Is it a violation of hipaa, if I take a picture of a patient that has been discharged?

You are not violating any confidentiality issues by taking a picture of a client.

Tick

There is not enough information to answer you definitively. For example, lets say you were a caregiver at a mental institution and you took a picutre of a patient leaving the institution where it shows the institution name. If you then show that picture to someone else, you could be cited for a HIPAA violation since you as a caregiver, revealed information about a patient.

So there may be cisrcumstances where taking such a picutre would violate HIPAA.

Who is taking the photo, where is the photo being taken, I can for example stand on the sidewalk and take photos of any and everyone coming out of the hospital.

Is this first hospital staff doing it, since again, I could walk around the lobby of the hospital taking photos, if I was merely tresspassing, I may get thrown out of the hospital, but no HIPPA violation.

Next if this is the hospital and they are merely taking your photo to put in your file, not to make public, there is no release of info.

So they would have to be giving this info out to someone'

Please provide more info