#5 “I just think it's important to be direct and honest with people about why you're photographing them and what you're doing. After all, you are taking some of their soul.” ~Mary Ellen Mark
. I think to a point being direct and honest with someone that you're photographing is important. For instance, you shouldn't take a photograph of someone and say that it's for your own use and you are the only one who will see it, and then post it all over the internet. I think it's important to have the consent of the person you are photographing to use their image how ever you actually plan to use it. It's also important to be honest about how the person will be conveyed. For instance, there could be an issue if you took a photograph of a girl without makeup for "test shots", then had her put makeup on for the "real photos", then used the photographs without makeup without her knowledge. However, if someone is trying to make some sort of statement and they think it would be better that the subject not know exactly why or when the photo is being taken, I think it's fine. For instance, many of the greatest photographs have been taken of people when they don't know they are being photographed. I once read something about it taking at least 6 minutes for most people to act naturally when they know someone is taking a picture of them, so if a photographer wants to get someone in their own environment, it might turn out better if the photographer does not ask for their permission. Obviously this is to the discretion of the photographer, and they should know that by not being completely honest with someone about what they are doing, it could cause problems.
#6 I think as long as the person being photographed know what will be done with the pictures, it is always ok to digitally alter photographs. For instance, if you took a picture of a person that hated Obama, and you went in and added a picture of Obama with his arm around them, that might not be ethical. However, if you explain to the person what you will be doing (even just changing colors) I think that any altering of the image would be fine.
#7 In a given day, I can think of a lot of examples where I see portraits. Examples such as facebook pictures, advertisements, wedding pictures, mugshots on the news, posters people have in their houses and apartments, etc. With each photograph, I feel that the photographer was trying to express something differently. In facebook pictures, most people are just trying to capture themselves in a good, funny, or interesting way to show their friends. In advertisements, photographers are trying to help sell something. In wedding pictures, photographers are trying to take the best photographs of the people involved with the wedding so that those people can look back and remember how good they looked and how special the day was. In mugshots, photographers are trying to get an image that distinctly shows what someone looks like so that the public will know what they've done, almost to make a spectacle of them, or even to tell the public to keep a look out for the person. In most peoples houses and apartments, I've seen a lot of posters of famous people, where the photographer is trying to capture the star in a certain way either to sell the photograph or to sell the person posing. Portraits are definitely a huge part of photography, and of our world.
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