Ah well you actually give the option to purchase the RAW which I’m fine with. At least ALLOW me to have an option to have the RAW myself.
I appreciate you taking the time to explain yourself and I can see circumstances where a professional’s reputation and work quality are directly correlated with their future business and financial stability.
But I’d gladly pay a fee and I straight up had a photographer deny me family photo RAWs because they “never” allowed anyone access to those.
As long as you make it clear beforehand that’s what you want, then the photog can decide whether or not they’re ok with it. I’m also a pro and personally I would love more jobs where I only have to deliver the RAWs as like the other guy said editing is what takes the vast majority of my time on most jobs, but I certainly also understand the other side of the argument.
Another way to think about this: if you were a chef and someone came to your restaurant and asked for the raw ingredients so you can make the food yourself, I don’t think many chefs would allow that either.
Sometimes, you have to/decide to use techniques which might mean that the RAWs are pretty useless unless they also go through the specific post-process you had in mind while shooting.
With that said I know that many of my colleagues can be total dickheads in particular when it comes to the niches that deal with end-user stuff like family portraits, weddings etc, so I have no troubles believing you’ve had bad experiences.
