Selling Raw Images

[Jake]

Fashion and commercial photography are very different then portrait and weddings.
I see people on here saying never sell the raw, never show the image from the camera LCD, etc. But often time with this kind of shoots, when they have set designers on site, they'll want you to be tethered to a monitor. IMHO, if your not comfortable shooting tethered while the art director standing there then you shouldn't be there in the first place.

Now this shoot sounds like a big miscommunication all the way around. So if you are dead set about not selling the raw's you could offer uncorrected 16bit TIFF's as a compromise.

Question: On the 30 images you gave them, did you pick the 30 or did they?

If they are really being unreasonable and you think you did on acceptable job, just tell them to get lost.

But if I was in this situation, I would have no problem selling raw files for a fair price.

[ggeen]

I like what Jake said above. So I will chime in here.

What is your goal? To be right or to sell photos to your customer. I also suggest that you ask that very question to your customer as well. What is your goal?

If your goal and the goal of your customer are compatible, then everything else is negotiable.

Let us assume that your goal is to sell high quality images to your customer. Your customers goal is to purchase high quality imagery for use in publication. Given these assumptions, you have compatible goals.

[Caserz1986]

oh wow! Didn't see all of these new comments.

Thanks everyone for your support!! Just starting out, I really appreciate it all!


Things worked out perfectly! I wrote up a new contract and new pricing for images sold outside of the package. They wanted them, I edited them, and that was it. =]


Everyone went on their happy merry way!

It was def a learning experience, and quite honestly, I more than likely won't be dipping my feet into fashion photography anymore. I'd rather focus on families and children.


Again, thanks so much, everyone!!!! So glad I have support here!!

[mrsrice22]

Originally Posted by Thomas Campbell

It isn't hypothetical. We all have our price. She can set that price to whatever she wants. But the ideal thing is to figure out how much more money they have to spend on this project and how much you want to give away. If you are going to be editing them, you deserve to be paid for that. If you are going to give the RAW files, that is something they are not entitled to, and you deserved to be paid for that.


The person doesn't have to be credible. You could have a bunch of nutbags bashing your small business and they could be known nutbags, and it still hurts. It plants a seed in the mind of the readers.

Just to add to this because internet bashing is very real and can crash a reputable business.

Long story short a woman I know had a beauty school since the 80's and all it took was one irrate student to bring it crashing down, declaring bankruptcy and losing everything and it all started from online bashing.

There's a saying that of course now I can't think of, but something along the lines of bad word of mouth travels farther and faster than good... anyone can feel free to cite the correct one :)