meet rinairs for non-misrepresentation of the scene that was photographed — regardless of how those “light”-related aspects were originally recorded.

The white balance need not be perfect — it rarely is — but if the “light”-related aspects of a photograph (including white balance) are so far off that they cannot be sufficiently corrected for the final result to meet rinairs (as per P7), the photograph will not qualify for the TTG label.

Note, however, that any photo with uncorrectably bad color can usually* be converted to tonally appropriate monochrome in order to remain eligible to meet P7.

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*The exceptions would be photos that were initially recorded with tonal relationships that diverge from the visible light spectrum, such as infrared; see FAQ #1105.