Can I use the photos I take?
The other day, I received a question from one of my readers: “As an employee, if I took photos of the factory I work in, can I use them or publish them on a web-site?”
The answer depends on a lot of different things, but the short version of the answer would be “Maybe, but not without asking first”
In some circumstances, the place you work may be working on top secret things: If you work in a printers’ house, for example, and you happen to publish photos in which the front page of a big-name magazine is visible – even in the background, this could cause problems.
Your job contract may have something in it about disclosure, and you may be prohibited from taking photos, or publishing them, by a tiny little sub clause in the contract.
In practice, you are on private land, and would have to seek permission from the land owner to take photos and to publish them. Without going into too much detail, I would probably say that sticking to what your rights are and what the law says isn’t sufficient in this case:
Most importantly, your job is important to you, so you will definitely not want to do anything to incur the wrath of your employers. Even if your photos are not showing any industral secrets or anything, it may be that the machines that work in your factory are quite special, and that the engineering solutions that went into setting them up are industry secrets – even though you may have seen them every day for ten years, it may be just the kind of information your competitors are looking for!
Basically, I would say that you should go to your line manager. Tell them your intent, and suggest that they get to see a print of all the photos you take before you publish them. Even if you have a clause in your work contract that prohibits you from taking photos, your line manager may think it’s a brilliant idea and let you take the photos anyway. In addition, having shown the photos to the management before anything happens means you can always just shrug and say that you did clear it with them before publishing anything.
Let us know how it goes!
My day job, if it can be called that, is being a writer. I've got one book out there so far and it's awesome, so go ahead and buy a copy! It's available from 
In front of you, five hyperactive men with guitars, drums, and microphones. Behind you, five thousand fans. In your hands, a camera... You're going to need more than just a little bit of good luck to pull this one off. That's where this book comes in.
Take a Canon EOS 450D. Attach a Canon 50mm f/1.4 lens. Hit the streets of London. See what happens.
Insights, suggestions and comments
We have a ‘no photography’ clause in our contracts. It’s known that I always carry my pocket camera, so I was approached to take a photo of a new product for internal distribution. Fortunately, I had my good camera in my bag and the shot I took is now on the cover of the user manual :)
UNfortunately, since this photo was on their time, I guess I have no right over it – not that I’d want rights over it, it’s rather a dull subject unless you’re in the industry.
Stu, as far as I know, you do have copyright on that photograph, unless you signed a contract to transfer the rights to your employer. It is a work you, and you only, created. However, the fact that you’re not allowed to publish it is a different matter entirely. It is in essence a commissioned work; your employer paid you to do it. But you reserve the right to have your name mentioned with the photograph.
“as far as I know, you do have copyright on that photograph”
If you take photos for work, that you get paid for, you normally don’t have the copyright – it goes to the company autimatically. The only exception I’m aware of is for freelancers, or if you sign specific contracts.
Touchy subject there. If you were on company time, then the image belongs to the company. But you should not be using your gear on thier time either. You should have said you would photograph the item, but it has to be done on your time and as a contract job.
Who is publishing the manual? Is it your company? Or did they sell/give to the photo to another company? You should at least recieve credit for the image.
Yes, touchy subject. European laws are different from US laws in this respect. I’m Dutch, and we Dutch separate authors’ rights from copyright. Authors’ rights are inalienable. You created it, so it is a fruit of your labour. Period. US law doesn’t seem to differentiate much between authors’ rights and copy rights.
But let’s not be too technical. World wide laws for copyright and related subjects have a long way to go.
Share your wisdom