Photography law

adam_mckenna · Jan 23, 2005

Hi

I am new to the site, i was just wondering one thing. If me and my girlfriend took photographs on a throaway one use camera while drunk of us "doing things" together in bed (none of which was illegal by the way), would it be illegal, or could i get done for anything if i handed them in to get developed?

Thanks for your help on this rather obscure and wierd question! Sorry if i have offended anyone, i didnt mean to

Adam

loopy · Jan 23, 2005

I know the photolab at the store I used to work with developed some pretty questional photos .

I think it all depends on the person who is developing. Some don't care, while others may be offended. Some stores may have different policies on the subject considering minors may be developing your shots.

My advice is ask before you hand them in and next time use a polaroid.

adam_mckenna · Jan 23, 2005

Yeah, cool, thanks for you help.

So it isnt illegal to develop them?

Thanks

loopy · Jan 23, 2005

As far as I know, it isn't.

Although, if a minor is developing it might be a different story.

I do not know for sure.

But there is no harm in asking before hand.

walter23 · Jan 23, 2005

If you live in Jesusland, I'd be careful. At least make sure there aren't any children (in other pictures of course) on the roll.

http://www.dallasobserver.com/issues/2003-04-17/feature2.html/1/index.html

Boobs evil, war good, praisethelordfreedomAmen.

At least stay away from the big chains like walmart.

wxnut · Jan 23, 2005

Bring them to a real lab to get done. Dept store type labs (Wal-mart) will destroy the film. There labs are in view of customers so they will not do it.

walter23 · Jan 23, 2005

wxnut said:
Bring them to a real lab to get done. Dept store type labs (Wal-mart) will destroy the film. There labs are in view of customers so they will not do it.

They destroy the film?? I thought they just refused to print it.

walter23 · Jan 23, 2005

Oops, I posted the wrong link up there.. this was the one I meant:

http://www.dallasobserver.com/issues/2003-04-17/feature2.html/1/index.html

photong · Jan 23, 2005

There are some labs that will (I don't know the words for it. Like camera shops that are not to known, maybe a pawn shope or electronics store has a mini lab might, or so I heard of one or two in my city.)

I know I would be offended. I dont know about law but what I know form working for black's photography is that if I don't want to print them I dont have to. i can get someone else to do it or just ot do it. i personally would just get someone else though.

an old friend did some and his sister (not knowingly) brough it to black's and they told him never to do it again (or never come back to the store for processing again?). *shrugs*

p.s. obviously if it was illigal stuff you were taking pictures of they cannot print it and have to report it to the police etc.

some labs honestly dont look at the pictures, they might just go through it and not bother correcting anything because they dont care

but working for blak'c photo i had to fix images so I HAD to look at them.

Corry · Jan 23, 2005

Walgreens used to print amost everything, though if there was anything that looked like it was child porn, it had to be immediately reported to the police. They've recently implemented a no porn policy, so we can't print anything sexual. And I believe it is illeagal to destroy the film, because technically that is the customers film, so we'd be destroying someone else's property.

But here's my question...WHY would you want photographic proof of you doing something illeagal?

oriecat · Jan 23, 2005

core_17 said:
But here's my question...WHY would you want photographic proof of you doing something illeagal?

He said they weren't doing anything illegal.

Corry · Jan 23, 2005

oriecat said:
He said they weren't doing anything illegal.

Whoops... I misread...thought it said ONE of which was illeagal...not non of which!

sbalsama · Jan 23, 2005

Go digital.

AIRIC · Jan 23, 2005

I've worked for labs for 10 years and the it is always good to ask before you hand them the film. As long as they know a head of time they can refuse or worn the printer about the content. With most of the places I have worked the policy is we print as long as there is no sexual contact. If there is contact we would hand the developed roll back to the customer saying we can't pint these images. They can take the film somewhere else to have the prints made. Twice I have notifed my superior about the content on customer rolls and once we called the police to investigate as we thought a minor was invloved. We were wrong but at least could sleep at night. As a printer I have seen many things that should have been shot with polaroid or digital

As a side note, if you are going to shoot a person mooning don't use the flash! It lights up everything

Eric

ksmattfish · Jan 23, 2005

Laws vary from place to place. In the USA each state has it's own definition of obscene, for that matter so do the people owning and working at the labs. Just call and ask first. You'll probably have better luck at a pro lab than a chain store.