JamesH

As some of you know, I like taking pics of scoobs going round tracks & suchlike. I am intending to start placing some of the pics I take onto a website (I've worked out how to do it ). Sometimes when you see pics on websites they have the numberpates blanked out.

What I would like to guage is the different arguments for and against this.

I personally feel that it is unnecessary if the pics are from an event (such as what I would be doing) but poss necessary if on someone's homepage, outlining details of them and their car. I also may be taking pics of peoples cars that people like and the obvious way of positvely identifying them is with the reg number.

Comments? Strong Argument? Rhyme & Reason?

chrisp

I always blank out number plates unless the owner ask me not. Sometimes people use track plates on track days and dont mind. Better be on the safe side and remove them it only take 20 seconds in a photo package anyway. Also a tip if you intend using thumbnails which expand to the full picture then save the thumbnail as low quality so you page loads quicker. Have a look at mine

Les

James

I'm in the process of putting a Subaru web site together and would be happy to host your pictures for you. It's not finished yet but check out

boomer

James,

i agree with chrisp. It takes very little time to blur the plates, and once they are on the web you can never fully retrieve them again - someone, somewhere will have made a copy.

I suppose that some criminally minded people could use the knowledge of plates to their advantage, or maybe some smart ar$e might make up some plates that he (or she) has seen, and drive by a few gatsos at the ton to see what happens!

mb

boomer

chrisp,

i notice that the "thumbs" on your web-site seem to have vertical interference patterns across them.

This happened on my site when i accidentally used the full-sized images for the thumbs, but still had the (width="144" height="96") settings which were set for the smaller images.

I can't check your source code ('cos you are using frames), but you may want to make sure that any size settings actually match the thumbnail properties themselves (otherwise your browser will attempt to adjust and hence impair the images).

mb

[This message has been edited by boomer (edited 13-05-2000).]

chrisp

Thanks Boomer,

I wondered why it did that but there were only thumbnails so i didnt worry to much as the full images are okay.

next batch will be sorted

cheers

chrisp

sasim

I agree that it is best to blank out the reg plate, Insurance companies, lawyers etc may be able to use the pictures as evidence in the future.

SS

swa

JamesH,
Thanks for asking.
Blank out the plates unless someone specifically asks you not to. I think most sites do blank the plates.

Lars

One more good reason for blanking the plates

Last year I sold my car, after a few days the new owner called, and asked me to take the car back. He was very woried about some pictures of the car, in a nice four wheel slide trough Brunchen on Nurburgring.
Picture was shown in a club magasine.
It was not an Impreza and not in UK.

By the way I'm taking a lot of pictures of my Impreza theese days. Just mounted OZ Superturismo 2 17" in Gold with Falken 205/45
It looks SO good.
Lars

JamesH

Thanks for replying folks.

The obvious consensus above is not to post with no. plates BUT it would seem to be more of a gut feeling than something that has a sound argument behind it.

I am still unable to see a good reason why it is necessary, for the type of photos that I am proposing to put on the website, to blank those plates.

I have 2 reasons for not wishing to do so.

1) Purely time related. I take my pics on 35mm film, not digital (without spending really silly money you cannot get good/professional quality digital cameras). I then scan each negative, which with Pre-Scan & Scan, takes roughly 3 - 4 mins. Then they are catalogued & saved (maybe a bit of touch up too). To blank out the plates would take a further 30 secs (at least) per pic. To put this in perspective, I took 250 pics of 55 different cars @ Donno in March. Only able to id 20 owners so far. A further 50 pics @ Snetterton (was on-track & having fun so no time for pics ). That adds up to a lot of time.

2) Purely money related! Although I get my jollies taking good pics, it is helpful to be able to sell prints to the owners of the cars concerned. Sometimes (like @ Donno) people are unaware that pics have been taken and would like copies. I make no bones that I want to sell them, but I am not a professional. I aim to sell at a value for money rate in order to cover my costs. I have not yet covered my costs from Donno, by far (that is photo related costs only). Therefore, not blanking out plates allows people to easilly recognise their cars (3 standard DBM 99MY 4drs look the same).

boomer "supposes" that some criminal could gain info to use to their advantage. Anyone posting to this bbs is potentialy at risk from that too. Unlikely (unless someone knows different).

sasim talks of lawyers/insurance companies - these are track pics so again unlikely.

Lars has poss best argument, but chances are slim that might happen. Cars sold privately are basically sold as seen in this country.

There are some good suggestions there but nothing compelling to suggest to me that I need to blank out reg plates.

Back to you...

(Sorry for very long post & Les, I've got quite a few of you!)

Les

James

On the subject of plates I have to agree with the majority and say that I would rather have them blurred. I know it will take longer, but there are some good reasons for it, especially the one from Lars.

On the positive side, if your on track maybe removing the plate might aid the cooling a bit and therefore do away with your problem?

On a lighter note, how much did I enjoy Snetterton on Sunday, it was like something out of Gran Tourismo running around with all those Scoobies and Evo's.

Haven't had my photo's developed yet, but I know I have a few of James and Tony, will let you know as soon as they're developed.

Still suffering from Brembo Envy (cheers for the ride Tony

Les

JamesH

Les

Get the brakes

I don't have a problem with numberplates, others seem to I don't feel that any of those reasons, with the poss exception of Lars's one off, has any likelyhood of happening. I think I need a more compelling reason to blank 'em.

Why do you personally think it is a bad idea?

Not intending to be heavy or agumentative

My reg is just about to get plastered all over REVS magazine! (They don't blur no. plates, do they?)

Graeme

James
I agree with you. I don't see any reason to blur numberplates. No car mag blurs them does it?
On the subject of digital cameras, I have to disagree with you. I've got a Nikon Coolpix which can take pics at a 'cool' 2.1 megapixel resolution. The images are astounding and the colour very accurate. It doesn't have a zoom lens but the quality is so good you can crop to your hearts content.
Cost £400, which isn't extortionate, and think how much money you'd save in film processing?
Graeme

JamesH

Graeme

Thanks for the vote of confidence!

Digital cameras - hmm. I used a Kodak DC10 at both the Motorcycle 500GP and WSB at Brands last year. That has a resolution of 6.x megapixel! Can't remember exactly how many That is essentially a Nikon F1 camera with a ccd backing to it along with a 240mb pcmcia hard drive. Added to that, I used a good quality Nikon lens. I found the results to be not as good as I had hoped. Also 1 pic then a 4/5 second save to disk before able to take the next picture (not brill for action shots when needing 5 frames per sec +). That camera was £5000! The lens was over £1000 too. I hired them btw. I had wrangled a press pass for these events & found that the "pros" were using traditional SLRs (well the expensive ones anyway), developing in the press room , scanning the negs & then emailing them off to their offices. I also had my trusty Canon & a good lens. When I get the website going, I'll post digital & non-digital origin pics as a comparison. I think that essentially, the ccd devices find it hard to react to quick movement sufficiently. I am quite fussy My MD has got an Olympus 8500L which is excellent, but not for what I am looking for at this time. But I agree it would save me a lot of time and expense.

Neil F

Boomer.

Your earlier reply about some hooligan copying your number plate and doing a Gatso drive by:
What a great getout!

"You see it couldn't have been me your honour, I was cleaning the oven that night. I reckon what's happened is, there's loads of shots of my car at track days on the internet and some hooligan......."

Worth a try? ;o)

boomer

James,

i guess another way of looking at it is how would _you_ feel if i took pictures of your house, including the street details. Then, maybe, some of you - in the pub, in the supermarket etc., and then published them on the web?

Even if you don't care about your details being published, there are probably lots of people who do care! Do you want to take the risk of getting loads of complaints (or even legal stuff)?

Play safe, and blank the plates! If it is the _time_ that you are worried about, then maybe you shouldn't be thinking about posting pictures on the Internet in the first place.

mb