5 replies to this topic

[Brandonador]

Hello,

I wanted to know if it was OK to take pictures of people, withought them knowing, like in public. Like.. if I seen someone doing a cool move with a bike for example.. and I posted it online in my portfolio, could I get in trouble? Or would I HAVE to tell them I just took a photo of them?

[Donna]

Ask them otherwise it can come back and haunt you if your making any kind of income from the site, most stock image sites ask you provide written permission if models, babies etc are used.

I know a lot of famous buildings cannot be used, there`s a site that explains this well but can`t think of it atm so as soon as I find it will post for you.

[xXx-Treme]

well In my opinion it is regulated by laws which differ amongst contires.
But I might be wrong, in which case we should look at ethics. Before I make my statements i must say that this is only my subjective opinion which may not be right by laws.
Anyway, we have a word:"Public place" in where you can do whatever you want to do as long as it not against the law and doesn't go in conflict with ethics. Each and every one of us has some kind of a view of what is right, in most cases it is common to everyone of us with small differences (eg. subjective opinion of what is too loud and what is not). Well as you asked about shooting in public place, then you can do this, if you're not disturbing other (including the subject) with your actions.
Now another thing that counts is the reason of shooting. If you take your photo for a normal purpose, eg for private collection or publishing on you portfolio, maybe even for selling that for someone to hang on a wall it should not be any trouble. Now if you take your shot, and someone buys usage rights from you and then hang it on some porn site or include it in some commercials - well whatever people consider not good, then it might be a problem. So before you trigger the shutter, you should know what happens to the result, and accordung to that youo should make your decison if you need to ask for premission.

Anyway, it is always good to ask for premission even if you use the photo for yourself. Well but what makes trouble is that if you ask for a premission, then the subject may start posing for the camera. What I suggest to do then is to take the shot at first, then walk down the subject, introduce yourself and tell him/her that you have taken a shot of him/her and ask if it is ok for him/her that you use that photo for X purposes.


Reason for editing: Fixed some spelling mistakes

Edited by xXx-Treme, 05 April 2008 - 06:28 AM.

[iwz]

It all depends, taking pictures of publi, for example in a street scene with 20-50 people is ok. But taking a picture of a guy on a bike in which he is clearly identifiable you will need to get him to sign a 'Model Release'. I'm in the middle of writing an article about this for my blog.

I do not claim the information above to be fully correct and accept no responsibility for any consequences against you for following what i have said. This is just what i believe is correct.

[xXx-Treme]

iwz, on Apr 5 2008, 05:49 PM, said:

But taking a picture of a guy on a bike in which he is clearly identifiable you will need to get him to sign a 'Model Release'

iwz, just a question, is this defined by law in UK?

I am asking cause I'm interested in this "problem"

[iwz]

I believe it is, i know for a fact that a stock image website like istockphoto will not accept a picture with an identifiable model in it without a model release.

Again, this is just my interpretation, I accept no responisibilty for anything said above, it's just stuff i've read on the net.