Unedited RAW pictures: should I ask for unfinished product?

Unedited RAW pictures: should I ask for unfinished product?

Why are professional photographers reluctant to release RAW pictures to the client?

I never show unedited RAW pictures to the client.

Similar story: The car ready for painting with the body fillers and anti rust paint before getting the coat of paint doesn't look attractive. Paint shop would rather show you the fully finished, ready to go shiny car. Right?

Same thing with the food in a restaurant. As a client you don't want to get undercooked potatoes or meat.

Let's get back to the photography and RAW files.

Here I show two types of images to be compared; dull one is a direct conversion from the RAW file (extension .CR2 for Canon 5D) to the JPEG.

Why is it so dull? RAW shots contain all spectrum of data and this is the editor's job to shake away unwanted data and manually fix some parameters depending on the particular case (lighting, shape and materials of the object).

On the other hand shooting in JPEGs lets the camera make a decision which data should be removed. Automatically.

Keep in mind - the graphic designer should be smarter than a camera, or simple programs that allow you to fix the sharpness, contrast, brightness and a few other basic parameters.

The picture will be OK (kind of), but not perfect.

Conclusion: Let the photographer and graphic designer take care about the job properly done.

 To see the variety of product I shot click here

In my next article I'll cover editing techniques. Just general idea what should be done.