Album Design Blog

Featured Photographer: Vanessa Dewson Photography + Design

Vanessa Dewson is a wedding photographer from Ottawa, Ontario. Not only is she an great photographer, she also has a background in graphic design and infuses that into her work.

I asked Vanessa a few questions about her work, and why she thinks that albums are such an important part of her business.

Why do you love selling wedding albums to clients? Why are they important to your couples?
Albums are a part of all my wedding packages because I truly believe they are the best way to preserve memories of such an important day. They are the classic keeper of time. I also knew too many friends who only got a disc with the files and never did anything with them until 2 or 3 years later and in one case, I still don’t think they made an album and have been married for over 10 years and have two kids! All have talked about not getting an album right away with regret. It’s much harder to choose images you want to include when a lot of time had passed and you have come down from the wedding high. It becomes a daunting chore rather than something that should be exciting to create. I think it’s a disservice for photographers not to offer albums as it’s an important end result. DVDs can get scratched or lost and will probably go the way of floppy discs one day. And we all know hard drives can not always be trusted to keep your memories safe. Albums are tactile and with the amazing choice of styles, custom designed layouts, print quality and page finishes that are available to professional photographers, they can be real works of art in themselves.

Nikon or Canon?
Nikon. My Dad had a Nikon FE that he gave me when I was a teen. I’ve been loyal to the brand ever since!

What is your favourite lens?
Favourite lens? Hmmm… It’s always the latest one I bought. lol Seriously, I couldn’t live without my 50mm and my 70-200 VR II.

Favourite kind of candy:
I don’t eat a lot of candy – dark chocolate is my weakness – but I wouldn’t turn away a handful of Sour Kids…or M&Ms, or Reese’s Pieces…

Vanessa chose a mixed layout of full bleed and white space for her clients’ hardcover album from AsukaBook.

Featured Photographer: Nat Bertrand Photography

Nat Bertrand is a wedding photographer from Ottawa, Ontario. Her images are bright and vibrant with a truly honest feel to them.

I asked Nat a few questions about her work, and how she uses albums in her photography business.

Why do you love selling wedding albums to clients? Why are they important to your couples?
To me the wedding album is like a story book, without words. It tells the story of the wedding day. As the old saying goes a picture is worth a million words. It is so true!!! For my couple, I hope I am creating heirloom that will be passed down from generation to generation. Evoking joy and excitement for all that view it for years to come.

Nikon or Canon?
Canon

What is your favourite lens?
It’s a toss up between my 50mm 1.4 and 70-200 L2.

Favourite kind of candy:
Rockets, each year around Halloween time I treat myself with a big bag of Rockets. 

Nat chose to have a mixed layout of full bleed and white space for her clients’ Original Album from Vision Art.

10 Tips for Shooting and Editing for the Album

Here are 10 tips to keep in your mind while you are shooting as well as afterwards during your workflow.

1. First and foremost you need to remember that shooting for the album means that you are telling a story. This means that you will need to have the story flow and make sense as it’s presented in an album. Images shouldn’t be all random. More than one image should be taken in each location, allowing for a spread to be created of that location. ie: a large image and 2 smaller ones – therefore you’d need at least 3 images for that part of the story.


Portraits by elizabeth&jane photography

2. Shoot a landscape oriented shot of the couple or family for the cover. This shot should ideally have the couple or family framed in the right hand side of the image so you have the option of wrapping the image around the spine to the back. The image does not have to have the subjects looking at the camera – I usually save the couple or family looking at the camera shot for the inside of the book.


Portraits by elizabeth&jane photography

3. Make sure to get at least one 3-5 image sequence shot. These shots work best when some action is happening. Weddings: Bride and groom dancing or twirling etc. Portraits: Kids jumping, playing, running etc.


Portraits by elizabeth&jane photography

4. A wide shot of the location is important for establishing where everything is happening (Wedding: please allow for ceremony AND reception venues, if they are different)


Portraits by elizabeth&jane photography

5. Details shots are a nice way to lead into different parts of the story. Weddings: I like to featured details such as the dress, shoes, rings, bouquet first, then leading into the ceremony it is nice to have details shots of the location, same with the reception. Portraits: you can photograph closeups of the child’s hands, shoes or clothing or even around the family’s home etc.


Portraits by elizabeth&jane photography

6. Weddings: At least one individual shot of the bride AND the groom separately (you would be surprised at how many photographers forget to take an individual shot of the groom and yet have about 20 bridals – don’t forget your groomals!). Portraits: an individual shot of each child, as well as at least one shot of the parents together, without the kids – the last time they probably had a shot like that was likely at their wedding!


Portraits by elizabeth&jane photography

7. An ending shot. Weddings: Usually this is the couple walking away in the evening, the first dance or a night portrait of the couple. Portraits: this is best as a great family shot – ones walking away are fantastic but not necessary.


Portraits by elizabeth&jane photography

8. Be conscious when editing your images. If you make only one image black and white, and the rest are colour, when putting that image in a design with all colour images, it will look out of place. It’s best to make a few black and white in that series so that there isn’t just one that is a different tone. This also applies to any effects that change the tone of the image – it’s best to keep everything as consistent as possible.


Portraits by elizabeth&jane photography

9. When preparing your files to put them in the album, make sure you have them in the proper sequential order – this is more important for wedding albums than portrait albums. This will save you from headaches later when the bride asks you to move an image to the proper order as to when the event took place. (I have totally had this happen to me and I just about cried because it meant redesigning the spreads!)


Portraits by elizabeth&jane photography

10. Albums always look better when there are less images rather than more. Cramming 200 images into a 40 page album makes it look very cluttered and would look more streamlined with around 80-100 images.


Portraits by elizabeth&jane photography

I want to give a special thank you shout out to Jeremy Sale Photography for giving me the idea for this post!

Featured Photographer: Trish Roberts Wedding Photography

Trish Roberts is a wedding and portrait photographer in London, Canada who sent in a gorgeous destination wedding to be created into a stunning 40 spread layout! Half of the album was dedicated to the actual wedding and the other half was the day after session which is really something to see.

I asked Trish a few questions about her work, and her love for albums.

Why do you love selling wedding albums to clients? Why are they important to your couples?
When someone looks at a wedding album, I want them to feel like they were at the wedding, even if they weren’t …to experience the sights, the smells and so much more of the day…it needs to tell the story…fully.

Nikon or Canon?
Canon

What is your favourite lens?
Canon 70-200mm 2.8

Favourite kind of candy:
Dark chocolate makes me weak in the knees. <3

Trish chose to have a mixed layout of full bleed and white space for her clients’ Alba Album from Willow Paper Works.

Selecting the right album style for your clients

There are a lot of different options out there when it comes to album companies and their different styles of books – it can definitely be overwhelming.

In this video, I describe the differences between a press-printed book, a flushmount album and a fine art museum paper book.

I’d like to note that I made some errors while blabbing on – the VisionArt Original book can accommodate 90 PAGES, which is 45 spreads (I said 90 spreads). Also, I mentioned that the flushmount albums are mounted to masonite – I cannot confirm this for all companies but it is what came out of my mouth so I apologize if the material I mentioned is wrong.

Also, please disregard the not-so-good sound quality of this video. I don’t claim to be a videographer in any respect (which is why I hired one for my own profile video). This video is just done with my super awesome Flip camera.

And without further ado, the feature presentation!

For some technical info about the different printing processes, please follow these links:
Press Printed Process
Vision Art’s fine art, museum quality paper with archival inks. Also a more in depth review of VisionArt books specifically can be found here.
Flushmount Albums

A special thank you to Julie Butler for allowing me to use three of her sample albums as well as her beautiful studio.