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Taking photos of strangers
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When is it ok to take photographs of strangers in a public place?
When should I ask permission for it? -
Since I do not know what country you're from I cannot tell you exactly what rules and laws apply to taking pictures of random people. I myself am from the Netherlands and as I understand we pretty much have the same rules on the subject as the US.
In general it's ok to take pictures of people or including people when they are in public places as long as the picture is not used for monetary gain and is not intruding their privacy. (e.g. people shopping in the mall or holding hands in the park would probably be ok.) This offcourse is the legal side of the story. If people ask you not to take pictures of them you are not legally obliged to erase any taken pictures, but courteous as you are you might consider erasing them.
When you take pictures including a number of people (a crowd for example) don't worry about it! Youd don't need to ask permission from everyone ;) When you take pictures of a single person or a couple however you might consider to ask for permission (do so after taking the shot as asking up front will ruin the atmosphere!) You can even offer to take their email and send them a copy of the shot!
More on the legal side of photographing people can be found here: (chapter 3)
http://www.wipo.int/sme/en/documents/ip_photography.htm#3.4
I hope this answers your question, and otherwise please ask. -
http://photo.net/street-documentary-photography-forum/003XwF?start=0 will give an idea of how people handle street in the US. Some good advice to be found even if outside the US.
Main thing is to overcome any personal shyness while avoiding rudeness. In public places it's legal but whether any particular shot is "OK" or not is up to you, (you may be told ... !).
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most interesting, I wish I had more nerve in taking photos of strangers, I have seen some shots that would have made a fabulous photo but always wary in case they don't like it! and as for taking pictures of young children, that seems to be a no no these days :(
Dog owners don't tend to mind if you want to take a picture of their dog, pity I'm not that in to dogs :) -
not all strangers are friendly, not all are happy to be taken pictures of themselves in awkward moments, so judge it yourself. asians are typically camera shy and are very sensitive to people taking pictures of themselves. ofcoz it'd be tonnes easier having a telephoto superzoom, but then you wouldn't be using the s95 anymore ;)
anyway, if you love street shooting, come join this group!
http://www.flickr.com/groups/1550670@N23/ -
Apparently you have to be careful when taking pics of strangers here:
http://dsphotographic.com/2007/05/like-street-photography-forget-quebec/
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