With many wedding photographers offering disc or image only packages, clients now have the choice between having an album professionally designed or making their own. Putting together your own album could be fun and, after the expense of a typical wedding, it's also a nice idea to save some money. Is it worth spending out for a professional product, or could you do just as well yourself?
Designing and printing your own album
These days there are plenty of ways to put your own album together. The most basic choice is to pick up a low price blank album from the internet or a local supplier, get some prints made up and stick them in. It's not the most elegant solution, but it's cheap.
A step up from this is one of the increasing numbers of 'design your own' digital photo book providers, such as Bob Books or Blurb. Using the templates provided you can put together a good looking book at a very reasonable price.
It's also possible to buy good quality albums with pre-cut mats. Photos can simply be slipped behind the mats and the job's done. The design and cover options are limited but there are some nice products available.
Professional album suppliers and improved layouts
Photographer/designers will have many more providers to choose from, giving them a huge range of styles, qualities and sizes. The top international album companies only sell directly to registered photographers, so if you want to see the best albums you'll need to see photographers' sample books.
Professionals will also be using design software that gives them much more control over layouts than if they were using pre-designed templates. Designing from scratch will give you an album that's completely unique.
The difference between amateur and professional design
Getting your photos delivered on a disc is only half the job, images need to be processed and presented properly to get the best from them. Although they will probably have basic corrections done and are, in theory, ready to print, most photographers will do extra post-processing on every image before they are put in an album. They will try to get the best out of each one, matching them up so they blend together, fine tuning color and contrast, cropping and adding effects, so when they are eventually printed they really shine and stand out on the page.
If you employ a good photographer/designer you'll be getting someone with the ability to choose the right images, from the hundreds available, and put them together so they tell the story of your day. Great layout and design should make it a pleasure for the viewer to turn every page.
These skills take time and aptitude to learn and make all the difference to the look of an album. If you don't have the experience it's too easy to make uninteresting or over complicated layouts, cram too much on to each page, and pick images that don't really work.
Pick a professional for the best results
I'm a wedding photographer myself and completely biased in favor of professional wedding album design. That's not just because of the extra income it gives me, it's because I want to see the full potential of the images and to give my clients a fantastic product. I can't see the point of paying a photographer substantial amounts of money to record a wedding day and then deciding to stick some badly printed photos in a cheap book.
If the wedding expenses have cleaned out your bank account there's no need to get an album made up immediately, you can do it later, or ask your photographer if you can pay by installments. These are some of the most important photos you'll have in your life, so it's a worthwhile investment.
Despite the costs, there's no real substitute for a beautifully made, professionally designed wedding album.
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