Photography at your event

Playday is a great opportunity to make some great memories and take some fantastic action-packed photographs!

 

Stage a photo call

Having lots of good-quality photos increases your chances of getting publicity for your Playday event. Try staging a photo call with a group of Playday participants and a local VIP (such as a mayor, MP or sports/TV celebrity) and ask your local newspaper to send a photographer. If local media is unable to attend, make sure you take plenty of your own Playday photos and email the best ones over to their offices before the day ends. Photographs taken with a high-resolution, digital camera usually turn out best.


Send us your Playday images

The Playday gallery is now online featuring images from Playday 2007. We’d appreciate it if you’d send us your photos for the Playday 2008 gallery.

We are also looking for images for Playday materials such as Get organised! 2009, posters, postcards, publications and the Playday website.  

We cannot publish images of children unless we have written confirmation from you that permission has been given for the children and young people featured in photographs. Where this is not possible (for example crowd shots at large public events) we may be able to use the photographs but would need written confirmation from you that the guidelines below have been followed.


Photo consent

You should take child protection guidance and the Data Protection Act 1998 into account when allowing photographs to be taken at your event.

 

Close up photographs
Parental consent should be obtained for close up photographs that are published featuring anyone under 18 years old. When taking close up images at your events, ensure that the subjects are aware of the purpose(s) for using the photographs and that the photographs may be published in the media, and in future promotional materials (including Playday materials produced nationally). For this purpose we recommend using a photo consent form.

If any of the subjects object to the photograph being taken, do not take the photograph. If anyone objects afterwards, make a note of this and inform the event organiser and delete the image if possible.

 

Crowd shots
Wherever possible, seek parental consent for photographs featuring children and young people attending your event, as well as obtaining consent from the subjects themselves.

If consent cannot reasonably be sought because the photographs are taken in a crowd or public place and if you can answer `yes' to the following questions, it would be reasonable to take the photographs without fear of being in breach of the Data Protection Act 1998.

· Would people attending the event expect photographs to be taken?
· Would people in the photograph probably consider themselves to be in a public place, with no expectation of privacy?


Consent form

You may wish to use this sample Playday photo consent form.

For a generic sample consent form and more information about what event organisers need to be aware of when taking photographs of children and young people, visit the NSPCC website at www.nspcc.org.uk. Your local authority may also have further guidance. You can find more advice from the Information Commissioner’s Office, visit www.ico.gov.uk


Photography notification signage
To ensure data protection at large events with crowds, where it is not possible to give those in the photographs a data protection/photo consent slip, signs can be displayed, which enable those who wish not to be photographed to make this known to the event organisers.

Notification that photographs will be taken can also be made by announcements at the event and including information in pre-event publicity, for example, leaflets/adverts/posters.

You may wish to use or amend this sample sign.


Top tips

  • Create a simple consent form stating what the event is and what the photographs are likely to be used for.
  • Include space for the child’s name and the parents or guardian’s signature, printed name, contact details and date of signing.
  • Make sure you tell any photographer which children and young people you do not have permission to photograph. Stickers can be used as fun way to easily identify children.
  • Include a note within the general event publicity explaining that photographs will be taken at the event that may be published. 
  • Display signs prominently at your event, stating that attendees may appear in photographs taken on the organiser’s behalf for publicity purposes.
  • When publishing photographs of children and young people, avoid captions that reveal personal details.
  • Obtain parental consent ahead of your event by arranging a group of children and young people who are happy to be photographed. You could work in partnership with a local children’s group who will be attending the event.
  • If you have commissioned an official photographer, ensure that they guarantee to comply with the Data Protection Act 1998. Also consider providing them with an assistant so that they can obtain photographic consent from parents/guardians/the subject throughout the event.
  • Remember, photos taken purely for personal use are exempt from the Data Protection Act 1998, so it is fine to let people take photographs of their children and friends.
  • The press are exempt from the Data Protection Act 1998, but they have to consider parental wishes if you allow them to take photographs from which a child can be identified.