Client files
Client RAW files and AI cloud tools
Five questions before you upload, and the offline way round it.
Client files
Five questions before you upload, and the offline way round it.
Most AI tools in this section are cloud tools. You upload the client's files and the work happens on someone else's computer.
For a photographer in the United Kingdom or the European Union that is not only a technical choice. Those files are personal data.
This page is not legal advice. It is the checklist I use before a tool touches a client folder.
Where are the files processed, and in which country are the servers.
How long are they kept after the job finishes.
Are they used to train the vendor's models, and can that be switched off.
Who at the vendor can look at them.
What happens to them if you stop paying.
Every vendor answers these somewhere. If you cannot find the answer, that is an answer.
Say plainly that third-party software may be used for culling, noise and retouching.
Name the categories, not every brand, so the clause survives a change of tool.
Give the client a way to object. Some corporate clients will.
For a hotel, a hospital, a school or anything involving children, assume cloud processing needs written approval first.
Mariya's verdict. On any shoot where the subject can be identified and the client is an institution, I keep the files local and use offline tools. It costs a little time and removes the entire question.
Aftershoot runs on your own machine. So do Lightroom, Capture One, DxO and the open source tools.
That combination covers culling, noise, upscaling and restoration without an upload.
The list is on open source AI photo tools.
Keep a note of which tool touched which job. If a client asks in a year, you will not remember.
One line in the job folder is enough: the tool, the version and the date.
The same note answers the other question that comes up: whether a frame was edited by software or by hand.
Say which steps are automated and which are done by a person.
Say where the files sit while the work happens.
Say how long you keep them after delivery, and delete them when you said you would.
Most clients never ask. The ones who do are the ones who read contracts.
A photograph of a person is personal data in the United Kingdom and the European Union.
Uploading it to a cloud tool means another company processes it on your behalf.
That is a normal, legal thing to do, and it comes with obligations you should be able to describe.
This page is not legal advice. It is the checklist I run before a tool touches a client folder.
Where are the files processed, and in which country are the servers.
How long are they kept after the job finishes.
Are they used to train the vendor's models, and can that be turned off.
Who at the vendor can look at them.
What happens to them if you stop paying.
Every vendor answers these somewhere. If you cannot find an answer, that is an answer.
A line saying third-party software may be used for culling, noise and retouching.
Categories rather than brand names, so the clause survives a change of tool.
A way for the client to object, because some corporate clients will.
A retention period for the original files, and a habit of actually deleting them.
Hospitals, schools, anything involving children.
Corporate clients with their own data policy, which is most of them above a certain size.
Hotels and venues where guests appear in the frames.
Any job where the subject can be identified and the client is an institution.
Culling: Aftershoot runs locally.
Editing: Lightroom, Capture One and DxO all process on your machine.
Noise: Lightroom Denoise and DxO PureRAW are local.
Upscaling and restoration: Upscayl, GFPGAN and CodeFormer are local and free.
That combination covers the everyday work without a single upload.
One line per job: which tool, which version, what date.
It answers the question a year later, when you will not remember.
It also answers the other question that comes up: whether a frame was edited by software or by a person.
| Case | Answer | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Where processed | Ask before the first upload | Country decides which rules apply |
| Retention | Ask how long | Then delete on the schedule you promised |
| Training | Ask whether you can opt out | The setting is usually in the account area |
| Institutional client | Keep it local | Schools, hospitals, hotels, anything with children |
| Record | One line per job | Tool, version, date |
This page is written by Mariya Harley, a fashion, portrait and hotel photographer working from a studio in west London.
The tools described here are the ones that reach a working photographer's desk, and the failures described are the ones that reach a client's screen.
Prices and features are read from vendor pages rather than repeated from other articles. The date of that check is printed above each table.
Nothing here is sponsored, and there are no affiliate links. A tool appears because it does the job, or because people ask about it.
What is deliberately absent: benchmark scores copied from press releases, rankings that change with the season, and any claim that software can replace direction, light or responsibility for the result.
If a price here is out of date, the vendor page wins. Tell me and I will correct it.
Every price and feature on this page was read from the vendor's own website on 25 September 2026.
Plans change often, and a tool that was a one-off purchase last year may be a subscription now.
Check the current page before you buy, and treat the figures here as a starting point for comparison rather than a quote.
Nothing on this page is sponsored. No vendor paid for a place in the tables, and there are no affiliate links.
This page is written by Mariya Harley, a fashion, portrait and hotel photographer working from a studio in west London.
The tools described here are the ones that reach a working photographer's desk, and the failures described are the ones that reach a client's screen.
Prices and features are read from vendor pages rather than repeated from other articles. The date of that check is printed above each table.
Nothing here is sponsored, and there are no affiliate links. A tool appears because it does the job, or because people ask about it.
What is deliberately absent: benchmark scores copied from press releases, rankings that change with the season, and any claim that software can replace direction, light or responsibility for the result.
If a price here is out of date, the vendor page wins. Tell me and I will correct it.