Legal and Ethical Considerations

There are a number of legal and ethical considerations that today’s photographer must always consider before releasing the shutter.

Legal Considerations

Some of these considerations concern safety (health and safety at work, factories act (if working in a factory environment), including chemicals (COSHH), electrical safety, amongst other safety legislation.  But with the increase of computers in the photographic process the areas of workstation and visual display equipment regulations must be followed.  

These include the subject of the photograph, which in today’s world usually means steering clear of photographing children, even at parties and school events, because of concerns over a minority of ‘people’ who’s actions in the past have brought photography into disrepute.

Often, when taking photographs for business or profit, a model release form is used to provide both the photographer and the model (or subject) with a contract concerning how the photographs can and cannot be used.

Even after the photograph has been taken the problems can start.  A recent photographic magazine, told how a photographer took a photograph of a bride at a wedding for a wedding magazine.  The editor noticed that the bride had a tattoo, which they felt would not look good in their magazine.  The tattoo was cloned out and the photograph published.  The bride later saw the magazine, and shocked that her tattoo had been cloned (or airbrushed out) complained.  The matter went further and resulted in an apology from the magazine in question and a photograph of the bride, with the tattoo, published at a later date. 

Also harassing someone for a photograph or photographing someone on private property, without permission, is against the law.

Because of terrorism even taking photographs of some buildings can lead you to being arrested !

Copyright is another very important area of law, so only using your own photographs at an exhibition or competition is very important, especially with public shows where they could have an internet presence in the shape of a web cam.

 

Ethical Considerations 

When I take photographs I like to stick to the principle that the subject of the photograph, especially when it is a person, should always been seen in the way that they would like to be portrayed.  Unfortunately, especially in the case of celebrities this is often not the case, and a photograph of a model or television star looking not at their best with a headline to suit is commonly seen in some celeb magazines.

Also in the advertising industry, companies have been up if a boast in a advertisement is misleading.  An example of this was the Whiskers cat food advert where they boasted that 8 of 10 cats preferred Whiskers.  After the advertisers watchdog became involved this was changed to 8 out of 10 cats who expressed a preference preferred Whiskers.

(The other two cats preferred to have a shave ;-))  )

The drinks industry has acted to prevent any repeat of the advertising ban of tobacco products by adding a small line to the bottom of all adverts, prompting customers to ‘drink responsibly’.