Content Credentials allow content creators and publishers to add key details to their work, helping to improve transparency. We explain how to use them for your images and view them in those published by others.
Content Credentials are now starting to appear in a broad range of images online. They provide online audiences with information on a piece of content’s origin, along with details on any edits made, including the use of AI tools.
If you’re not already familiar with Content Credentials and want to learn more, read our complete Content Credentials guide first.
If, however, you understand the concept and now want to start putting it into practice, read on.
How to add Content Credentials on your camera
While it’s possible to add Content Credentials to images after they have been captured, embedding them from the start of an image’s life is ideal as it allows for the most complete picture of an image’s history to be developed.
That said, since this technology is still relatively new, only two cameras support Content Credentials out of the box at the time of writing.
These cameras are the Leica M11-P and the Sony A9 III. Both are relatively new and at the pricier end of the scale for models of their kind, so this option isn’t available to the vast majority of photographers today.
Nevertheless, if you have a slightly older camera, you may still be able to take advantage of this feature.
Sony’s announcement of its A9 III camera came alongside the news that owners of the A1 and A7S III would also be able to access this feature through a forthcoming firmware update – and this was released in April.
Fujifilm also recently announced that it has joined both the CAI and the C2PA, which are behind Content Credentials, and has stated that it will be using this standard in GFX and X series cameras via firmware updates.
This approach opens up the possibility that owners of other models may also receive firmware updates with the same option in the future, which could rapidly increase adoption.
The fact that Nikon included Content Credentials in a demonstration version of its popular Z9 model also suggests that the feature will be included in future Nikon cameras.
How to add Content Credentials using software
While adding Content Credentials in the camera has the advantage of embedding information into images at the very start of the creation process, you don’t need a camera that supports this feature to use it. You can start adding Content Credentials in software instead.
How to add Content Credentials in Adobe Photoshop
Content Credentials are currently in beta in Photoshop, so we expect changes over time. Nevertheless, they are still very much usable at this moment.
To get started, open an image in Photoshop and select Window > Content Credentials (Beta). A dialog box with the option to enable Content Credentials will appear on the right-hand side of the screen.
Once this is enabled, you will be able to select which details to apply, such as Producer and Edits & Activity. By default, all options should be selected, including Generative AI transparency.
By clicking on Preview, you will now be able to see what these Content Credentials will look like. These will change as you select and deselect the options above. The Actions will update as you edit the image.
Finally, to save the image with credentials attached, head to File > Export > Export As… before selecting the relevant option from the Content Credentials (Beta) section. You can choose whether to publish the Content Credentials to the cloud or attach them to the file itself.
How to add Content Credentials in Adobe Lightroom
Adobe Lightroom users can also add Content Credentials when editing images.
The options available to the user are much the same as those described above for Photoshop users, although the process of enabling them is a little different.
To get started, head to Preferences > Technology Previews, before checking the Content Credentials (Beta) Export Options setting.
Once you have finished editing the image, click on the Share icon in the top-right-hand corner and then Export, whereupon you should see a dialog box for Content Credentials.
Here, you can choose a method of appending the credentials to the image – either to the file, stored in the Content Credentials Cloud, or both – and select the specific credentials to export.
How to view Content Credentials
Not all images have Content Credentials. You can tell whether one does by checking to see whether a Content Credentials pin is found in the corner of the frame.
For this to appear, the website itself will need to support the display of this pin within the image. This is important as not all websites do.
If you’re viewing a SmartFrame, however, this is not necessary, as the SmartFrame itself contains everything it needs to display this, regardless of where the image has been published.
Clicking on this pin brings up a panel with the basic details. These will typically include the original media, the entity that signed the images, the content’s producer, and the app or device used to create the content. It may also include connected social media accounts and edits made to the image (if any).
Exactly what’s displayed depends in part on what the content producer has enabled – either in the camera or when editing, or both – and in part on what cannot be removed, such as the use of the Firefly generative AI tool in Photoshop.
Viewing additional details
The panel described above provides a snapshot of the key information attached to the image. But it’s possible to see even more detailed information if required.
At the bottom of the Content Credentials dialog box within the image, there may be an additional link that takes you to the Content Credentials website, where the image can be verified.
This link may simply be a “Verify on ContentCredentials.org” text link or a button labeled “Inspect”.
In either case, this allows you to develop a better idea of the types of edits made to the image and to see whether multiple images were used in its creation, among other things.
It also provides you with a way to quickly confirm that the image has been signed and verified on the official ContentCredentials.org site. You may wish to do this if something about the image, the CR pin, or the site on which the image has been published seems suspicious.
For most images, key details – such as its origin, the edits made to it, and so on – are easily contained and viewed within the panel described above. But with some images – and particularly composite images – it’s not always practical to view this level of detail within this panel alone.
For this reason, some SmartFrame images with Content Credentials have an additional feature, whereby the user is able to view certain details in a full-window preview mode.
This preview mode, which occupies the full size of the window in which they are viewing the image, allows them to easily view all media associated with an image, along with edits and other details, without them needing to leave the site they are on and view these on the ContentCredentials.org website.
You can see what this looks like by clicking on the CR pin in the image above. If the image supports full-window preview, it will automatically appear in this way upon a click of the pin.
While it’s still possible to visit the ContentCredentials.org site and verify the image as when a SmartFrame image has this full-window preview mode, the user may find the level of detail they require is contained within this preview.
What does the future of Content Credentials look like?
It’s common for new technologies like Content Credentials to appear and then quietly be retired some time later. However, the strong need for it to combat various threats, combined with rapid adoption by key players, means it unlikely that it will face the same fate.
Indeed, just the past few months alone have welcomed several announcements regarding Content Credentials, as well as the C2PA standard that underpins them and the Content Authenticity Initiative, from major platforms.
In February, Google announced that it was to join the C2PA as a steering committee member.
The following month, the BBC – one of the founding members of the C2PA – published its first piece of content that made use of C2PA tools.
This was followed by an announcement from TikTok that it would join the Content Authenticity Initiative and adopt Content Credentials for AI-generated content on its platform. Most recently, LinkedIn added support for images with Content Credentials.
With Meta also currently building tools to identify C2PA metadata in images posted on Facebook, Instagram and Threads, it seems certain that Content Credentials and related technologies will only grow more prominent over the coming years.
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