After working as photographers for a number of years, we’ve heard it time and time again. “Why am I not getting all of my RAW files?” or “I paid for the session, why am I not getting all my photos?” and our personal favorite, “That other photographer I went to once did!” We totally get it. Having the mentality that “I paid for my photography session, so hand over my RAW files” makes sense, but let us explain why WeHo Headshots and many photographers don’t share RAW files with their clients.
Let’s begin by talking about what exactly a RAW file is for those of you who might not know. All professional photographers worth their salt shoot in RAW mode. A RAW file is like a film negative, and shouldn’t be confused with the same files that a point-and-shoot digital camera produces - those are jpegs, which are much smaller files with less information in them.
These jpegs that point-and-shoot cameras produce are compressed images that have already been processed by the camera. Professional photographers don’t use point-and-shoot cameras because we don’t want the contrast, color balance, skin tones, etc. chosen by our camera - that’s OUR job and it’s a very important part of our process! Think about it like this - a painter wouldn’t let their canvas dictate their paint colors and brush strokes, they would want full control over the final product.
Very similarly, photographers need to be able to have control over how the final images from a shoot appear (and make sure you’re happy with the results!). Just like a negative needs to be processed in a dark room, RAW files require processing in post as well - WeHo Headshots uses a combination of Capture One, Photoshop, and Lightroom. Back in the day, when photographers only shot on film, people understood that a film negative was not a finished product or a “ready” image. That same concept applies to photographers today. Would you use a negative from a film strip as your 8x10 headshot or in place of your professional portrait? No, that wouldn’t work at all!
We used to spend a lot of time in the darkroom. The process involves a delicate balance of chemicals and other skills where the photographer adds contrast, burns and dodges to get the right light and dark balance, and controls skin tones and brightness to produce the final product. This process is very often the most creative, fulfilling, and exciting part of being a photographer! Everyone out there gets to see the result of this incredible process, but not the process itself.
The final image gets shared all over social media, distributed amongst the industry, shared with friends - with OUR name stamped on it and our reputation behind it - so it’s imperative that the finished product lives up to our standards. A lot of people don’t understand that RAW files need to go through the exact same process of “processing” and it takes time, skill, and the right eye and tools (which are often INCREDIBLY expensive).
With the abundance of digital cameras, the advent and popularity of social media and the tools for processing easily available to the public (there are even apps for "retouching" now but honestly do you really want a headshot or portrait by FaceTune?), everyone thinks they're a photographer and an expert in Photoshop. And hey, maybe you are pretty good and maybe you're better than the average person out there - but your headshot should be SO much more than average! We can pretty much guarantee that 95% of people out there don't have the necessary skills required to process an image the way a photographer can.
Here’s the thing about photographers - we spend countless hours photographing clients, educating ourselves, learning new techniques, investing in new software and hardware, to be able to give clients high quality images stamped with our own unique style and creative vision - and YOU chose your photographer for precisely that reason! Every photographer’s unique style reflects on the processed RAW file because it is the photographer’s own interpretation of the final image - why would you want to take that away from an artist?
Suggesting you'd rather adjust the RAW images yourself diminishes what a photographer does as an artist. And yes, some headshot photographers simply give away their RAW files... perhaps this is because they don't view their headshots or portrait work as art... yes, even headshots can and should be works of art. Why would we not take the same care with our headshots and portraits as we do with our other photography?
Here’s a little tip regarding the rest of the industry: giving away RAW files is not "the norm" in any other field of photography. In fact, it’s viewed as incredibly unprofessional... giving away RAW files is equal to giving away our copyright (our most valuable possession!) and it completely disregards the Copyright Act of 1976, which protects the value of a photographer’s images. We shoot many celebrity portraits and fashion and beauty editorial stories for print publications - we would never in a million years hand over our unfinished work to top magazine editors and neither would we hand over unfinished headshots or portraits to you - our amazing clients!
Now, some people might see headshot and personal portrait photographers as being at the "bottom" of the photography totem pole and some of our colleagues might even see themselves as such and therefore not take the headshot and portrait part of their business seriously... but we f*cking love taking headshots and portraits! We really enjoy working with actors and business professionals to create a piece of art that will help launch or push their career forward in exciting new directions. Likewise, we love working with families and individuals to help them capture those special moments in the most artful and impactful way possible. We’re passionate about every aspect of our photography business and we take our work very seriously.
To protect our reputation, to prevent our images from being processed incorrectly, and for the sake of creative control, WeHo Headshots does not give out RAW files nor do we hand over all of your unretouched jpegs.
WeHo Headshots cares about two things: our clients and the quality of our work. We’d like to thank all our past and future clients for understanding and respecting our “no RAW files” policy. The last thing we want is our images being processed incorrectly, or ending up edited with a quality that does not meet our standards. Thank you for taking the time to read up on our latest blog addition, and we appreciate your understanding!