Wedding Album FAQ

Over the last decade as a Wedding Photographer I’ve had sample albums from pretty much every manufacturer there is and the quality just wasn’t there in many of the other companies.

 

Poor materials

Dull, flat, print finish on the same paper across different companies (which shouldn’t happen)

Premature wears on the creases

Mats so heavy the print on the reverse side started to dent

Terribly bad binding strength meaning the book quite literally split down the spine.

Layout errors that should never have left the company

 

To name but a few. I also prefer companies that are ‘within reach’ so if I have a query it’s only a phone call away to someone who knows what they’re talking about.

While the prices vary greatly between each manufacturer on the surface there are some notable differences between each one.

 

Henley

Henley are the keenest priced books I offer and the quality is superb. It’s partly down to these being manufactured in the UK and the lower costs that come with having less cover varieties avaiable. They also only offer layflat / flushmount albums allowing their production runs to be more focused.

 

They also offer exact copies of albums and smaller versions at significant discounts. If I was looking to buy more than one book Henley would garner my attention.

 

Also, being based in the UK means less air miles and less of a carbon footprint.

 

Lastly, the delivery time from final proofing is usually just two weeks. If you’re reading this in November and are thinking of buying a book for Christmas, Henley is your only option.

 

Jorgensen

Jorgensen offer a huge swathe of cover colours. bold reds, brilliant blues to more subtle soft linens and pastels.

 

Their books have always been of exceptionally high quality with a price that relates. Until I offered Henley albums a lot of my couples went for Jorgensen and when it comes to traditional matted albums they still do.

 

I’ve always found Jorgensen’s matted albums to have a lovely, strong binding. I have a show book that is 10 years old now and it’s as good as the day I received it yet it’s been to many shows with me.

 

Delivery times on their albums from final proof to delivery is 4-5 weeks as everything is produced and assembled in Australia.

 

Queensberry

Queensberry albums are the most high end prestigious albums made in the world today. You could argue that a small part of the cost is paying for the name however there’s a level of prestige by owning a ‘Queensberry’.

 

I’s more than that though, these albums are excellent and they even come with a warranty. They also colour correct the albums further even after I have done so in order ot make sure everything looks the best it can be.

 

Their covers are specially selected, the leathers are true genuine leather, not the bonded type and come from the best select tanneries.

 

These are made in New Zealand with a 6 week lead time from ordering. They are the highest priced albums available and are worth the cost.

Absolutely.

 

Most photographers supply their work with permission for you to make prints and albums through a company of your choosing.

The service offered here is a personal and bespoke one producing high end quality albums otherwise unavailable to the general public by family run businesses in the UK, New Zealand and Australia.

 

They’re meant to be heirloom pieces that stand the test of time and are built to last.

Images that look great on a screen often look different in print and many images benefit from some level of sharpening for print, slight colour correction etc. The usual stuff.

 

As for retouching in it’s technical definition it’s usually good form to remove any health and safety signs from the image where possible as they draw the eye. Exceptionally noisy images can be treated, low resolution images can be upscaled (to a point).

 

All this additional work is included in the album price across the entire range. The only limits I have are that when an image is offered to me that’s too heavily processed it can be almost impossible to recover the detail.

 

If in doubt I’m always happy to take a look first.

For existing couples I’ve shot for:

 

You can purchase albums through your online store, the full range will be there. If you haven’t already picked the images in your online gallery (as favourites) then please do so.

 

You can also forward your image choices as numbers from your final set.

 

I’ll then design the album, proof it for you, make amendments and then once approved you can select your detailing (covers, wording, vellum print), that sort of thing.

 

 

 

For new couples:

 

Hello! If you’d like to order please have a look through the album options and once you know which is for you please fire me an email and we’ll take it from there.

 

The general production process is the same as above, the only difference is how you supply the images to me. I can accept your files through Dropbox, Wetransfer or as a USB drive through the post.

 

What is important is that the images are high enough resolution to make prints from. Photographers have a lot of different definitions of what High Resolution is. If you’re in any doubt you’re welcome to send them to me first to check over. I have certain tools to upscale an sharpen images if they need it.

Generally, a matted album holds up to 6 images per page and layflat / flushmount albums can hold up to 8.

 

Realistically though it’s advisable to lower that expectation to allow for feature images. If say, you have a 50 page matted album and 200 images then that’s a nice 4 images per page. But if out of those images 10 are large full page ones you’ll have 40 pages remaining to house 190 photos and you’ll head towards 5 images per page and things can become squeezed.

 

On the other hand, if you have 60 images of your guests at dinner then 6 images per page can give you more space.

 

As a guide, matted albums are recommended at 4 images per page with a small overspill. Layflat albums are at 5 images per page and that’s only if you allow for the design to fill both pages across the spread, otherwise 4 is still recommended.

 

You can add pages if your number is higher. For example, the Artisan books by Jorgensen can go up to 100 pages when using a thinner paper and you could arguably have an entire wedding on those.

 

Pages can be added in spreads. Two pages count as a spread so you aren’t limited to 30, 40 or 50 page albums but can have 42, 44, 46, 48 pages, etc.

Yes. It helps to know what kind of an layout design you’d like.

 

Layflat albums can be designed across two pages with the entire spread being filled without breaks across the centre spread or some prefer a page by page look.

 

Below are examples of each: