Should We Sell Unedited and Raw Photos?

Do you give clients unedited photos?

A good rule of thumb is that when you are selling a product that you have made, you should make every effort to ensure that the viewer has the opportunity to experience high quality photographs. It’s your responsibility to ensure that your client receives a quality product. .

Personally, I don’t see the need to sell raw, unedited images. In my view, the only images that are truly ‘raw’ are those that haven’t been touched in any way.

My reason is that, as a professional photographer, I am paid to take pictures. I do this as a job and to earn a living. I am not paid to produce low quality photos. The end result, whether it’s a commercial print, a photograph for a newspaper, a magazine or a blog, should not be a product with errors. I work within the parameters of a commercial contract and it’s my job to produce a product that sells and are in high quality.

This is why I don’t accept to deliver an unedited photo to my clients. And it’s not fair to the client.

However, it’s entirely appropriate to offer the client the opportunity to view the raw unedited version of the image. And you can edit or improve the images after receiving the feedback from your clients.

It’s your choice what you want to do, but you need to consider the consequences of your actions and be aware of your own responsibility.