Why I gave up on Content Credentials, even though I believe in it (and you should too)

When Leica first introduced Content Credentials on the Leica M11-P, I was optimistic. As a photographer who’s spent decades in the field and now shares work regularly on social media – both digital images and high-resolution film scans – the idea of embedding a digital signature to verify authenticity was appealing.

I saw it as a potential answer to a growing issue: how to keep track of my images once they’re released into the wild. With AI-generated images muddying the waters of visual truth, a method to say “yes, this is mine” felt not only smart but necessary.

So, I gave it a go. Despite not owning a M11-P, and with Nikon rumored to be testing similar capabilities, I decided to do it manually. I began embedding Content Credentials through Adobe Lightroom for each image I wanted to share.

It didn’t take long for the cracks to show. What started as a well-intentioned experiment quickly became a frustrating mess of tick boxes, metadata juggling and export settings that felt more like a compliance exercise than a creative workflow.

The entire process was, frankly, laborious. For every film scan or digital file I prepared, I had to enter or check off data line by line – EXIF, editing steps and rights information – just to get a basic set of credentials onto an image.

There was no batch option and no elegant shortcut. Just repetition. It made sharing a single image feel like preparing a legal document. For a working photographer, that’s simply not sustainable.

What disappoints me most is that the core idea behind Content Credentials is important. In a world where manipulated imagery can undermine public trust and photojournalism alike, we need tools that confirm visual integrity.

Authenticity should be the bedrock of documentary and reportage photography. But any system designed to support that integrity has to support the photographer, too – not bog them down with a clunky, bureaucratic interface.

The implementation, at least in my experience, feels like a system designed without the everyday photographer in mind. If it’s going to work, Content Credentials must be streamlined. We need a simple ‘select all and apply’ approach – something that doesn’t interrupt the creative flow or demand extra time we don’t have.

Until that happens, I won’t be using it again. Not because I don’t believe in what it stands for, but because I refuse to let it stand in the way of doing what I do best: making images and getting them out into the world.

For now, my images will remain untagged and open, as they always have been. I still believe in honesty, in authorship and in holding the line against fakery.

But we need tools that empower, not obstruct. The moment Content Credentials become invisible in the workflow is the moment they’ll start to matter.

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