Photography

I would, personally, prefer if the photographer has the decency to ask me if they can use my picture. It's also what i do when i photograph someone. I'll show them th epic and ask if they are ok with it.

Legality completely depends on how present and recognisable the people are and, ironically, where they live.

Depends. Yesterday I was breastfeeding in public. If someone would take a picture and I would be in it, it would make angry.

Just make people don’t look bad in the pictures like someone accidentally showing his buttcrack.

Call yourself a journalist and photograph whatever, whenever. /s

Seriously: I don't think you're doing it wrong. I'd be surprised if you sold them without some way of passing royalty to the subject, but again that's more of an ethical vs. legal thing.

If you made them look good, it's fine. That's my moral compass for street portraits. And if they were to ask me later to take it down, I would.

I find it’s better to talk to people I’m photographing, mention I’ll post them online and offer them a link to my site. But I can understand if you want more natural/unposed shits.

Could you maybe pin a message or change your profile message to state that street photography is perfectly legal but you’re happy to remove anyone’s photo if they contact you ?

I mean I took a picture of someone in the park the other day watching a skyline from a bench. Their face isn't show in the picture and it is just their silhouette. I think stuff like that you don't need consent really because they won't know it's them anyway. But if it is blatantly obvious then I would ask. It is very hard to do but I am always respectful and I always offer the picture to them if they would like it.

The hot takes of a friend who knows fuck all about photography are not really relevant. Bottom line: don’t break the law and anything else goes.

Some of the best and most lauded photography of all time is documentary in nature and takes place in public.

Just take good photos and don’t post images where the people in them don’t add something to the frame. There’s lots of people posting lackluster street photo images where the people in the frame don’t make sense or don’t serve the photo. Avoid that, because it’s creepy or wrong, but because you should only post your best work. If having a person in the photo is what makes the photo good, then go for it. In that context it’s not important that the subject be flattered either, in some instances the opposite might be what’s needed for the photo to be good. Study the greats, learn the difference between good and bad.

Now as someone who owns a small media company and has 10 photographers on staff, I’m going to say that I doubt your instagram has as much weight as you think it does on your university application. People graduate from art school with straight up objectively terrible portfolios. They apply for jobs with me all the time. So I think someone evaluating your profile for admission doesn’t have the bar set extremely high. The expectation is that you’re not super trained at this point. They are probably more concerned about judging a general interest level, if they even consider it at all.

Worry less about this and more about learning your craft technically. I feel like technical skills are wholly undervalued in fine art photo programs. I often prefer to hire people with less experience because they have less bad habits I have to train out. The best people on my team didn’t go to art school.

Depends on where you are.. in most european countries you could get in trouble for publishing dedicated images of people without their consent, if people see their image and ask for removal.

I feel as if you are giving consent when entering the public domain.

I feel as if you are giving consent when entering the public domain.

If you think of your photography as art, then it's not creepy. If it bothers you though, then I would suggest quickly asking people if it's ok that you use their image. Does it matter? No, but you might have some peace of mind, and then you have something to tell any haters.

Who cares what your friend thinks.

You really need to solidify your moral and ethical issues here. If you can't even defend your position to a friend, are you really firm enough in your beliefs to photograph people in public?

Personally I would be pretty upset if I came across a photo of myself online I never realized was taken. One thing about social media is its kinda completely ruined privacy for everyone.

Street photography for a printed portfolio is fine within limits.

Instragrams/Facebooks privacy policy is pure trash and posting someone's photo there without permission is basically giving it to Metas AI for free. Read the EULA.

Fuck AI.

Is your friend an artist who does some sort of creative work related to portraying human nature? If so, I'd lend weight to their opinion. If not, disregard, he's just speaking out of his ass.

The thing about freedom of speech is that everyone is allowed to have an opinion, but it doesn't make everyone's opinions worth a damn.

If you're gonna listen to the opinions of everybody you're never gonna do shit. You've got to have the backbone to listen to somebody and confidently reply "I understand your point of view, but I also think you don't know a damn about what you're talking about."

Not unlike people without medical qualifications having an opinion on vaccines IMHO.

"Well my frend mentioned today it was super creepy and run as I didn't have their consent."

Your friend's view is subjective. Some of the best photos in history and most important were all taken as candids technically without consent.

Your friend doesn't own your field of view; if they're in public you can take and post their photo. Imagine the ego of someone thinking they own the cityscape just because they're standing or walking in it lol.

Everyone has a different opinion on this. I'm a fan of street photography and I'm generally ok with posting it, and do so myself. Your edit hit most of the points where I'm not ok with it, such as poverty/homelessness, kids, and people in compromising situations, negative situations, or obviously private moments. Street photography to me is about documenting a specific area and period in time, and the people are part of the area and time.

If it's in public, it's legal to shoot photographs of people. Whether they like it or not.

You cannot use those photos to make money without their permission.

But if they are in public. It's public. They can't say shit about it.

Wait until you take a photo of someone in the witness protection program and they notice.

If you feel any guilt doing it, then well...

There are a ton of different ways you can show them your portfolio without it being on social media...

Personally for me it depends on the context. I do a lot of photography in political demonstrations, and during such events I consider it fair game to photograph anyone as the press is also there and no one in their right mind should expect to go there and not get photographed. So by going, they are giving their implicit consent imo, unless they specifically state otherwise to me.

That being said, photographing people on the street as they just walk by or use public infrastructure like transportation is creepy in my book. People have to go to work and out to the street, so even if they don't want to be photographed, they will be in public places and you can't assume they will agree to you photographing them. So unless they give you explicit consent or you make it so their faces isn't recognisable, I don't think it's alright, no.

TL,Dr; Photography at Public Events yes, photography of random people on the street no.

I'm in the camp of "it's ok to take the photo (unless someone objects, in that case delete it), but it's not ok to post it publicly on the internet". If you're building a portfolio for university, go ahead and do that, but it should be between you and the university and not on Instagram.

I am a Street Photographer, who does other types of photography to support my SP habit. I shoot who ever I want to, where I want to. When I want to. Always shoot Whatever you are interested in at any given moment. I find a lot of people feel the same as I do. Seek out SP’s on YouTube and look at their work. Does yours compare? Can you improve? Yes, Add emotion to your captures! Always have a wow factor in the photo’s you share! If it’s a bland or boring photo, nothing interesting? kill it when you cull your photos! As far as people who feel as your friend, Always remember you will outgrow many people in your lifetime! Let them go their own way. You do as you want and find new people to photograph with that build you up!!! Look for SP Manifesto’s on a google search read a few then research the style of the SP Photographer that wrote the one’s you found interesting!! Great Light, awesome locations, and the best SP photographer companions, keep me motivated!

The easy solution is ASK the person since you are using 25mm then you cant be more than a few meter from them.

There are tons of street photographers on youtube which does this.

Also, why do you need a public portfolio just to get into university? Just print out 20, 50 or 100 of your best pictures for the university.

What you could do if you REALLY want to appease your friends and also maybe just be cool, take a pic then go to the stranger and tell them you are building your portfolio and was just letting them know you were going to put it on instagram and ask if you can tag them. If they say yes then you are given permission. If they say they don’t want to be posted on instagram then don’t post it. Try to be like Weird Al. Because his music is Parody they are protected as free speech and does NOT need permission to make any of his music. But he never parodied a song without the original musicians blessing

This has always been a controversy. When I had that project in my first photography class I punked out by shooting subjects from being at a distance and it made me so conflicted I didn’t make any more street photos until I was in my 30s. Then I got over it on a trip to nyc and started getting some good stuff.

Street photography in public is legal in most places and most photographers won’t say there’s anything wrong with it, but I’d suggest a “don’t be an asshole” approach. If you’ve seen videos of that Japanese photographer whose name I can’t remember, who runs (literally running) right up to people and takes a shot a foot from their face then runs away… maybe that’s not for you. If somebody seems upset or tries to hide their face, maybe don’t take their photo.

Unless your friend is the judge at your trial, it doesn't matter what he or she thinks or feels. They're merely projecting. You're not doing anything creepy and don't follow some of these comments asking for permission. Leave that for the talentless youtube/tik tok influencers who are trying to get girls.

Opinions are like assholes, everyone has one.

I’ve also had people try to tell me it’s somehow wrong or immoral to take peoples pictures without permission. It’s not creepy at all. It’s Street Photography, not a spank bank.

The question is: How do you feel about shooting and viewing street photography?

If the non-permission aspect bothers you, I guess you could show your pics to the people in them and ask their permission to use them. Good luck with that though because the interesting moments you capture aren’t studio portraits.

Asking permission beforehand will ruin the spontaneity and genuine emotion of the moment 100% of the time.

Personally, I know I’m making art in the street photography genre, I’m more than ok with that. Other people’s issues are just that - their issues.

You are a horrible person for using instagram. It's a shithole

There’s this one time, I got a whole big ass lens straight in front of my face, while I’m just walking back after doing groceries carrying stuffs without a bag. That’s weird guys just blindly stopped me to take 2-3ish photo and then walked away without saying anything. Like wth just happened, I should have slapped him in face but I’m so shock…. Idk what he’s gonna do with those pictures but I’m still haunted today’s not knowing what’s he’s doing with those pictures….

Guys, at least explain and ask the people being taken, or at least show them the result before going away and randomly posting anywhere you want…

Are they exploitative and/or in poor taste? And why post them publicly if they're for a portfolio that will be submitted to a university? I'd say invest a bit of time to understand the feedback you're getting from your friends and see if it can be used constructively

It sounds to me that your friends are young and lost, do what you love, doing, making creating will save you, yelling at people that are doing something is exactly the wrong way to live a life

What should I do?

Include the pics in your portfolio to uni. Simple as that.

Your friend believing it's creepy is their problem, not yours. If what you do is legal and hurts no one, just do it. Life is too short.

If all your friends and the rest of society believes it's creepy (e.g. photographing kids at the swimming pool), then maybe you need to re-evaluate, even if it's legal. But this is not that situation.

As an individual walking out and about in the world I would prefer that you didn't photograph me without asking me first even though I'm in a public place