Your day was perfect! The decorations, cake and flowers looked amazing. Your wedding party, family and friends had a wonderful time dancing and socializing and your send off was spectacular. It was everything you envisioned and more.
It’s been a week or two since you’ve returned from your honeymoon and you check your answering machine and hear that your photographer has your preview session ready for you check out highlights of your fabulous day. You sit down with your new mate with anticipation and laugh and cry as you review the day’s activities with your wedding photographer. You can’t wait to get your images so you can start posting them on Facebook so that others can share the memories with you.
After a beautifully put together slideshow, you sigh and think to yourself how glad you are to be done with the wedding. That now you can concentrate on something else for a while! Well, that is partly true but there is still work to be done if you commissioned your wedding photographer to provide a coffee table or magazine-style wedding album for you.
THE WEDDING ALBUM
The wedding album (and even the disk of images) represents the final product of your wedding day coverage. While many couples look forward to enjoying a custom designed wedding album as part of their photography, many forget that they themselves must play a role in the designing of the album.
In times past, when wedding photography was shot on film, many photographers provided a proof album for the couple to look at, from which the couple chose a certain number of 8×10’s or 4×5’s as their wedding album. These prints were slipped into plastic sleeves and had mats that could be inserted to accommodate either a horizontal or vertical orientation of the print. While pretty simple to put together, the images tended to be very traditional types of prints.
Well, albums of today aren’t your momma’s albums and savvy brides are looking for storytelling images, cover options and unique sizes to compliment their wedding day coverage. A top notch photographer will understand how to help their client work through the design process in order to provide a unique reflection of the couple and their style.
HOW COUPLES CAN HELP
So you might ask yourself, what is my role as the bride and/or groom in designing this wedding album. There are several things that the couple can do that will help the photographer with the design aspect and also speed up the process before final delivery.
Keep in mind-each wedding photographer will have their own studio policies as to specific types of editing, usage of color, album materials and even if they allow the couple to pick the images or not that will go into their album. (I know of a very high-end photographer who lets his clients know that after the wedding is shot, he will be in full control until the final approval of their album.)
Other photographers prefer to have clients pick a range of images (dependent upon the size and amount of pages in their album) that are their favorite images and then the photographer designs the album around these selected images.
STEP ONE
Talk with your photographer in advance about the type of images that you are drawn to. As a photographer, when I am discussing album design with my clients I ask them a range of questions. For example, what kinds of images are you drawn to personally, clean, modern, sophisticated types of images or romantic, colorful, whimsical types of images? Upon determining the clients’ style, the photographer can have a better idea of where to start in the design process once the image filenames have been shared.
STEP TWO
When picking your images, decide what kind of story you want your album to tell. Your album is a reflection of your wedding day and if family and friends were your focus, then you will want to include those types of images in the album.
Was it your dream to be married in a barn and have a stylized wedding surrounding the details that went into the decorations and wedding venue? Then you might focus on more detail shots and the elements that went into all the preparation it took to make your day exactly what you wanted it to be. Whatever direction you go, remember that when it’s all said and done, your album should reflect your personality. In essence, this is the uniqueness that you bring to the table for the design process.
STEP THREE
Know what you purchased and talk with your photographer about how many images you are allowed to pick. I like to send an email to my clients reminding them of the size and how many pages are in their album and at this time I give them a range of images to include.
While award-winning albums are generally made up of few images and lots of “negative space”, many couples want to cram as many pictures into a 10×10 page as they can. A great rule of thumb is to allow for 3-4 images per page in your album. So, if you are getting a 10×10 12-side/24 page album, ideally between 70 and 95 images will be included in your album.
Most albums are designed with an opening page, a closing page and two-page spreads in between. Many photographers include the couples name and wedding date on the inside front page and usually have a parting shot to conclude the album-much like the end of a good movie so think about the type of image or images you would like to see at the beginning and end.
Square dimension albums need to be designed differently than rectangular ones and your photographer should be well versed in knowing about bleed lines, where text should go and if the gutter will go through the middle of a person’s face.
STEP FOUR
Be specific when referring to image filenames. Some photographers will deliver the disk of images before the album design process has occurred while others will deliver the disk after the design process has been completed (in order to include the files that the couple picked to be completely edited and album ready). Ask your photographer what their policy is.
STEP FIVE
Make a list of your images and put them into groups such as pre-ceremony, ceremony, family shots, wedding part shots, reception, and going away. Aim for a nice general feel to the entire day and ask yourself, did I pick too many images of one thing versus another. Balance out the day with your image list.
STEP SIX
Talk with your photographer about common photo editing (blemish removal, lightening, darkening) and which require the skills of a digital re-toucher. Edits take time and time is money. Most photographers will do as much of the editing processing as they can but if it needs to be sent to the lab to be retouched, the cost may be passed on to you.
STEP SEVEN
Once your album has been designed and is ready for you to review, be sure to look through it carefully, and take your time. Check for duplications, omissions, typos, etc.
Most photographers know there are going to be a few changes, so carefully note what changes you want done and on which pages. It helps to be specific so note files names and refer to images by their location on a page (top right hand corner of page 3, image00235.jpg) This enables your photographer to quickly look at the page, locate the image to be changed and then replace or further edit.
Once the change order has been placed, your photographer will make the changes and have you review for your final approval. Once again, take your time to proof, because often, if a couple decides to change something else, there may be an additional fee.
STEP EIGHT
Once you’ve approved your wedding album, it can take anywhere from 4-8 weeks to get it back from the lab, and this vary depending on the time of year. Your work is done and soon you will be able to enjoy your wedding day forever with a custom designed album.
For more information about custom wedding albums, contact your photographer.
Photographer Kathy Norwood provides photography for weddings, portraits, seniors and families in Bryan-College Station and the surrounding areas. She is a member of the Professional Photographers of America, Texas Professional Photographers Association, Wedding & Portrait Photographers International and Children and Family Photographers of America.