Does a photographer have to hand over RAW files to a client in the UK?

No, unless the contract makes them a deliverable. UK law does not require a photographer to hand over working files. The client is entitled to the edited images the paper names, on the licence or assignment you signed. Possession of a RAW file is not copyright, and paying the invoice does not create a right to the catalogue.

The default is simple. You deliver what the contract lists. If the list is "40 edited JPEGs and a private online gallery", that is the delivery. RAW files, unedited selects, sidecars and catalogues stay with you.

Two separate rights get mixed up in the same email thread:

• Delivery of files. A contractual promise to hand over named files. If RAW is not on that list, you do not have to send it.
• Copyright. A property right in the photographs. You own it unless you assigned it in writing, signed. See Who owns the work a freelancer creates and Client using your work without paying.

A client who has paid for a wedding gallery has paid for that gallery. They have not, by paying, bought the right to every file on the card. Write the deliverables before the shoot. Contracts for photographers is the usual starting point; a photo licence is the usual paper.

You do. A photograph is an artistic work. The author is the first owner of copyright, unless you are an employee making it in the course of employment. Commissioning a shoot does not make the client the first owner. GOV.UK says the creator owns a commissioned work unless you agree otherwise in writing.

CDPA 1988 s.4 defines a photograph as an artistic work, irrespective of artistic quality: a recording of light or other radiation on a medium from which an image may be produced, that is not part of a film. RAW files sit inside that definition as much as the JPEG you export.

Section 11(1) then says the author of a work is the first owner of any copyright in it. The employee exception in s.11(2) applies to employees, not to a photographer working under a contract for services. GOV.UK on ownership of copyright works is blunt about commissions: when you ask someone to create a copyright work, the first legal owner is the person who created it, not the commissioner, unless you otherwise agree it in writing.

Before 1 August 1989 the commissioner owned copyright in commissioned photographs. That rule does not apply to shoots today.

Copyright here is UK-wide. The contract you sign on Contracts.io is the place that licence or assignment is written down.

No. An assignment of copyright is not effective unless it is in writing, signed by or on behalf of the assignor. Paying the invoice, saying "they're yours", or emailing a gallery does not move legal title. A licence is permission to use the photos, not a transfer of ownership.

CDPA 1988 s.90(3) is the whole rule. An IP assignmentIP assignmentAn IP assignment is a transfer of ownership in the work, so the client owns it instead of the person who made it.More in the glossary has to be in writing, signed by you or someone signing on your behalf. Section 90(2) allows a partial assignment — some rights, or part of the term — but it still has to meet s.90(3).

What payment can do is trigger a clause you already signed: "on payment in full, the Photographer assigns…". That clause is the written assignment, and payment is the event that makes it bite. Without that clause, payment is only payment.

GOV.UK warns that if copyright is not dealt with in the contract, courts may find an implied licence allowing the commissioner to use the work for the purpose it was commissioned. That is not ownership. It is often a limited non-exclusive licence. Silence on the paper is how a brand puts a wedding portrait on paid ads and then argues they thought they had bought it.

Handing over a RAW file does not assign copyright either. It hands over a copy. Using that copy still needs a licence or an assignment. See intellectual property assignment.

Moral rightsmoral rightsMoral rights are the author’s personal rights in a copyright work: to be identified as author, and not to have the work subjected to derogatory treatment. In the UK they sit in the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 ss.77–80. They cannot be assigned. They can be waived in writing, signed by the person giving them up, under s.87.More in the glossary sit beside copyright. You have the right to be identified as author, which must be asserted, and the right not to have the work subjected to derogatory treatment. Those rights cannot be assigned. They can be waived in writing, signed by you. An IP assignment that is silent on moral rights leaves them with you.

CDPA 1988 s.77 is the right to be identified as author of an artistic work, including when it is published commercially, exhibited, or a visual image of it is communicated to the public. Section 77(1) says the right is not infringed unless it has been asserted in accordance with s.78 — on the assignment, or by an instrument in writing signed by you.

Section 80 is the integrity right: not to have the work subjected to derogatory treatment, meaning a distortion or mutilation that is prejudicial to honour or reputation. Cropping a portrait for a campaign, adding a slogan across a face, or recolouring a documentary set can raise that right.

They are not assignable. Section 94 says so in one sentence. Section 87 lets you waive them by an instrument in writing signed by the person giving up the right. A waiver can be specific or general, conditional or unconditional. The moral rights page is the longer note.

Write four sentences, not one American "work for hirework for hireWork for hire is a phrase, common on US-style papers, meaning the client is treated as the author and owner of the work from the start.More in the glossary" heading: assignment or licence; assertion of the credit; the waiver you are actually giving; portfolio use.

Name the deliverables as a list, and say what is excluded. If RAW files are not being handed over, write that exclusion. If they are, write the format, the fee, the licence that applies to them, and when they are released. Agree that list on one shared draft before the shoot, not in a gallery-comments thread afterwards.

A working clause answers five things:

• what is delivered — count, format, colour space, gallery or drive
• what is not delivered — RAW files, unedited selects, catalogues, sidecars, presets
• when delivery happens, and that it is tied to payment
• the licence or assignment that applies to what is delivered
• how long you keep the files, and whether a later RAW request is a new paid job

Example — RAW excluded

Deliverables are the edited images specified in Schedule 1, in JPEG form, delivered by online gallery. RAW files, unedited selects, catalogues and working files are not deliverables and are not supplied. Copyright in the photographs remains with the Photographer. The Client is granted the licence in clause 5 on payment in full.

In Plain English: they get the finished JPEGs they bought. They do not get the RAW. You keep the copyright. They may use the JPEGs as the licence says, once they have paid.

Example — RAW for a named fee

If the Client wants the RAW files, the Photographer will supply a copy of the RAW files for the engagement on payment of the RAW fee in Schedule 1. That supply is a copy only. It does not assign copyright. Use of the RAW files is limited to the licence in clause 5, and the Client shall not sub-license, sell or give the RAW files to a third party.

Put the list in a photo licence. Pre-existing materials — presets, actions, earlier work — stay yours either way.

Four commercial options cover almost every job: exclude RAW; supply a copy for a fee under the same licence; supply a copy under a tighter licence; or a full buyout of copyright plus RAW. None of them is implied. Pick one, price it, and write it down.

A buyout is an IP assignment under s.90(3), usually on payment in full, plus a delivery line for the RAW. It is a different product from a usage licence. Price it as one. Do not give it away because the client asked in the handover email.

If they later want a wider use of the JPEGs, that is a licence extension, not a reason to send the catalogue. If they later want the RAW, that is a new fee or a refusal, depending on what you signed.

Licence unless the client is paying for ownership. A licence keeps copyright with you and grants named uses, territory and time. An assignment moves ownership, in writing, signed, usually on full payment. Photography, unlike a logo, is the usual case for a licence. Either way, the right should pass only when the invoice is cleared.

A photo licence is built for this split: web, social, print, paid ads, territory, duration, exclusivity. Wider or longer use costs more. The licence glossary is the short version.

Assignment is the campaign that needs to own the picture. Write it as an assignment on payment, not as a US "work for hire" heading, which does not do that work in England and Wales. Keep pre-existing materialspre-existing materialsPre-existing materials are tools, libraries or work the supplier already owned, which are licensed for the job rather than handed over.More in the glossary licensed, not assigned. Assert the credit under s.78 if a byline still matters. Waive integrity only as far as the campaign actually needs.

Handing over RAW does not choose this for you. You can licence the JPEGs and refuse RAW. You can licence the JPEGs and sell a RAW copy. You can assign copyright and still not send RAW, though most buyout clients will want the files. Write the two decisions as two sentences.

There is no statutory archive period for a photographer's RAW files. Keep them for as long as your contract says, then delete or charge to restore. Write the period, what happens when it ends, and that a later RAW request after that date is a new piece of work, if the files still exist.

A working archive clause names:

• how long edited files stay in the gallery
• how long RAW and working files are kept
• that you may delete them after that date without notice
• the fee, if any, to supply a copy during the archive window
• that you do not promise the files will still exist after the period

Example

The Photographer will keep the edited Deliverables available for download for 12 months from delivery, and will keep RAW files for 24 months from the shoot date. After those dates the Photographer may delete the files. A request for RAW files during the 24 months is charged at the RAW fee in Schedule 1 if RAW was not already a deliverable. The Photographer does not promise that any file still exists after the archive period.

In Plain English: a year to download the gallery, two years on the RAW, then it may be gone. If they want RAW during those two years and it was never included, they pay the RAW fee.

That period is an example, not a legal minimum. Insurance, a later dispute, or a wedding couple returning for a reprint are commercial reasons to keep a copy. Put the number you will actually keep to, so a 3am "send the RAW" email has an answer.

On Contracts.io both sides draft, negotiate and e-signe-signatureAn e-signature is any electronic way of showing agreement to a document, such as a typed name, a drawn signature or a click.More in the glossary one shared contract, so the RAW line is the version you both signed. Start from a photo licence. The client opens one link. Nobody emails v4_final.docx back and forth. Whether RAW is excluded, sold or assigned is then a signed sentence, not an argument after the gallery goes live.

You describe the shoot in a sentence. Lex, our AI host, drafts the agreement. You share one link. The client can Accept, Counter or Decline on that same version, then both of you e-sign it. The other side never pays and does not need an account.

That does not keep a RAW file on a drive for you. It does mean the deliverables list, the RAW exclusion or buyout fee, the licence and the moral rights waiver are the words you both signed. Contracts for photographers is the wider set of terms that sit around that clause.