Hey all,

So I've been wondering, what is the proper etiquette for posting/blurring out license plates?

If I get the chance, I always ask the owner for permission to take pictures of his or her car. So far, no one has told me not to take pictures, and haven't objected when I shot the back of their car. I figure that they know what they are driving, and would tell me not to take pictures showing the plate if they didn't want others to see it. But most of the time, I do not have a chance to talk to the owner (such as when I see something sitting alone in a parking lot, or driving on the road), and sometimes only have a few seconds to snap a picture. Should the license plates always be blurred out in these instances?

And what about custom plates? From what I figure, if the owners didn't want people to notice their plates, they wouldn't pay extra for custom ones. But all license plates can be traced, and I know that some exotic car owners do not want this to happen.

I'd love to read your thoughts on this, especially if you know of any laws regarding this subject or have any inside info.

I don't usually blur out the plates. Of course, if I'm asked to I would, but it's hardly ever a concern. One thing I have seen done that I really liked was a Ferrari that had its plate blacked out and then the word Ferrari placed over the plate in PhotoShop. Just an idea...

Here's the shot I mentioned...

Owners usually don't care. There would care more about themselves or thier face being in the picture if anything. If they have a problem or they ask them blur it out but other then that I would be fine

As others have already stated, I would only blur the plates if the owners asked you to. Otherwise, it is not a bad thing to show the plates. The only people that really have access to information based on the license plates are the police anyway.

If the person specifically asks then obviously you should blur it but really it doesn't make much of a difference you can usually find out who owns an exotic through word of mouth with or without the plate anyway.

I've been asked a few times to remove the plates. If the owner ever seems nervous or upset about me taking photos, I tell them right away that I can shop out the plate, and they're usually fine with that.

This photo is from the last time I saw my neighbor's Gallardo. Someone had spotted his car the night before and posted it to the Bay Area Car Spotters facebook group, and he was pretty weirded out (in a laughing kind of way) when I told him about it. He let me take all the shots I wanted, and even cleaned up the car so it wouldn't be dirty in the shots, but he asked me to blank out the plate before posting it online. I thought that was kinda weird, since 1) he has a vanity plate, 2) he has plenty of distinguishable modifications on his car, and 3) it had been posted online plenty times before. I still blanked it out though; I never want to upset a supercar owner.


Flickr link

At least in Europe you don't have to blur anything in any pics that have been taken in the public, not sure how the law goes in the US. Of course if the owner asks you to blur the plate you should do it just out of common courtesy and respect.

Or so you think hehe

It's the same here.

Makes sense. I was wondering because there was a minor argument on another forum I'm on about posting/not posting plates. Many of the owners on there own exotics, but do not like their plates being posted online (although I've somehow managed never to spot anyone's car on there before). They seemed to feel it was easier than most of us realized to track a license plate to the owner, although I don't know how valid that is.

But I'd definitely blank out the plate if the owner asked me to. I saw an article on Jalopnik where most users felt that spottings in the wild, such as the ones posted here on ES, were up to the photographer to blur the plates, but photos from car shows and those sort of events were up to the owner to cover the plate.