Public Baby/Children shots

dvdmon

I hope this is the right forum for this, if not, mods, please move to the appropriate forum.

For the last 6 years I've been posting my digital photos online, including those from parties, family gatherings, etc. I never thought about whether my subjects would want images of themselves (or their kids) online, but since our daughter was born 11 months ago, I've kept just about all the images of her in private galleries, linked only via emails and a private blog. Obviously this is hypocritical and so I want to make fix this and have a more consistant policy. My wife has a child/family portrait business and puts pictures of her clients on her website with their express permission. Should I go back and contact all the people I've photographed to ask their permission? I probably have hundreds of different people, including many I don't know and/or know how to contact about said permission. What about posting pictures of my own child? I know many people do this and have no problem with it, but I somehow got the sense their might be some vague security issue doing this. I don't want to be paranoid, but I want to know specifically why I should avoid making these photos public rather than just doing it out of some vague feeling that this would make us "safer." Anyway, any thoughts would be appreciated.

mcgil

I'm a bit in the same situation, taking photos at events I attend and parties, work, ... and I protect everything to not have to embarass anyone.

It's also nice to tell people when you shoot them that the photos will be online but password protected.

DodgeV83

I don't think there are any laws forcing you to ask them permission before posting the pics to your (insert online photo-sharing site here) *As long as your not making any money on the pictures!*

If your not selling the pictures, which I'm sure you aren't, then you'll be fine.

dvdmon

I realize there are no laws prohibiting this, or at least none I know of. But that doesn't mean that it might not be completely ethical. I know millions of people take pictures and post them online with no security and they don't ask their subjects for permission. But because "everyone does it" does that make it right? What's the thinking on this? I don't have the answer myself, but thought that some people might have strong opinions which would help me hone in on one of my own

The other issue, that of children and babies, gets a bit more complicated, since they are minors and have different rights and safeguards against them than do adults. It's one thing if it's your own child, since you can legally determine what you want to do, but not with children who aren't your own...

JMichael

While people do have pictures of themselves from parties, especially college age people with friends that have FaceBook and Flickr accounts and such, that doesn't help you much.

If any of the people in the picture took you to court over the photos you posted on the web you'd probably find yourself losing hard on two counts: no consent from the subject and you took the photos in a setting where the person had a reasonable expection of privacy (a private gathering.) That of course doesn't even take into account the whole "subject is a minor" issues.

I'd recommend starting your reading here:
http://photography.about.com/od/legalissues/

You can search google for "photographer legal issues" or a variation there of and find tons of information.

peestandingup

Read this.

dogwood

releases are your best friend
Yeah, I know they're no help to you now. But in the future, you should always try to get one signed.

I even get my family to sign a releases when I photograph them these days.

What about a party situation? Well-- it's tough but ideally you'll have some releases with you and if you get a good shot, pull it one out and ask for a signature. Most people are flattered. The local newspaper photographers do this too-- even though their photos are considered editorial and they don't need releases. Never hurts to cover yourself. I have both long and short form releases in my camera bag-- I use the short ones to be a little less intimidating and explain that I plan to use the photos on my website.

The best part about releases, though, is that then you can legally turn around and sell prints (for profit) to the parents of the children you photographed!

jfriend

Password protected galleries works for me
I take a ton of pictures of various events of school age kids (school talent shows, kids soccer games, kids softball games, school fund raising events, etc...) and I post all of them online in password protected galleries. These are all public events where nobody would have a reasonable expectation of privacy.

The school is OK with this as long as the galleries are password protected. In nearly three years of doing this and several thousand pictures of other people's kids posted online, I've never had a parent object. I think the key is that these galleries are only available to the other parents in our community (via password protection) not to the internet at large.

In fact, since I do this for free and I typically get better pictures of their kids in these events than they have themselves, I get tons of thanks from the parents.

If I ever did have a parent object (something which has never happened), I'd ask them to just tell me which pictures they were concerned about and I'd probably remove them right away. While I'm fairly confident I'm in my legal right to post them, I'm more interested in being compatible with our community than forcing legal rights when it bothers someone.