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1 year agoYou can ask but expect to either get a no answer or if they do say yes, you’ll probably be asked to pay more.
You may want to ask if they can be re-edited.
It does concern me that the final images you have are being reported by you in an unusable condition. The RAW files may be of no use if you are getting sub standard images delivered to you.
Bigger issues may be in play here
I had a photography business for just shy of 2 decades. I would often get other photographers that wanted to get into the business contact me and ask about the whole process.
I’d charge them a consultation fee - and this would keep the drive bys at bay. I had probably 4-5 consults like this and 2-3 of them went on to be successful. The market I live in is really big, so competition is. It so much an issue. The niche they wanted to get into was different than what I did (portraiture, but they wanted to do baby and mini shoots and that is not my thing at all).
Even so, I know of a few larger corporations CEOs that will give you a few hours of their time if you pay.
Seems very fair.
However, business is business and people are busy, out there hustling. No one is entitled to anything and no one owes anyone else anything.
I’ve changed as now I’m doing journalism and not paid photo shoots anymore, so I don’t have the worry about training a competitor, so I do tend to help out more pro bono than I used to.
The only thing I never understood was when photographers got all secretive about what gear they use, EXIF data and their post processing workflow.
The “secret sauce “ is not the gear or the plug in you use. The key is cultivating the eye to see what needs to be captured, getting the light how it needs to be.
Oh, and I’d say that about 80% of photographers think they are better than everyone else or are a-holes anyone - so o don’t think that this situation the OP is in is gatekeeping, it’s just probably people being busy, personalities.