had a weird situation this week that i dont really know how to handle going forward. shot a commercial job for a local landscaping company, decent sized project, few hours of flying, delivered edited photos and a short promo video. client was happy, paid, all good.

then like three weeks later they come back and ask if they can have the raw files because they hired a different editor to redo some of the photos for a magazine submission or something. i dont have anything in writing that says they cant have them, which i know is my fault, but it just feels off to hand over raw files after the fact.

i ended up saying i could provide them for an additional fee and they got a little weird about it. not angry just kind of surprised i think. curious if other people have dealt with this and what you put in your contracts about raw delivery. do you even offer it or just never ever hand over unedited files

yeah this is a contracts thing and honestly a really common lesson to learn the slightly uncomfortable way. i never deliver raws as part of a standard package, my contract specifically says edited deliverables only and that raw files remain my property. if someone wants raws it's a separate line item and it's not cheap ? mainly because i dont want them to, i'd rather they come back to me for future edits.

the way you handled it sounds fine though, asking for an additional fee is totally reasonable. some clients just dont understand that raw files are kind of like the negatives from film days, there's a reason photographers traditionally kept those. if they push back just explain that the editing is part of what they're paying for and the raws without that context aren't really a finished product anyway.

get a proper contract sorted before your next job, seriously. i learned this same thing early on and now i use a template i found through ASMP and modified it a bit for drone specific stuff. the raw file clause is one of the most important parts imo. also usage rights, make sure you're clear on where they can use the footage becuase magazine submission is a different thing than social media.