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“How much viewers trust TrustImage photographs
is largely determined by the photographer”

Like readers who see the “Nonfiction” label on a book, viewers of a TrustImage-labeled photograph are not blindly “trusting” the work itself but rather deciding whether or not to trust the assurance of the creator of the work. (Remember, the Guarantee comes from the photographer, not from TrustImage.) In other words, TrustImage can be one of the most useful tools photographers have to help them earn the trust of viewers, but if viewers don’t trust the photographer’s word, there’s no point in attaching the TrustImage label.

In light of that need to earn the confidence of viewers, just like authors do photographers decide on their own how important it is to cultivate a reputation for credibility with the audience.

Even when the viewer has no experience with or knowledge of the scene depicted, TrustImage photographers can enhance their credibility through their handling of Q3 (“the interpretive qualification”), for example with respect to disclosing “unapparent aspects” {link disabled} of the original scene or with respect to not overdoing saturation levels or overexaggerating other tonal values {link disabled}, whether in black-and-white or color.

Photographers often ask “How much is too much?” when it comes to manipulations of tones and colors in a TrustImage photograph. Assuming that the result meets “newspaper reportage standards” [as per Q3], the answer certainly depends in part on how much the photographer wants to strain the viewer’s credulity.

As it is phrased on another page on this site: “Viewers, many of whom have personally been outdoors, are likely to respond that ‘It doesn’t really look like that!’ — a response they wouldn’t even use for most black-and-white depictions — when they encounter for example a landscape photograph in which color saturation has been raised to cartoon-like levels.”

When a photograph meets Q1 and Q2 but is “borderline” with respect to meeting the appearance-related component of Q3, TrustImage photographers who don’t wish to alter the appearance of the “borderline” photograph will best help their overall credibility (i.e., how much the viewer trusts their other photographs) by not labeling the questionable photograph as TrustImage.

Most photographers make some photographs that do qualify as TrustImage and some that do not, and distinguishing between the two kinds (when both are put before viewers in the same context) can only help the photographer’s credibility.

Bottom line: Viewers are always completely free to NOT trust the “TrustImage” label on a photograph, just as readers are free to discount the “Nonfiction” label on a book. Winning the viewer’s trust is ultimately up to the photographer, not to TrustImage.