What happens to a C2PA-signed photograph after it leaves the camera and enters a fast-moving editorial workflow?
At the online IPTC Photo Metadata Conference 2026 on 3 September, our president and founder, Dennis Walker, answered that question live as part of “Metadata Safari: standards in the wild.” This is part of our ongoing work to bring C2PA content authenticity features to Photo Mechanic®.
Using Photo Mechanic, Dennis ingested C2PA-signed photographs transmitted from C2PA-enabled Sony cameras, quickly culled and edited their IPTC metadata, and delivered selected images, all during his ten-minute demonstration.
Update: Here is video from the conference. Dennis’s section starts about 12 minutes in
“I want to recreate the pressure of a real event workflow, with photographs arriving from multiple cameras while the event is still happening,” Dennis said before the event. “The aim is to get from capture to a delivered, verifiable photograph in just a few minutes.”
The demonstration shows Camera Bits’ patent-pending Provenance Locker™ technology in action. It enables metadata changes to be applied without losing the original camera photograph’s provenance, allowing that original to serve as a parent ingredient when the edited image is subsequently signed.
“My working folder may contain only modified versions of the photographs, but Photo Mechanic can still maintain their full provenance,” Dennis explained. “C2PA is integrated throughout Photo Mechanic’s output workflow, not just bolted on”
Dennis also demonstrated validation and briefly showed how an IMATAG watermark can be added. The result promises to be an ambitious, real-world test of how standards can support speed, metadata quality and authenticity at the same time.
The free, online IPTC Photo Metadata Conference ran from 15:00 to 18:00 UTC on Thursday, 3 September 2026. See the event details.