Model Consent - Walking about London...

TheNissanMan

TheNissanMan

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Ryan
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Quick question for those in the know as I'm feeling dim!

I understand that when I am shooting at somewhere private like a zoo and take a photo with a recognisable face in the shot they expect a model consent form to be filled out before they will use the shot for publicity.

If I was walking around London and took some shots where people were recognisable but didn't know them from adam would a model consent form be required to post the photo somewhere like alamy where the image could be sold for commercial gain or is it not required in the UK as your on public property?
 
I think you would only need a model release form only if you were using them for say,advertising something,or to promote something.

Say you were press,and you took some shots of a demo,or an event and they appear in a paper,you would not.

To be honsent their not a big market,for street shots even the greats had a hard time making a living from their street work :)
 
Thanks for the repsonse, not looking to make a living from photography but handy to keep in mind :)
 
simonblue said:
I think you would only need a model release form only if you were using them for say,advertising something,or to promote something.

Say you were press,and you took some shots of a demo,or an event and they appear in a paper,you would not.

To be honsent their not a big market,for street shots even the greats had a hard time making a living from their street work :)
Click to expand...

To put it different words, any photographs featuring identifiable people (famous or not) and without model release can be only used for editorial, ie. news.
 
daugirdas said:
To put it different words, any photographs featuring identifiable people (famous or not) and without model release can be only used for editorial, ie. news.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the easy to understand response :)
 
I'm not sure if I'm missing something here but my understanding that, for UK use, no model-release is required by law. Are you referring to being required by specific agencies or companies - if so then I would think that the company would be the place to get the answer to the question.

I've just taken a quick look a Alamy website - their contract states:

1.4 Under this contract you must

1.4.1 Be the Copyright owner of the Images or have authority from the Copyright owner to enter into the Contract.
1.4.2 Grant the Customer the right to alter Images providing such alteration is not pornographic, defamatory or otherwise unlawful and you undertake that the person who created the Image has waived all moral rights in respect of use of the Image by Alamy, its Customers or any other third parties.
1.4.3 Ensure all Metadata is factually correct and keep it up to date.
1.4.4 Ensure that where you have indicated that a Model or Property release exists, you are able to make the release(s) available to Alamy if so requested.
​

Also from their website:

Releases

A release is a written agreement between you and the person you are photographing, or the person who owns the property you are photographing, which gives you permission to sell the image commercially. If the image is used in an advertisment or promotion it will need a release, but you can sell an image for “Editorial use” even if it doesn’t have a release.

Commercial use
is when an image is used to advertise, promote, sell or endorse a product, service, organisation or brand. Examples include billboards and print advertising.

Editorial use
is when an image is used in conjunction with, and to illustrate, a story or descriptive piece of text. Examples include magazine or newspaper features and books.

A model release
says the person being photographed has given consent to be photographed and to the use of the images you capture. It doesn’t just apply to professional models or situations where people know they are posing for photos. You should seek to get a signed model release any time that your photos contain images of people, unless you are certain that you will never want to use them for anything other than editorial purposes.

A property release
says that the owner of a certain property, such as a pet or a building, has given you consent to take and use images of the property. You don’t need one for public property, such as government buildings (although you may run into problems just from photographing them, for security reasons). But for images of private property — and particularly of objects that are closely identified with specific people — you are safer if you get a release.

The releases you obtain should be saved forever and should be linked in some way with the photographs to which they relate. You can expect to be asked to produce them whenever you license an image, and you will need them if you ever have to defend yourself in court.

Some definitions courtesy of American Society of Media Photographers.​

Why you need releases for people and property

To maximise the potential to sell your images for “Commercial use”.
To sell your images Royalty Free.
If a person can recognise themselves in an image. Examples when you need a model release also include, crowd scenes, team sports, and scenarios when the face is not visible such as parts of the body, or silhouettes. For a picture of two people shaking hands, where only the hands are in shot, you need two model releases.

Remember, if you don’t have a release for certain content, you can sell it as Rights Managed (RM) and set restrictions to “Editorial use only“.​

They also have UK telephone numbers and other contact details for making enquiries (link)
 
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