Every photographer gets this question at some point during their career. Lately, I’ve received this question from a few different people, and it occurred to me that I haven’t shared my thoughts on this for awhile. So, let’s start with the basics and break it down from there.

To be honest, I’m a little bit confused as to why people think they need the unedited images. When you hire a photographer, you hire them for their style and the way their images look. Guess what? You’re basing that decision on the final edited images and for good reason. Just based on that statement alone, why would anyone need the unedited images.

The Technical Explanation

As a professional photographer, I expose each shot taken with care and based on how I’m going to edit that image in post production. What an image looks like when it first comes out of my camera is not the finished image. It’s a rough draft. Much like how an author may go through several drafts of a new book before it’s published, a photographer goes through layers of edits to reach the finished product.

Even the image file is in a format that only professional editing software opens. What does that mean? Well, it means even if you had the raw image you most likely wouldn’t even be able to open the file.

Let’s be honest. Not every image that is taken during a session or at a wedding is a keeper. After the session, I take those images home and cull through them. Each individual image is examined and sorted into keep or toss. Quickly getting rid of duplicates that you don’t need. Then I take it another step further and remove anything from the image that doesn’t belong there or draws attention away from the loved one in that image. Besides, you don’t really want that image where Joey has his tongue sticking out. Or the one where you blinked.

For example, in the image above, I really didn’t think the air conditioner unit was attractive. It is distracting and just begs to be looked at which takes away from the young man in the image. So – I took it out. The images placed in the toss pile are placed there for a reason. Trust that we are doing you a favor. You really don’t want them or need them.

What Are You Entitled to as the Customer?

This might not be what you want to hear but the reality is the customer has no right to the work in progress. If you were commissioning a painting, would you later demand all of the sketches and studies that went into the finished piece? Or if you had a dress custom designed and made by an up and coming fashion designer, would you ask for the muslin fitting trials or the fabric cut-offs? How about the stone chips leftover from the carving of a sculpture? Would you sit down at one of Gordon Ramsay’s restaurants and order just the ingredients for that evenings chef’s special? Sounds pretty silly, right?

And yet, that is precisely what you are doing when you ask a professional photographer for the unedited images.

The Legal Explanation

As a professional photographer, my images are protected by Copyright Law. That means it can not be edited in anyway. This covers everything from the raw images all the way to the final edits you receive. It even includes anything that is posted on social media. The image can’t be edited, cropped or even have the watermark removed.

The Common Sense Explanation

What it all boils down to is your professional photographer is just that – a Professional. Let them do the job you hired them to do. If they are anything like me, they’ve taken hours upon countless hours of classes and continued education merits to keep their professional status with the national and local associations.