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Adobe added Content Credentials in the Lightroom Classic 14.0 (October 2024) update, to identify the author and flag Generative AI use.
When you look at a photo, how do you know whether the photographer used AI when they developed it?
It may not bother you, but what if you’re a judge on a photography competition that bans the use of AI? Or an editor for a magazine that prohibits photos with AI generated content? What if you’re working for a news organization with the same policy?
These are all questions that people have to grapple with now that AI has come to photography.
Who is Content Credentials for? Should you use it? What are the benefits? Let’s find out.
Who is Content Credentials for?
Content Credentials is for any photographer that:
- Wants to be known as the photo’s creator.
- Wants to let creative professionals know whether AI was used in a photo’s creation.
- Wants to include links to social media accounts on platforms like Instagram, X, LinkedIn and Behance.
- Wants to include some or all of this information in a form more robust than metadata fields.
What kind of AI is included in Content Credentials?
There are several ways to use AI in Lightroom Classic, and not all of them are to do with generating or replacing content.
AI used in masking or Denoise isn’t included in Content Credentials. But AI used in generating new content (that is, generative AI in the Remove tool) is.
If you use Remove and check the Use Generative AI box, then Content Credentials notes that part of the photo was created using AI.
How Content Credentials works in Lightroom Classic
The option to include Content Credentials appears when you export photos from Lightroom Classic.
At the moment you can only add Content Credentials to JPEG files. It may seem like a limitation but in practice just about everybody use JPEGs. It’s unlikely someone will ask you to submit photos in a different format.
The main exception is a request to submit an original Raw file to check what changes have been made to the photo during the developing process. This is something that can happen with photo competitions, for example, to check the photo complies with the rules.
The menu in Content Credentials gives you four options.
Don’t include: Don’t include any Content Credentials with the photo/s.
Publish to Content Credentials Cloud: This publishes the photo’s Content Credentials to Adobe’s servers, where people can see them on Adobe’s Content Authenticity website. This is useful somebody removes the Content Credentials information, or views it in software that can’t read it.
Attach to files: Attach Content Credentials to the exported photos. You should always do this, so people can read it in Adobe apps like Photoshop. At the moment, not many apps can read Content Credentials, which is why it’s a good idea to also upload Content Credentials to Adobe’s servers.
Attach and publish to the cloud: The best of both worlds – attach Content Credentials to the photo and upload them to Adobe’s servers. This is what I recommend.
Then there are three checkboxes at the bottom so you can control which Content Credentials Lightroom adds to the photo.
Producer: Your name (as recorded in your Adobe account).
Connected Accounts: Lists any added links to social media accounts.
Edits and activity: Includes details about the developing work you’ve done in Lightroom Classic, including the use of AI. If you don’t check this box, other people won’t be able to tell if you used AI to generate new content. Lightroom only includes minimal details about your developing work, so there’s no need to worry about other photographers learning your developing secrets.
Note: Content Credentials is an Early Access feature. That means Adobe thinks it’s good enough for you to use, but is gathering feedback and refining it. Expect changes to come in future Lightroom Classic updates.
How to add social media accounts to Content Credentials
The ability to add your name as the photo’s Producer is good, but a name isn’t enough for somebody who wants to contact you. You need to include contact details. The way to do that in Content Credentials is to add links to your social media accounts.
Go to your browser and sign in to any social media accounts you want to connect. Then, in Lightroom Classic, click the Manage button, which takes you to https://connected-accounts.adobe.com
Click the Add buttons to add links to Behance, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts. If you’re into NFTs you can also add web3 addresses via MetaMask and Phantom.
When you’re done, restart Lightroom Classic to see your social media accounts in the Export window.
Tip: You can also add contact details to your photo’s metadata (see the IPTC fields).
Where can I see a photo’s Content Credentials?
At the moment there’s no way to see a photo’s Content Credentials in Lightroom Classic or Lightroom. But you can see them when you open a photo in Photoshop. Go to Window > Content Credentials and click the Preview tab.
You’ll something like the screenshots below, from photos made both with (right) and without (left) Generative AI.
You can also view Content Credentials on Adobe’s Content Authenticity website at https://contentauthenticity.adobe.com/inspect (see screenshot below) or at https://contentcredentials.org/verify.
Click and drag a photo onto the box to see its details.
Conclusion
Content Credentials is a useful feature. At the very least it helps you be identified as the creator of your photos.
If you make money from your photos then using Content Credentials is a must. Make sure you publish your Content Credentials to Adobe’s servers so that nobody can claim that they didn’t know your photos were protected by copyright or how to contact the author.
Mastering Lightroom Classic: Book One – The Library Module
You can learn more about using the Catalog and exporting photos in my best-selling ebook Mastering Lightroom Classic: Book One – The Library Module.
