Wedding album design principles/ideas

I have quite a few wedding albums to design in the near future, a mixture of matted, digital, and books. I can make a reasonable album, with good image selection, nice placement, creative uses of backgrounds, etc, but i'm wanting to take my albums to the next level. I've seen albums from some photographers or designers that make you go "wow", with interesting shapes, colors, lines, etc. I think my photos are good enough, but i'm looking for suggestions on how to "wow my albums up".

If anyone has principles for album design they'd like to share, book recommendations, or any other resources, i'd love to hear them.

Tim
Have a look at www.stuartlittlephotog​raphy.co.uk. This guy has created a few DVDs with some nice actions and edges but also a couple of Digital Album DVDs.

His Designing Wedding Albums DVD is excellent value providing some really useful tips on creating your own Wedding Album in Photoshop.

His tutorials give a good idea of what toi expect (the ones you pay for though are generally better and more detailed).

I'd advise checking him out on ebay as well as I got the DWA DVD for 9.99 I think it was. I've a couple of others too including his actions CD which is very useful.

Cheers
Jim

tim do you have a website with just your wedding photography?
i would be interested in seeing

PM sent

best bet is to go onto fredmiranda and click on the wedding forum, resource list at the top


gary fong has some premade software for sale that looks good, i'm just not a huge fan of him

This sounds like a bad thing to do... but I look at other photographers work and I copy the layout style and twitch it to make it mine. Watch all the proshow contest winners and take notes. Look at Graphistudio layouts. Learn from the pros...

I don't have a high opinion of Gary Fong, i'd avoid using anything of his if I could avoid it. He's a money grabbing opportunist who keeps releasing new un-improved versions of something that wasn't great in the first place, and makes stacks of money from people who don't know enough to know better.

I also look at other photographers work, decide what I like, and make my own versions, there's nothing wrong with that. Now if you copy their shots and their layouts exactly, then that's a problem!

I've just aquired myself a mentor, who happens to be one of the best photographers and album designers in the country, so that should help!

tim wrote:
PM sent

Hi Tim,

thanks for the link.. you have some really nice pics

how long have you been shooting pro for??

verty wrote:
Hi Tim,

thanks for the link.. you have some really nice pics

how long have you been shooting pro for??

I was first paid to shoot a wedding something like a year ago, and i've considered myself a professional photographer for... well... weeks now I've been supporting myself for the last few months solely on photography income and i've just joined the NZIPP recently, though I still sometimes hesitate to call myself a pro.

Tim, could I get a link to your website too? I was always wondering why you dont post it here??

I don't post it here because i'm quite outspoken, and i'd rather my customers don't see what I write! PM sent

I'd also be interested in seeing your website.

euh...
I'm too interested in seeing your website...

Ok, anyone interested, look at the website in my profile, go to the home page (ie remove /Featured from the URL), then click on the link!

LOL, I don't know why but I laughed out loud when I read this! It's funny that Tim saw the future and how many people wanted to see his work.

IMO, regardless of how anyone viwes Tims Photography, He has proven to provide quality feedback. and everyone should respect the fact that you protect your customers!

BTW, I don't like your work (lol.kidding)