Most couples want an album to showcase their images in after their wedding, and what a wonderful time to be living in with such a wealth of album styles, sizes, covers! So as photographers it's our job to make sure that they have the kind of album that suits their wedding, right? But with more and more photographers selling disks of images, brides think they can do it themselves - afterall, all it takes is a template, a quick drag and drop of 100 pictures, a click of a button and poof! You're done, album arrives a week later on the doorstep and looks a-m-a-zing ... ah, amazingly naff!
So here's a quick guide to album design for every photographer that just KNOWS that producing an album is a doddle, and doesn't understand what the fuss is all about! (And for those missing a sense of humour, this is a tongue in cheek look at album designing!)
Firstly, give absolutely no consideration to the album when shooting the wedding - I mean, what's the point of that? Who on earth knows what's going into the album afterwards? It's just way too much effort to even think of the album during the wedding. Now, let's just get on and take 2,000 photographs - there's bound to be a good image or two in there somewhere!
Next, having learned a bit about Photoshop, process all the images with different techniques - a bit of black and white here, some saturation there, spot colouring here and there, a little bit of sepia here, oh, and how about a touch of desaturation on those images over there? This is so cool, all of these different techniques you can do in Photoshop!
Now, let the couple pick all the photographs that they like without any input from you - it's their album, so they should pick everything that goes into it, right? It doesn't matter what they pick because it's their wedding, their memories.
As for the album design - that's easy. Just look at what you can do with this template software! You can put photographs onto the page as a background, either full or reduced opacity and then add another 6 photographs on top! And then look at this, you can use all kinds of fancy borders, add a bit of white vignette, a red keyline on these photographs, and a blue one on those, and you can change the colour of the background too! Wow, classy!
Oh, now, wait a mo, here's something that's cool! You can put 5 photographs on this page - let's just tilt this one to the left, and that one to the right a bit. And then look here, you can put one big photograph and 8 little ones around it on the page, whilst on the following page you can put in a few overlapping images. Your clients will just love the fact that they get 200 images in a 20 page album!
OK, so maybe there is a teensy weensy need to just say a little about album design from a serious perspective, taking that tongue well out of the cheek.
Why shoot for the album? Well, when you do that you make sure you have images that will work together on the page - the direction the people are facing, the colour schemes, the context. I always view it as being that there are 3 elements for each part of the story - the establishing shot (giving an indication of what the story is about over the spread), the context, and the detail.
What about the Photoshop work? Do you know what your style is? Although it's possible to create all kinds of Photoshop styles in your work, it helps to have a coherence across your images so that the images all work together.
When it comes to the picking of the images, whilst your clients want the album to reflect their day, they are not experts in wedding photography, it's your job to be the expert, both in the taking of the photographs that tell the story of their wonderful day, and in the album design that shows off the story of the day in the best way possible. The most effective picking approach is to give your clients a choice of options - they can pick all the images themselves; they can tell you the images they love and the images they hate and leave you to pick from those they love; they can tell you the images they hate and leave you to pick from the rest of the image; or they leave you complete freedom to design the album. Most of my clients go for the third option, telling me the images not to go in the album. They have the opportunity to proof the album design before it goes to print.
As for the use of templates for your album design, use them sparingly - just because the software contains 20 different borders, 40 different page designs, and the ability to overlap, use different coloured keylines, drop images on the background, you don't have to use them all! Always remember KISS - Keep It Simple Stupid! The best designs are the ones that have clarity and simplicity to them - more is less. Decide on a design style that suits your style of photography and fits with your business, and stick to it.
Most people say it takes them best part of a year of shooting weddings to also get a handle on how to design wedding albums - so at every opportunity practice, practice and then practice some more! Work out how you want your albums to look, and start shooting for the album; decide on the orientation of the album, the sizes you'll work with, and stick with them, and identify the kind of design style that works for you and work at mastering making that style look good!
And next time you catch yourself saying that design is easy, remember, anyone can make an album, but only an expert can design a beautiful book that will be cherished forever as it narrates the story of the couple's day. You owe it to your couple to do more than throw a few pictures into a book. Become an album design expert, and allow your couples to enjoy the most beautiful book of memories for a lifetime.
So here's a quick guide to album design for every photographer that just KNOWS that producing an album is a doddle, and doesn't understand what the fuss is all about! (And for those missing a sense of humour, this is a tongue in cheek look at album designing!)
Firstly, give absolutely no consideration to the album when shooting the wedding - I mean, what's the point of that? Who on earth knows what's going into the album afterwards? It's just way too much effort to even think of the album during the wedding. Now, let's just get on and take 2,000 photographs - there's bound to be a good image or two in there somewhere!
Next, having learned a bit about Photoshop, process all the images with different techniques - a bit of black and white here, some saturation there, spot colouring here and there, a little bit of sepia here, oh, and how about a touch of desaturation on those images over there? This is so cool, all of these different techniques you can do in Photoshop!
Now, let the couple pick all the photographs that they like without any input from you - it's their album, so they should pick everything that goes into it, right? It doesn't matter what they pick because it's their wedding, their memories.
As for the album design - that's easy. Just look at what you can do with this template software! You can put photographs onto the page as a background, either full or reduced opacity and then add another 6 photographs on top! And then look at this, you can use all kinds of fancy borders, add a bit of white vignette, a red keyline on these photographs, and a blue one on those, and you can change the colour of the background too! Wow, classy!
Oh, now, wait a mo, here's something that's cool! You can put 5 photographs on this page - let's just tilt this one to the left, and that one to the right a bit. And then look here, you can put one big photograph and 8 little ones around it on the page, whilst on the following page you can put in a few overlapping images. Your clients will just love the fact that they get 200 images in a 20 page album!
OK, so maybe there is a teensy weensy need to just say a little about album design from a serious perspective, taking that tongue well out of the cheek.
Why shoot for the album? Well, when you do that you make sure you have images that will work together on the page - the direction the people are facing, the colour schemes, the context. I always view it as being that there are 3 elements for each part of the story - the establishing shot (giving an indication of what the story is about over the spread), the context, and the detail.
What about the Photoshop work? Do you know what your style is? Although it's possible to create all kinds of Photoshop styles in your work, it helps to have a coherence across your images so that the images all work together.
When it comes to the picking of the images, whilst your clients want the album to reflect their day, they are not experts in wedding photography, it's your job to be the expert, both in the taking of the photographs that tell the story of their wonderful day, and in the album design that shows off the story of the day in the best way possible. The most effective picking approach is to give your clients a choice of options - they can pick all the images themselves; they can tell you the images they love and the images they hate and leave you to pick from those they love; they can tell you the images they hate and leave you to pick from the rest of the image; or they leave you complete freedom to design the album. Most of my clients go for the third option, telling me the images not to go in the album. They have the opportunity to proof the album design before it goes to print.
As for the use of templates for your album design, use them sparingly - just because the software contains 20 different borders, 40 different page designs, and the ability to overlap, use different coloured keylines, drop images on the background, you don't have to use them all! Always remember KISS - Keep It Simple Stupid! The best designs are the ones that have clarity and simplicity to them - more is less. Decide on a design style that suits your style of photography and fits with your business, and stick to it.
Most people say it takes them best part of a year of shooting weddings to also get a handle on how to design wedding albums - so at every opportunity practice, practice and then practice some more! Work out how you want your albums to look, and start shooting for the album; decide on the orientation of the album, the sizes you'll work with, and stick with them, and identify the kind of design style that works for you and work at mastering making that style look good!
And next time you catch yourself saying that design is easy, remember, anyone can make an album, but only an expert can design a beautiful book that will be cherished forever as it narrates the story of the couple's day. You owe it to your couple to do more than throw a few pictures into a book. Become an album design expert, and allow your couples to enjoy the most beautiful book of memories for a lifetime.
0 comments:
Post a Comment