Answer
Wa `alaykum As-Salamu wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
In this fatwa:
You are not required to confine your work to passport photos. Though you should observe Islamic rules of morality and decency, your work can be extended to other functions as long as there is no violation to the rules of the Shari`ah.
Sheikh Muhammad Al-Mukhtar Ash-Shinqiti, Professor of Political Ethics and Religions History at Qatar University, states,
You don’t have to minimize your work in the studio to taking passport photos. Many families are committed and they do Islamic marriages or functions that do not show haram (unlawful) scenes. You can do that for sure.
As for taking photos in marriages where women are not dressing properly, it is haram for you to take pictures or videotape them, but if you can arrange for a female photographer to take, print, and develop pictures, that can be permissible.
Allah Almighty knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.