My wife and I are expecting our first child. My in-laws got us a maternity photo shoot which costed $1800 for 2 hours. It included make up for my wife and access to a wardrobe. Everything was great the pictures were beautiful when shown. But now she sent us a proofing of about 300 photos to choose 15 for further editing and touch up. All photos she sent have watermarks and are blurry and don’t have the sharpness like when she was taking them and showing us. We asked about this she stated it’s common. Because people try to steal extra pictures by screenshot. We asked about adding a few extra. She wants $100 per 1 photo $300 for 5 and $800 for 20 I was so confused. And asked what happens to the photos we don’t get she said they will be deleted. To which I said but why couldn’t we have the unedited photos if you’re going to delete them, there’s a lot of really good pictures we like. She paused and said that just how things are done and this is standard. Idk it’s really making me want to never deal with a professional photographer again. Cause it seems like a money grab to me. Am I wrong?

  • The_On_Life@alien.topBEnglish
    2·
    11 months ago

    Am I wrong?

    Yes.

    The way this photographer is conducting their business is standard in the photography industry. Here’s a list of reasons why most photographers won’t give you the RAW files

    • In the US and many other countries, the person who takes the photo owns the photo. It’s literally something they created and are not obligated to give it to anyone.
    • RAW files are huge, and if you do a photoshoot with hundreds of photos, sending those files to the client can be a huge pain
    • Many RAW codecs require special drivers to preview on your operating system, and special software to edit. I do send clients RAW photos for an additional fee, and even though I always send them with explicit instructions on how to handle the files I always get an e-mail saying they can’t open them. Literally. Every. Single. Time.
    • Photography, particular in the modern era, isn’t just about knowing how to operate a camera and some lights. The editing process is a large part of the skill that goes into being a photographer. With the RAW photos, you could very easily make some wacky edits to them, post them someone where online or in public, and potentially damage the photographer’s reputation since they took the photo.