John Navitsky
Well-known member
Because I think it's a very important capability for photographers (and for society) and we are on the cusp of being able to actually use it, I thought I'd start a thread on Content Credentials.
I think it behooves us as content creators as well as on behalf of society in general to normalize the ability to know what is true, and these tools seem a good step in that effort, and as such, I plan to both participate in the use of these tools as soon as is reasonable, as well as encourage others to do the same.
Here's a blurb about it from Adobe's website:
The following video provides a good overview of the features and how this is intended to work:
Currently it seems like all the major camera manufactures have committed to this effort although AFAIK, only Leica has a camera with this implemented in a way you can actually use today although Sony's recent FW update for the A1 says it adds this capability, and they claim they will support the A9iii and A7Siii as well. The A1 firmware announcement indicates there is a need to license this feature and it is unclear that you can actually use it at this time (A1 peeps, if you could see if it's possible, I'd love to hear about it).
Nikon committed to this effort early on, and even demonstrated C2PA on a Z9 back in October of 2023, but we don't have a clear picture about when we might see it in a camera. That said, recent announcements that Nikon is working with Agence France-Presse (AFP) to provide functionality _on top_ of C2PA, make it look like they might do a "yes AND" soon. Considering it's the Agence FRANCE-Presse, perhaps to coincide with the Paris Olympics? One can hope. Nikon has not committed to supporting this with existing cameras, however with their current firmware-update centric model it would seem odd if they didn't.
It looks like Canon joined the CAI and C2PA in early 2023 and evidently they are working with Thomson Reuters to prove out their solution and are reported to release a camera "as soon as 2024" with support.
Of course, having camera support is only one part of the chain, and the other key bit is the toolchain. Fortunately, Adobe which is the primary toolchain for many of us co-founded the C2PA, and more importantly, currently has technology preview support in Lightroom (not LRc) and Photoshop.
While I don't have a C2PA enabled camera, I did play around a bit with the LR preview and was able to generate a CR enabled image and verify it using the online contentcredentials.org tool:
I also was able to view these using the free c2patool:
In addition there is a Chrome plugin that is intended to show you an icon on each image that has Content Credentials although I had mixed results in actually using it. This area still seems to be emerging. We do see some other efforts to enable browser support.
Obviously we also need social media companies to adopt this and while Google has joined the C2PA, companies such as Meta is a bit murky in exactly what they plan to do here, but do say they are doing "things". I can say that I was able to test and Facebook is currently stripping the Content Credentials data on images which is dissapointing to say the least (they also used to strip Copyright information, although I'm happy to say they no longer do that).
Twitter/X joined the C2PA back in 2021. I don't Twit, so I haven't tried testing to see if they are currently preserving this information, joining C2PA seems a good sign. I would be interested to hear a report of someone testing if X preserves the Content Credentials data in images shared there.
According to the C2PA membership page, so does TikTok, Shutterstock and OpenAI although I don't use any of those things so not sure where things currently stand on those platforms.
That's a pretty small and disappointing list. Hopefully a few high profile demonstrations of it's capabilties will shame companies into adoption.
Ok, so how can one try this?
So currently Lightroom (not Lightroom Classic) has this capability available, you must turn on technology previews:
edit > preferences > technology previews
From there, then it's a simple matter of selecting what Content Credentials you wish to include during export:
You can then verify the result using the contentcredentials.org verify tool or some of the other tools I've mentioned. At this time, it seems that in LR you have minimal control over the content to include and what that content looks like. Part of this may be because my source image isn't C2PA enabled. Hopefully Nikon will provide a FW update for the Z8/Z9 to allow that soon.
Over all, it is a bit disappointing what information it includes, for example, _MY_ name doesn't appear despite having checked the Producer box. And it notes that there is no connected account, despite my LR is tied to my account. Further, it doesn't have any EXIF derrived information.
That said, it DOES do a good job of the "edits and activity", and it seems to me, as a computer guy, that they've actually done the *hard part*.
I think the limited content and controls are partially due to the early nature of the software and hopefully we'll see a more production friendly versions emerge. While I haven't tried them, it does seem like PS may provide a bit more functionality here.
If anyone is interested in testing the browser plugins or the verification tool, here is a sample image I produced with the current capabilities of the LR preview.
In any case, I'm hoping folks can chime in here with information and experiences on this topic. I encourge folks to go TRY this stuff, especially anyone who might have a camera that has C2PA capabilities.
Looking forward to seeing what you guys learn and report!
-john
I think it behooves us as content creators as well as on behalf of society in general to normalize the ability to know what is true, and these tools seem a good step in that effort, and as such, I plan to both participate in the use of these tools as soon as is reasonable, as well as encourage others to do the same.
Here's a blurb about it from Adobe's website:
The following video provides a good overview of the features and how this is intended to work:
Currently it seems like all the major camera manufactures have committed to this effort although AFAIK, only Leica has a camera with this implemented in a way you can actually use today although Sony's recent FW update for the A1 says it adds this capability, and they claim they will support the A9iii and A7Siii as well. The A1 firmware announcement indicates there is a need to license this feature and it is unclear that you can actually use it at this time (A1 peeps, if you could see if it's possible, I'd love to hear about it).
Nikon committed to this effort early on, and even demonstrated C2PA on a Z9 back in October of 2023, but we don't have a clear picture about when we might see it in a camera. That said, recent announcements that Nikon is working with Agence France-Presse (AFP) to provide functionality _on top_ of C2PA, make it look like they might do a "yes AND" soon. Considering it's the Agence FRANCE-Presse, perhaps to coincide with the Paris Olympics? One can hope. Nikon has not committed to supporting this with existing cameras, however with their current firmware-update centric model it would seem odd if they didn't.
It looks like Canon joined the CAI and C2PA in early 2023 and evidently they are working with Thomson Reuters to prove out their solution and are reported to release a camera "as soon as 2024" with support.
Of course, having camera support is only one part of the chain, and the other key bit is the toolchain. Fortunately, Adobe which is the primary toolchain for many of us co-founded the C2PA, and more importantly, currently has technology preview support in Lightroom (not LRc) and Photoshop.
While I don't have a C2PA enabled camera, I did play around a bit with the LR preview and was able to generate a CR enabled image and verify it using the online contentcredentials.org tool:
I also was able to view these using the free c2patool:
In addition there is a Chrome plugin that is intended to show you an icon on each image that has Content Credentials although I had mixed results in actually using it. This area still seems to be emerging. We do see some other efforts to enable browser support.
Obviously we also need social media companies to adopt this and while Google has joined the C2PA, companies such as Meta is a bit murky in exactly what they plan to do here, but do say they are doing "things". I can say that I was able to test and Facebook is currently stripping the Content Credentials data on images which is dissapointing to say the least (they also used to strip Copyright information, although I'm happy to say they no longer do that).
Twitter/X joined the C2PA back in 2021. I don't Twit, so I haven't tried testing to see if they are currently preserving this information, joining C2PA seems a good sign. I would be interested to hear a report of someone testing if X preserves the Content Credentials data in images shared there.
According to the C2PA membership page, so does TikTok, Shutterstock and OpenAI although I don't use any of those things so not sure where things currently stand on those platforms.
That's a pretty small and disappointing list. Hopefully a few high profile demonstrations of it's capabilties will shame companies into adoption.
Ok, so how can one try this?
So currently Lightroom (not Lightroom Classic) has this capability available, you must turn on technology previews:
edit > preferences > technology previews
From there, then it's a simple matter of selecting what Content Credentials you wish to include during export:
You can then verify the result using the contentcredentials.org verify tool or some of the other tools I've mentioned. At this time, it seems that in LR you have minimal control over the content to include and what that content looks like. Part of this may be because my source image isn't C2PA enabled. Hopefully Nikon will provide a FW update for the Z8/Z9 to allow that soon.
Over all, it is a bit disappointing what information it includes, for example, _MY_ name doesn't appear despite having checked the Producer box. And it notes that there is no connected account, despite my LR is tied to my account. Further, it doesn't have any EXIF derrived information.
That said, it DOES do a good job of the "edits and activity", and it seems to me, as a computer guy, that they've actually done the *hard part*.
I think the limited content and controls are partially due to the early nature of the software and hopefully we'll see a more production friendly versions emerge. While I haven't tried them, it does seem like PS may provide a bit more functionality here.
If anyone is interested in testing the browser plugins or the verification tool, here is a sample image I produced with the current capabilities of the LR preview.
In any case, I'm hoping folks can chime in here with information and experiences on this topic. I encourge folks to go TRY this stuff, especially anyone who might have a camera that has C2PA capabilities.
Looking forward to seeing what you guys learn and report!
-john