We hired a pro photographer to take family photos last summer during a beach vacation. My wife wants to use some of the photos for a Christmas card and she bemoaned the fact that in all the photos, the beach and sky have been pretty much whitewashed out of existence. I told her I could fix them in Photoshop if the photographer could provide RAW versions. We’re talking about 15 photos here. Is this a reasonable request? I assume the photographer still has the RAW versions, but not sure. The photographer in fact has not responded to my request. Maybe photographer feels insulted or something.
If they delivered the photos to you with a completely washed out sky and background, chances are the raw images aren’t going to help you. Im guessing if the sky could have been recovered, they would have done it. That’s the thing about shooting portraits outdoors with only natural light.