Work Exchange For Experience and Portfolio Work

Q:

I have been working with a start-up fashion magazine, and the chief editor agreed for me to photograph her arranged fashion shoots for experience and portfolio work. However, the problem is that when I turn in my edited photos to her, she often retouches them over my finished edits. She then posts this and tags me in the photos. I hate this and don’t know how to get her to stop.

A:

I’ve heard all types of photographers get upset about this topic where clients change the final retouched images. In my business, we cannot control clients from retouching images as they like. We may demand that we do the retouching in-house, but all of this must be agreed upon before the job estimate is approved. We can control whether we grant permission for the client to tag the photographer’s name or not.