Should you sell your raw, un-edited photos to clients?
Photographers seem to debate a lot about whether to sell clients raw, unedited images.
Originally, my mentality was “No photographer would ever do that!” For my own business, I am still the same. This is not a universal rule.
I’ll explain why I don’t sell unedited images, but you can decide what you think is best. Most likely, selling unedited images will not be in your best interests, even though it may work for certain photographers.
Why I don’t sell un-edited images
I edit my photos a lot. My website has a lot of images with a ” Style”. When a client hires, they usually say that they hired me for that look.
The photos I took without editing look nothing like what the final product looks like. To save time, I try to get the composition, white balance, and exposure right in camera. I then add multiple curves layers, textures, and textures in Photoshop. I finish with presets and Lightroom. I’m a control-freak when it comes to editing. I spend a great deal of time with each photo.
My unedited images are completely different from the final product and were not what my client wanted when they hired me.
If I sell my images unedited to clients and they upload those photos to Facebook for example, then the photos will not be true to my style.
What’s even more dangerous is that the client could edit my photos and upload them. This would be a very scary idea, as most people who are not photographers have little understanding of editing. They might also further distort the images I uploaded without editing.
I know someone to whom this happened – the client was given the original photos, but the client ruined them in the editing process and then uploaded them on Facebook, with the photographer’s photo. It was not pretty and a false representation of the photographer’s work.