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Terms of Use

Last updated: October 21, 2026.

This is a general-purpose template, not legal advice — have it reviewed by a lawyer before relying on it, especially the sections on liability and content ownership.

What this means, in short

  • Anyone can browse; publishing requires an approved photographer account (18+).
  • Every portrait is of a place, not a person — pictures of people, selfies, and anything where a person is the subject aren't accepted (see section 3).
  • You own your portraits, but you're responsible for having the rights to publish them.
  • Content involving minors, non-consensual imagery, copyright infringement, hate speech, or harassment is never allowed, no exceptions.
  • Breaking these rules can get content removed, your account suspended, or banned — serious cases are reported to the authorities.
  • New accounts are reviewed before they can publish, and can be declined or suspended at PortraitStage's discretion.
  • The site is offered "as is," with no warranty, and isn't liable for what other users post.

This summary simplifies the full terms below for convenience — the numbered sections are what actually governs your use of the site.

1. Who this applies to

These terms apply to everyone who uses PortraitStage ("the site") — visitors browsing portraits, and photographers with a publishing account. Photographer accounts are only available to people 18 years of age or older, and are reviewed by an administrator before they can publish.

2. Your content

You keep ownership of every portrait you publish. By publishing, you confirm that:

  • You personally took the portrait yourself, with a camera or phone, and are uploading the original, straight-from-camera file, with no filter, preset, or edit applied to it before upload. Downloaded images, stock photography, screenshots, AI-generated images, filtered/edited portraits, and portraits someone else took are never acceptable here, even if you otherwise hold the rights to use them. Originality and EXIF presence are checked via the camera EXIF data embedded in the file — see how to upload portraits with EXIF data for what that means in practice and why a portrait might get rejected. Any aesthetic look (Monochrome, Sepia, and so on) is applied only at display time, by PortraitStage itself — never baked into the uploaded file.
  • Anyone who happens to be incidentally visible in an otherwise place-focused portrait (see section 3) isn't the subject of the portrait, and you have the necessary permission (a model release, where legally required) from anyone who is recognizably identifiable regardless.
  • You grant PortraitStage a license to host, display, and technically process the portrait (resizing, format conversion, filters, watermarking) for the purpose of operating the site.

3. Content that is not allowed

PortraitStage publishes portraits of places — architecture, murals, streets, parks, and similar public points of interest. On this site, "portrait" identifies image orientation — portrait (taller than wide) as opposed to landscape (wider than tall) — not the subject of the picture; see the about page. To keep every published portrait free of the consent, privacy, and safeguarding questions that come with photographing identifiable individuals, people are not an accepted subject here:

  • Pictures of people, selfies, and anything where a person is the subject or focal point. A person who happens to be incidentally visible in an otherwise place-focused public portrait — someone walking through a street scene, for example — is fine; a portrait taken of or centered on a person is not.

Every portrait is also assigned one of PortraitStage's fixed subject categories at upload — a portrait isn't accepted without one, and there's no catch-all "Other" option, so a portrait that doesn't genuinely fit one of these isn't a fit for the site:

  • Murals & Street Art
  • Buildings & Architecture
  • Bridges & Infrastructure
  • Nature & Landscapes
  • Urban & Street
  • Transit & Vehicles
  • Parks & Green Spaces
  • Waterfront
  • Public Art & Sculpture

The following is also never permitted, and will be removed on discovery:

  • Content that sexualizes, exploits, or endangers minors, in any way. This is reported to the relevant authorities and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (or the equivalent body in your jurisdiction) without exception.
  • Non-consensual intimate imagery, or portraits taken/published without the depicted person's consent where consent is legally or ethically required.
  • Content that infringes someone else's copyright, trademark, or other intellectual property rights.
  • Graphic violence, content promoting self-harm, or material intended to harass, threaten, or demean an individual or group.
  • Hate speech, or content that attacks people based on race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or similar protected characteristics.
  • Spam, malware, deceptive metadata, or content that misrepresents who took a portrait or where it was taken.
  • Anything illegal under the laws applicable to you or to PortraitStage's operation.

4. What happens if these rules are broken

Depending on severity, PortraitStage may: remove the specific content, suspend the account (hiding all of that account's published portraits and blocking further uploads), or permanently disable the account. Content that may be illegal — most seriously, anything involving the endangerment of minors — is reported to the appropriate authorities regardless of any other action taken. PortraitStage reserves the right to take any of these actions at its own discretion, without advance notice, when it reasonably believes these terms have been violated.

5. Account reviews

New photographer accounts are reviewed by an administrator before they can publish. PortraitStage may decline to approve an account, or may later suspend one, at its discretion.

6. No warranty, limitation of liability

PortraitStage is provided "as is," without warranties of any kind. To the fullest extent permitted by law, PortraitStage and its operator are not liable for any damages arising from your use of the site, including content posted by other users.

7. Changes to these terms

These terms may be updated from time to time. Continued use of the site after a change constitutes acceptance of the updated terms.

8. Contact

Questions about these terms, or to report content that violates them, can be sent to hello@portraitstage.com.