Unless there were some serious confidentiality issues (say a Tom Ford preview collection with Beyonce), I find the idea of "no photos" to be sort of laughable - especially at a celebration. No use railing against it.

Are you afraid bad people will use the online photos of your house to plan a burglary?

I think people should be allowed to take photos, but I think you are well within your rights as a host to ask your guests not to post those photos on Facebook, or any other socmed site. People should be able to have a good time without waking up the next day and finding some objectionable photo posted for the world to see.

If you don't trust your guests to not plaster pics of your place all over the Web and/or to understand your reluctance to see pics of your place posted, then those people aren't close enough to you to invite them.

I hate people taking my picture and posting it, without telling me and without even tagging it in some cases (so I don't even know it is online). True friends and mere acquaintances alike know this about me and respect it. People I am not convinced can respect this rule just don't get invited. The party is smaller, but much more pleasant with some privacy and peace of mind, and pure good people all around.

You know guys there are ways to keep yourself from being tagged on facebook. There's also a way for you to preview the photo's of you before they are posted. Just go into your privacy settings and make sure you make the changes. It would make you seem a bit silly if you ask everyone to not take photo's of such a joyous occasion. If you were that concerned about it maybe you shouldn't have offered your home. Relax and take a deep breath. You are most likely worrying and stressing about nothing. Think about the celebration at hand.

I think the issue is that people will say, "Oh, the pro photographer is taking group pictures? Let me get in there with my smart phone and take one too." "Oh, take one on my phone too!"

Ruins the time if people are asking you to pose for a smartphone picture (especially more than one) asking you to stay posed while everyone takes a picture. Then they post their blurry low-light pics to Facebook.

Candids are rarely an issue.

"I don't like the idea of photos of my home turning up on the web,"

Seriously? Get over yourself.

"As far as the pro photog is concerned, I wouldn't worry about blurry camera phone shooters getting in his way or stealing the thunder from your paid, polished and professionally tuned works of art."

This. If you're worried about phone pics stealing your "pro" pictures' thunder, you need a better photographer.

It's not so much about the pictures (I don't really care), but I have a sign at my flat that says 'Welcome! Make yourself at home and DO NOT check yourself in!"

Why? I'm a single girl living on my own. I absolutely hate when people come over and use those four square or whatever else apps to check themselves in at wherever they happen to be. Oh, and it has a handy map too. I don't care if they want to broadcast to the world when they go out and go shopping for loo roll or whatever, but don't highlight my house on a map and let everyone on your friendslist know where it is. Some of my colleagues have 500+ friends on facebook - I don't want my flat's location broadcast.

It's only happened once, and the friend called me paranoid, but took the post down. I don't care about being called paranoid, it's my place and I don't like it. She's not been invited back.

FINNLAY128, I agree with you 100% !

"Is it OK to ask people to not snap pics and post photos to Facebook?"
Lol.
It sounds a question asked at Yahoo Q&A.
And my answer will be: who the f** do you think you are? Some kind of museum? High-end art gallery?!
Nowadays, taking shots is common behaviour, wherever you are, and it should be taken as just taking "visual notes" (despite museums thinking), while a pro photographer has been hired or not. No, casual shooters won't make a living with what they shooted in the museums, and no, your "friends" won't never make fun of you or your relatives publishing "unauthorized photos" on Fb or spoil the "public image" of your apartment.

But :
1. It's common etiquette, i think, to ask, at some point in the process, if there's no problem with posting photos of someone on the internet, Fb or not. So i think that if your friend come to post shoots with recognizable faces, they should hit some mail to everybody saying : "i've posted shots, if you feel you don't want to be publicized, let me know, i'll take them off pronto."

2. If you want to "control" something, whatever the subject, one good thing is to make some sort of "passive protection" with basic or creative … tricks.
Examples :
• warn everyone a pro shooter has been hired, and add some friendly line saying: "enjoy the party, don't stress missing any shoot since i've planned a back up ; give yourself a rest, and enjoy the beverage, the talks, the dinner, more than your hipstamatic."
• warn everyone also that the shoots will be immediately available online, on a password protected website (does flickr do it? i guess there is some sort of protection), and give the password in the invitation card, and be sure, really, that the shoots will be available the day after.
• additionally, plan yourself to publish some "official" shoots on your Fb page, with a link to the complete album.
• if you fear something about the everyday home decor, hide stuff. Close personal places (bedroom, home office…)
• maybe you can turn a "disavantage to an advantage", launching some photo contest for example, with asking people (if you're really into asking them something) to make special "photos" reporting the "mood" of the party more than the people in it.

Really, don't spoil your time in the party asking your friend not to shoot.
Et voilà!

It's not even your birthday and you don't want people to take pictures. My father passed away shortly before his 60th birthday, all I can say is that I would like to have more pictures of him.

Well, I guess I'm in the minority here, but I see no reason you shouldn't ask people to refrain from taking photos at the party. In fact, I wish more people would do that! Personally, when I go to a party I want to relax and enjoy myself without someone expecting me to smile for the camera every five minutes, or pushing their way into the frame so they can show they're having FUN FUN FUN every second of the evening. Can we not act like grown-ups once in a while and enjoy an evening without the ever-present (usually unflattering) photos?

I guess maybe I have an exceptional group of friends. I just came from my own mini-baby-shower (for the 2nd baby) and no one tried to take pictures...but I guess many of them don't have facebook either (No, they are not in their 50s. They are in their 20s). Onto my point. If it were my home, I wouldn't stop them from taking photos, but I don't see any problem with asking people not to post photos on facebook. I did that for my bachelorette party.

Think positive—Put the word out that a pro photographer will be on hand to take all the different group shots people would like. It may not entirely eliminate happy snappers, but it may well cut stop folks from lugging equipment. Encourage your shooter to invite folks to take advantage of their services! If he/she sees someone lining up friends to snap them, there's no reason he/she couldn't offer to take the shot with the would-be snapper joining in the shot. Let your photographer know if there's any particular area of your home you'd rather he or she avoid photographing and if possible, maybe you can work together on a setting to feature the group portraits? Enlist your photographer to help you enjoy your evening. My husband is a photographer and trust me, he works hard to make sure his clients are happy so they can enjoy their event!