Crowds

[Shadowman]

Crowds:a large number of people gathered together, typically in a disorganized or unruly way.

Taken from Oxford dictionary.

The purpose of this thread stemmed from perusing a stock photography websites rules for submitting photographs of people. Basically, 99% of any photograph you submit to them needs a model release. Of course there are exceptions and photographs of crowds was one of them; yet there were stipulations. One of the situations where a model release wouldn't be required would be if no one person wasn't singled out or could be construed as the center of focus or intended subject. The stock agency, iStockphoto's complete set of rules can be found here.
http://www.istockphoto.com/article_view.php?ID=648

I've decide to post a few of my images of crowd shots and hope you could serve as iStockphoto editors and see if you can determine if there is an intended subject. Hope members of the forum will post their own shots. I'm hoping this exercise will reveal or conceal something about ourselves and also give each of us some insight into what others think of our works. Both of these are edited for some aesthetics, a slight rotation, exposure compensation, and only a slight crop. I think our editing methods might also reveal something about us regarding intended subject so do so (edit) with some reservation.

A


B

Just to reiterate the purpose of this thread.

1. Do you detect a specific subject, is any one or more person possibly the center of interest?
2. Would a model release be required for the image?

[Jimr1961]

#1, I think obviously the two women are the center of interest, but without faces, I'd say no release required
#2, I think obviously the young man in blue sticks out as the center of interest, but his identity is obscured by hat, glasses and profile, therefore no release required. In fact, everyone else who have become just part of the crowd are more easily identifiable.

Now, I'll temper my opinion with the fact that I know absolutely nothing about model releases. Just my SWAG ;-)

[Shadowman]

#1, I think obviously the two women are the center of interest, but without faces, I'd say no release required
#2, I think obviously the young man in blue sticks out as the center of interest, but his identity is obscured by hat, glasses and profile, therefore no release required. In fact, everyone else who have become just part of the crowd are more easily identifiable.

Now, I'll temper my opinion with the fact that I know absolutely nothing about model releases. Just my SWAG ;-)

Hi Jim,

Based on iStock's criteria and your opinion I'd still need a release for the first photo, perhaps not so much on the second. Interestingly enough, personally neither were my intended subject; in the first it was the light that attracted my attention, the ladies just happened to be in that particular position when I captured the image. In the second, it was the overall crowd and their point of interest, they were positioned on a city street in Toronto and the singing group New Direction was about to make an appearance.