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| Image: C2PA |
It’s been a big week for Content Credentials, the tech made to provide more transparency around how images were created and edited, and whether AI was involved in the process. First, Google announced that its latest lineup of Pixel phones would include the metadata on every photo they took; a first for the smartphone world. Then, Nikon announced that Z6III owners will be able to attach credentials to images they take with the camera for free.
Both moves represent big steps forward for their respective industries. While the Pixel is a tiny player in terms of smartphone market share, other companies tend to follow Google when it introduces new features. The company adding Content Credentials to its phones could push larger players like Samsung and Apple to do the same, especially as they continue to walk the line between pleasing investors and annoying customers by adding AI-powered camera features.
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The Pixel 10, 10 Pro and 10 Pro Fold are the first phones to attach Content Credentials to their photos. |
Over in the dedicated camera world, Content Credentials have largely only been available to members of the press and those who can afford a Leica. While the Nikon Z6III certainly isn’t an entry-level camera, it’s much more affordable than most of Leica’s offerings. It’s also nice to see that Nikon currently isn’t charging for access to this feature, though it’s possible that’ll change in the future.
These changes are important because they could represent a turning point for Content Credentials. While the standard is backed by the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA), a veritable who’s who of imaging tech, its future as an important part of imaging and trust on the internet hasn’t necessarily been assured.
As it stands now, an image with Content Credentials may get a special badge on some sites, and you can inspect images to see if they have them with various tools. However, very few people on the web are liable to do that, because almost no images have them. They may be useful to newshounds consuming a lot of photojournalism as proof that an image is authentic (or, at least, not faked in a very specific way), but if you only trusted images with Content Credentials, you’d end up thinking every image you saw on the Internet was fake*.
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| If you’ve seen a Content Credential badge before now, it’s probably because you went looking for one. |
If the tech makes its way into the cameras most people are actually using, though, that could start to change. The presence or absence of Content Credentials could become a meaningful contribution to an image’s trustworthiness, rather than just being a curiosity. While it certainly wouldn’t be a silver bullet against mis- and disinformation and the rise of generative AI, it could wind up being a more useful tool if it’s something you can come to rely on most authentically-shot images having.
While that future seems more likely now after this week, it is still a long way off. One of the issues with Content Credentials is that every link in the chain from your camera to the device it’s displayed on needs to support them. If you edit them with software or upload them to a service that strips out the metadata, it won’t do you or your viewers any good.
Until now, there’s arguably been a chicken and egg problem with Content Credentials
But while the ecosystem around them is still young, it’s obviously growing. Recently, Fastly, a massive content delivery network, joined Cloudflare in announcing that a vital part of its image pipeline will now preserve Content Credentials, and Adobe is making strides in ensuring that most of its software works with them, too.
The weakest link may still be web browsers, as the major ones currently don’t flag images that have credentials unless you install a third-party extension. Even just Chrome making it seamless to see and inspect Content Credentials could do a lot to boost consumer awareness of the tech.
That doesn’t feel impossible, though. Until now, there’s arguably been a chicken-and-egg problem with Content Credentials and the web; almost no one was using them, so it was hard to justify putting in the work to support them. But if Nikon and Google end up being just the tip of the iceberg, we could see a lot more demand for the tech coming soon.
* Admittedly, there are probably worse assumptions to make.
Our DPREVIEW Tribute:
After nearly 25 years of operation, DPReview closed on 10 April 2023. This difficult decision was part of the annual operating plan review that parent company, Amazon, shared earlier this year.
Over the course of 25 years, DP Review built up a reputation as being one of the most informative places to go for information about that new camera or lens you’re after. DP Review began as an independent reviews site based in the UK in 1998, the brainchild of Philip and Joanna Askey, but it was eventually purchased by Amazon in 2007 and relocated over to Seattle in the USA in 2010.
Cheers DPReview – thanks for the great work and content that guided photographers, videographers and techno junkies the world over!
