Photography and video policy

We often commission photography and video each year to capture the festival. Where we do this it will be easy to identify at events, as photographers will make themselves known by wearing a Heritage Open Days lanyard and a National Trust photography badge. For nationally commissioned photography/video we ask all individuals featured to sign consent forms and obtain signatures from parental guardians.  

In these cases, we (Heritage Open Days/the National Trust) act as data controller and process right to be forgotten requests where applicable.

As a grassroots festival we do not have any input into individual events, each organisation involved takes their own approach to commissioning photography and processing consent in line with their own organisational procedures, safeguarding processes, and public liability. If you have a concern about photography or do not wish to be included in images it is best to raise it directly with the photographer or event organiser on the day. 

In terms of ownership, images uploaded by organisers are either owned directly by the organisers themselves, or shared with copyright holder permission. We ask all organisers to verify this when they upload their event listing.

You are welcome to change your mind at any time about your photo being used to promote the festival. Please contact us on [email protected] with the subject line ‘GDPR – Image Removal Request’. Please link us to the relevant image and we will remove it from our website, promotional materials and social media channels.

Where we own the image, we will process your request within 7 working days of receipt. 

If you are featured in an image that we did not publish and is not on one of our offical channels (e.g. an organisers website or social media page) we will try our best to connect you with the right organisation who own the data.

The copyright holder of images is usually labelled on each image where it is used on our website. In many cases, we are the copyright holder if we (Heritage Open Days/the National Trust) have commissioned the photography or video featured. The main exception to this is user generated content, in the form of images uploaded for event listings.

As per our terms and conditions (clause 5.4), we take no responsibility for, or claim ownership of, user generated content uploaded by event organisers. When uploading images organisers are asked to provide copyright information and tick to say they are the copyright holder of the image.  

Occasionally organisers may erroneously upload copyright content without our knowledge, due to the scale of our user base and festival we are unable to manually check all listings or images, so we thank you for alerting us if you spot a copyright issue.

If you believe your copyright has been infringed on our website, please follow our take down procedure, by sending us a notice via email to [email protected] and we will remove the affected content within 2 working days. 

It is at the discretion of the event organiser as to whether they allow photos and videos to be taken for personal use during visits. Please speak to a member of staff, a volunteer, or event organiser at the event to find out what their policy is. 

When taking photos or filming we ask that you seek permission at the time if you wish to intentionally film or photograph staff, volunteers or organisers involved in the festival. We reserve the right to ban visitors that harass staff, volunteers or organisers with intrusive photography and video in line with our Code of Conduct 

Where photography is permitted by event organisers, visitors are welcome to post their photographs taken at Heritage Open Days events on their personal social media accounts as it falls within our definition of ‘personal use’. However, this does not include business accounts. If a user’s social media account is commercial, they will need permission to use photographs or videos from the event organiser.  

If you are a member of the public who would like to take commercial photography or videography at a Heritage Open Days event. Please contact the event organiser directly to see if this is possible. 

If you are a member of the press, media or a content creator and would like to arrange promotional photography or videography during the festival, please contact [email protected].  

Drones may be used at festival events at the discretion of the event organiser. Where drone use is officially commissioned by us (Heritage Open Days/the National Trust), we work with licensed photographers & videographers who follow Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) guidelines. 

If you have an issue with drone photography/videography at an event, we recommend speaking with the person operating the drone or the event organiser.   

If you have an individual complaint about the use of drones in public spaces or concerns that a breach of CAA regulations has taken place, the CAA recommend contacting the police on 101 to raise your complaint. 
 

We have little control over street photography in public spaces, if someone is taking photos at an event in a public space and you do not wish to be in them you should raise this directly with the individual photographer or event organiser.  

It is worth noting that GDPR only applies to businesses and professionally commissioned photography. If you have a complaint about photography that was not commissioned by the Heritage Open Days festival (the National Trust), nor commissioned by any organisation or volunteer who took part in Heritage Open Days, then it is likely that the individual would be considered as taking street photography as a private citizen in a public place.   

If you believe criminal behaviour has taken place you can notify the police on 101.