poll: photo credits

I dunno...

One of the first two options. This is an interesting question, I'll have to think about it.

Legally, the person behind the camera is the person to whom the photograph is copyrighted.

This is one of those fun questions where intuition and the legal system collide. Even though the subject did everything except hold the camera and trip the shutter, the photographer is the person who tripped the shutter to take the picture. Also by definition this is a portrait. In a self portrait, the subject is the photographer because the subject actuated the camera either via a remote control or timer - ergo it is a self portrait.

Hey! This is findingmyname... I made a new journal. :)

Mind, I know nothing about copyright law, but I should think that if the "assistant" and "subject/artist" were in agreement, there would be no issue in calling the photograph a self-portrait and crediting the person actually holding the camera an assistant. It would theoretically be no different than if you had a tripod and a timed shutter. But I would also think that if copyright laws said otherwise, there'd need to be some kind of written contract between the artist and assistant saying so, just in case. Then again, that's just my own intuition, not my knowledge of law speaking.

This pretty much - if there's a written contract saying who owns the rights to the photo, then it solves any issue of not knowing. :)

self timer ftw!!

I should clarify my answer (I chose the first option) with: if it's for personal use, I believe this. But if the photograph is to be sold or used in a very public source (i.e. magazine, public for-consumption blog, newspaper), then I'd say the second option.

Interesting question. Is it related to anything recent?

just something I'd been reflecting on -- I tend to credit my partner as photographer when ze really doesn't do anything but assist, and because of that I don't ask for zir assistance much (since it feels like it makes it not-really-a-selfportrait). But it just occurred to me that a more accurate way of crediting would be as assistant rather than photographer, and I wanted to see if others agreed ;-) I also wanted a way of specifying the ones that are actually zir-creation vs. my-idea.

I am a photographer, and so I strongly disagree with that common consensus here. I can see why you lean towards the assistant thing and all, seeing as the person who is taking your photos (usually Ben) doesn't know that much about the creative aspects of advanced photography, but in the same breath, I can see where someone could THINK that a photographer wasn't having any creative input and be completely misguided when it comes to ISO, settings, shutter speed, depth of field, f-stops, image quality, lighting arrays, etc etc.

Legally, the person who takes the photo is the photographer, the end. The person who takes the photo owns the photo, the end. And that is squarely where I stand, since I am a photographer, and any flexibility away from that solid stance treads directly on my rights as a photographer and the safety of my career.

I completely agree -- when it comes to professional/legal matters, or professional photography. I was referring exclusively to amateur stuff where there there is an understanding between the two people involved -- considering the moral artist-credit rather than legal copyright, I suppose. In any aspect other than me handing someone my camera and asking them to take a particular shot in a particular way, I would consider the person behind the camera to be the photographer.

AND if it were a new person, I would clarify this -- for instance, if I handed YOU my camera and asked you to take a photo I would ask for you to help me with a self-portrait -- be my tripod and timer instead of photographer. I would make it clear. But that's just hypothetical because I would never ask someone who considered zirself to be a photographer for assistance in that way because I would prefer their creative input as photographer.

And one more thing -- all the settings would have to be set by the model for me to consider it a self-portrait. Because obviously ISO, settings, shutter speed, depth of field, f-stops, etc, are part of the creative process. When asking someone for assistance I set those things ahead of time (what I CAN set, anyway), so that there is nothing left to decide.