This question comes up more often than you might think — and it happened to me again just after finishing a shoot. So in this video, I break down the real reasons photographers should almost never hand over RAW files, and the very specific situations where it actually makes sense.
I will walk you through:
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Why the photographer always owns the copyright
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Why a RAW file is not a finished product
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How giving away RAW files can damage your reputation
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A real mistake I made that cost me future work
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The rare scenarios where providing RAW files is appropriate
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How I price RAW file usage in commercial situations
If you’re photographing people in any professional or semi-professional capacity, this is something you need to understand before it happens to you.