Raw Files

[john_a5]

<p>Richard, certainly you can see the difference in providing someone with a small low res file and everything shot on a CD in hi-res(a relative term!) Anyway, there is a difference in being with the times and giving your business away!</p>

[john_deerfield]

<p>I have two reasons for not giving out the Raw file. One, it is only a step towards my final product. Depending on many variables I may be shooting knowing I need to open up the shadows or recover some highlights. Quite often I move my black point, but in any case I am shooting knowing this so the Raw file isn't my final vision. The second reason is that the Raw file represents ownership, no one else has that file or can produce that file. The best another party could do is present a <em>version</em> of the file. If I have the Raw, I have proof of ownership. Now if I was hired under the condition that I shoot Raw and turn over the files to some sort of director of photography and we were clear on the terms, then I wouldn't have any problems handing over the Raw files.</p>

[mechanic]

<p>John,<br>

The client wants Raw files--For us and we do a lot of it, the reason they want Raw files is that it is easy to prove if there was editing done to the capture image. This is very important to them in court cases. If they only want a hard file instead of the loose file or they want more than 8 bit,ask if any other file types such as tiff can be used.</p>

[Richard Williams]

<p>'Richard, certainly you can see the difference in providing someone with a small low res file and everything shot on a CD in hi-res(a relative term!) Anyway, there is a difference in being with the times and giving your business away!'</p>

<p>I certainly wouldn't expect this to be given away, I'd expect to pay a fair price for a (non-commercial) licence to reproduce the images for personal use. If I were a retail/wedding photographer (easier said than done, I know!), I'd have a pricing structure that made the value of licenced high-res images clear (e.g., listed as an optional extra). If I were a potential customer and such images weren't available from the photographer on any terms, then I'm afraid I'd look elsewhere. A little while ago, some record companies were selling music on modified CDs that were intended to prevent copying of the 'full resolution' tracks, with some low-bitrate DRM'd files provided on the disk for (restricted) use on media players. I avoided them for much the same reason.</p>