Album Designing Workflow

Hi all,

I'm curious about something. When you're designing an album are you working with images that you've already processed (curves, levels, adjustments, etc) or are you working with the raw unedited version just to get a feel for how the album should look?

I'm still working on setting up a good work flow, so any insight into your methods would help me out a great deal.

Thanks!

That's the 1 million dollar question. Usually I ask the B&G to select their favorite photos, then I add my favorite photos, some supporting photos, and finally some I took for backgrounds. I process them so the basics are done (levels, contrast, etc), and sometimes I do a little photoshop work (B&W, interesting effects, etc). Then I batch them from RAW to JPG, import them into my album design program (PhotoJunction), and do my design. I often find myself going back to the RAW files to make a change, or add another photo I need, so I have to process more to start with I think. Once the album layout's complete I do any further photoshop work that's required, import the photos into PJ, then drag and drop the updated images onto the pages. Next is client proofing, then production.

Also, somewhere in there, I often post a half complete design to POTN for thoughts and suggestions, which are always very helpful!

Stuart Little (Stuart Little Photography) clued me into a potentially great way of dealing with this in Photoshop CS2...

If you have your album (or book) pages set up as a series of templates, you can drag your RAW files in directly from Adobe Bridge as 'smart objects' ...no need to convert or process until everyone's happy with final content, etc..

I've been using Raw Shooter Premium for conversion, and then into Photoshop CS2 - but this method could be very good reason for doing the whole thing within CS2.

Details can be found in Stuart Little's 'Designing Wedding Albums' DVD that has been mentioned here before. He sells on UK eBay, but his website is: www.stuartlittlephotog​raphy.co.uk

Rob

my workflow prety close to Tim's...
get fav pics from B&G, pick my own fav pic, bg pics...then I use YSI for page design and layout...in mean time crop pics the way I like them to apear on page...
I take lots of bg and detail pics during the wedding specificaly for album or dvd slideshow

slightly off topic:

are you saying that the day of the wedding you take specific shots just to use as backgrounds for the album? are they mostly scenery shots or is there something else you look for?

My wedding photographer takes shots of the overall scenary, cake, dress details, and flowers to use as backgrounds for a digital storybook album. Now, that's a professional!

Thanks for the help everyone. This will give me a good start on designing my first album.

Yes, I take shots specifically for backgrounds.

jaykkub, take a look at this thread.