Signed Releases .. Then and Now

Ok, so you're strolling around with your snappy dSLR + Walkaround Lens and you shoot a nice scene of someone having coffee at an outdoor cafe.

Chimping the shot reveals you completely missed it. Blown highlights, OOF and poorly framed. Not worth bothering the subject over a missed opportunity so you just delete it and move on.

A little ways down the street, you get a shot of a man in a suit buying a magazine at a newstand and it's perfect for micro-stock. Chimping this one shows a solid histogram and your LCD confirms there's a good chance the focus is spot on as well. You saunter over to your subject, show them the image on your camera, offer them a 5x7 and ask them if they'd sign a release etc, etc, etc...

Now rewind 30 years and you're doing the exact same exercise with a film body.

Question: Everything else being equal, since "back in the day" you didn't have the luxury of reviewing the shot on an LCD, did you just have everyone you shot sign a release against the possibility that you nailed one or two?

1. Got some extra time on your hands today, Jay?
2. Re: "against the possibility that you nailed one or two?" I always nailed it!
3. Otherwise, it was pretty much the same as today. For editorial work &/or a company publication, I wouldn't bother unless it was something I thought I might use for a sample.

now...then...what about future?
The subject could just put his/her fingerprint (encrypted of course) on your smart phone digital release.

If they are in public, what do you need a release for?

Dunedan wrote in post #9002017
If they are in public, what do you need a release for?

If you are shooting for commercial purposes (other than editorial) and if the person is recognisable in the photo, they can ask you to remove it from circulation IIRC.

I wasn't even alive 30yrs ago, but I would think that signed releases and such would have have been as big a deal as they are today. If you were to take someone's picture and post it online one way or another, someone would come across it and tag them on facebook, next thing you got 300 people looking at it. 30yrs ago if someone's picture was posted in a book or magazine they might never even know about it.

And what about publications such as Nat Geographic etc. that has pictures of people in "developing" countries, you think they have model releases for them (when they don't even know how to read or write)?

I don't see the future being any less complicated then it is now..

And what about publications such as Nat Geographic etc. that has pictures of people in "developing" countries, you think they have model releases for them (when they don't even know how to read or write)?

Nat Geo's "out" is that they are definitely an editorial user. But you do have to have model releases even of rural villagers in developing nations if you intend to use them commercially. You never know whose brother-in-law is a lawyer in the US or England.