Ethics in Photography Survey for Scout-It-Out Photographer Workshop

Ethics are principles reflecting the values of a society- guidelines for its members to treat each other fairly according to accepted ideals. Within a group, ethics may be broadly accepted, but issues arise that require thought and discussion. The following scenarios pose some of these issues.

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* 1. - A photographer happens to be at a place at the exact moment a horrific accident occurs and is the only person present to capture the event on his camera. A news company, eager to use the images for broadcast, offers the photographer $500,000 for the images. Is it ethically wrong for the photographer to accept the large sum, because it would mean he was profiting from an awful tragedy?

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* 2. -Pictures were taken by a photographer at a tragic event and the bodies of injured and dying people were captured. The photographer received a large sum of money for these photos of the dead and dying people, while the families of the victims did not share in the money. Is it ethically wrong for the photographer to accept the large sum of money from photos of other people affected by the tragedy?

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* 3. -Pictures taken at the scene of a tragedy are broadcast and printed in the news media without permission from the victims or victims’ family members. Is it ethically wrong for pictures of people involved in a news- worthy event to be printed without permission?

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* 4. - A nature photographer wants to capture a picture of a wolf and sets out food to lure the wolf into an area where she can capture the picture easily. Is it ethically wrong to do this?

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* 5. - A photographer stages a boy with a weapon that the photographer provided outside of a store in order to create a photograph to sell to newspapers and media outlets. Is it ethically wrong to stage a photo to sell as news?

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* 6. - A photographer notices another photographer’s picture of a building at an unusual angle, but thinks they can improve upon the picture and change the lighting and use different equipment to capture the same unusual angle. The photographer justifies this by saying that the building is there for anyone to take pictures of and their picture is not exactly the same. Is this plagiarism and ethically wrong?

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* 7. - An architectural photographer digitally edits out a distracting street sign and streetlamps from an image of a new building intended to publicize the structure in an architectural magazine. Is editing like this ethically wrong?

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* 8. - A model poses for a picture to be used in a fashion magazine. Editors adjust her image by removing a scar, adding more eyelashes, and making her look more thin. Is editing like this ethically wrong?

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* 9. - An advertising photographer is taking photos of a person all in one day. One photo is left as is, but placed beside an edited photo where the person’s image is thinned and muscles added. These side by side images are used to advertise a weight loss pill as a “before” and “after use” testimony. Is this ethically wrong?

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* 10. - You are on vacation at a beautiful national part, but it rains the entire time you are there and all of your pictures are of dull gray skies and show little contrast in the scenery. A park employee offers to text/email you pictures they took recently of the same scenery you witnesses but on sunny days. You decide to use the employees pictures in your photo album of your vacation. Is this ethically wrong?

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