UK Model Releases - when do I need one and when do I not?

[ted_smith]

I am hopelessly confused about 'Model Releases'. I started a thread at photo.net some time ago when I used that forum more (before I joined APUG) and to be honest, the replies just made it worse.

I am reading the book 'Photos That Sell' by Lee Frost, and one of the image types he always refers to, and which his 'Experts Review' pro photographers also mention is candid shots of local people when you are travelling about. So when I was in Cornwall just this last week, there were several occasions when I was going to try and snap a local Cornish fisherman using my B & W Agfapan film. And also a pasty maker!

However, as I understand it, if a person is recognuisable in a photo, you have to have a model release signed by that person in order to sell it. Figuring therefore that I couldn't use whatever image I captured of him, I figured I'd save the frame for my waterfall trip instead.

Others say that it depends on where (which country) the photo was taken.

Can anyone clarify for me, in simple terms, what the position is? If I photograph a stranger somewhere public in the UK (so not on private land), either with or without their knowledge, who can be identified by the photograph, can I sell it without a model release?

Cheers

Ted

 

[nemo999]

... as I understand it, if a person is recognisable in a photo, you have to have a model release signed by that person in order to sell it.

You are absolutely correct (in practice). You can photograph anyone you like in a public place, material will be accepted by newspapers for editorial purposes (factual presentation) without a model release, you can also exhibit and sell gallery prints without a release. Picture libraries, on the other hand, want to offer clients pictures they can use for any conceivable purpose and will thus not accept any pictures with recognisable people without a model release from every individual. The position is theoretically the same for all countries, in practice the [cynical] attitude is that third-world peasants don't know copyright law and are unlikely to have access to an attorney. The same applies to intellectual property, for example branded products or in your example a pasty-maker's distinctive window display!

 

[Gary Holliday]

Yes you can sell it. It's your photograph. The only grey area is privacy law when you perhaps misrepresent someone...taking a photograph and then selling it to a library who use it for an advert about Cornish pirates who bootleg whiskey.

 

[Steve Roberts]

For video footage in connection with my job the guideline was that if someone in a shot was looking at the camera we couldn't use the footage in the public domain.
Many a good sequence was wiped because of that. Whether it's relevant to candid still photography, I don't know.

Steve