Morning Conundrum: DIY Wedding Albums

Morning Conundrum: DIY Wedding Albums

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Okey Doke, we’re going all matrimonial up in here this morning. I have a particular need for information, and I’m wondering if you can help me out. You see, I like to shoot weddings. I do not like to make albums. Rather, I provide all the negatives and high-res files to the bride and groom so that they can make their own.

Here’s the question: which vendors do I recommend? We’re looking for high-quality and ease-of-use (do those two things generally exist together?)… I’m a sucker for full bleed pages, so we need those. And the kicker– we want this thing at a reasonable price.

I’ve done a wee bit of research, and here are the folks who keep coming up:

my publisher
blurb
picaboo
sharedink
iphoto books
shutterfly
ofoto
printroom
photoworks
kodak gallery
lulu
mpix
reedy photo books
booksurge

Thoughts? Comments? I know you have them!

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There are 19 comments for this article
  1. jan at 10:59 am

    Blurb, hands down! Easy to use and the quality is great. I have found that iPhoto books lack a little in print quality. Only thing about BLURB is that their customer support is awful.

  2. Annie at 11:05 am

    You give your film and hi-res files to the bride and groom to make their own book? Ouch! I can almost hear other wedding photographers out there groaning now. Hey, I know the business of photography is tough, but practices like this make it that much tougher. On a side note, I feel better recommending a product that I have actually tried myself. I like AsukaBook, but you will need to register with them as a photographer. iPhoto and Blurb are also nice.

  3. dominic at 11:06 am

    Rachel, Quite some time ago, I signed up with White House Custom Color (www.whcc.com) out of Eagan, MN for doing most of my prints. Imagine my surprise when I found out they also do press printed products – (business)cards, posters and… books. Their prices are very reasonable as well – and the quality of their work is very good. I haven’t yet used them for a book (I did print full color front/back business cards on pearl paper, though), but there’s a project in the works which will be a good guinea pig for testing out some book printers. – d.

  4. Nora at 12:00 pm

    Annie – having gotten married last year, I can say that it’s now actually fairly standard practice to give the negatives or hi-res files to the couple. Rachel – I have made simple photo books for family using MyPublisher – it’s pretty user friendly

  5. Furchin at 12:07 pm

    Absolutely do not use Photoworks. Not only is the book only mediocre quality, but my experience with them was terrible. I ordered in early November for a Christmas present. The Christmas deadline was weeks away. Not only did I not get my book in time to give as a gift, but I was told several times it would arrive in time for Christmas. Then I was told it would arrive the day after Christmas. Then by January 1st. Photoworks kept making promises and then breaking them. Absolutely, by far and away, the worst photo-related experience I have ever had. Stay far, far away from Photoworks.

  6. Asuka user at 12:21 pm

    I have used Asuka for my commercial advertising books. Very nice people, and the workflow process is pretty streamlined. Just be aware of lead time. Obviously, the downside of using a printed book like this is the inability to update and add pages. But for a wedding thing, hopefully you’re not going to update it down the road, with pictures from the divorce meeting in the attorney’s office. So in that case, they’re a good solution. Asuka gives you a Photoshop template; you just drop in the images sized to their specs, saved in sRGB. Pretty straightforward.

  7. John Berry at 12:25 pm

    WHCC had very nice books, I’ve ordered several of them. You might also look at Vision Art, they have some of the nicest books I’ve ever seen. BUT, both of the above require that you design the pages and then send the designs to them to be printed and bound. There are quite a few album designers out there, but I’ve never used one so I can’t really recommend anyone. IF you want to design your own, Aperture has album design functionality built in. You’d just have to set up templates that are sized correctly for the album company you want to use. Sorry not to be of more help…

  8. Anne at 9:00 pm

    I think you’ve compiled pretty thorough list of companies who will work with the consumer. If your clients want something higher-end, however, they will need to work with a professional. Unfortunately, most of the highest-quality album producers require some level of “professional verification” before they will give you an account — i.e., they want to confirm that you a either a professional designer or photographer before they will allow you to purchase wholesale from them. I’m guessing that the primary logic behind this is that you have to have extensive knowledge of Photoshop or InDesign to create an album layout for pro album companies. Most pro companies don’t offer template-based options, and most brides/grooms wouldn’t know the first thing about designing an album from scratch. I’ve seen albums from nearly all of the companies you mentioned, and the quality is hit-or-miss. One book may be stunning, but the next arrives with severe banding or color shifts. Another books is sturdy, while another falls apart within days. If you really don’t want to deal with albums, just know that professional albums truly aren’t available through a non-pro printer and binder. At least, that has been my experience in the past five years. 🙂

  9. Anne at 9:03 pm

    Oh, and for what it’s worth, Asuka’s templates do NOT allow you to just “drag and drop” your images. You need to know at least the basics about cropping and resizing, and much more if you plan to layout more than one image per page. In addition, Asuka performs rather extensive professional verification. They do no work with consumers.

  10. Jeffrey at 8:49 am

    hi rachel! try http://www.pictage.com. i use occasionally and they always do a great job. easy to use and great customer service. Your clients chose and assemble their own album, but yes, you need to open an account first. But it’s not a big deal if it saves you time, right?!

  11. jena at 10:54 pm

    The problem with any digital pre-press book is that it’s not as archival as your standard silver gelatin print or a pigment inkjet print… you’re gonna get color shifting in 10 years (or less) with any of these companies. Additionally, they are printed in CMYK and I’m guessing your average clients has not a clue with how to get an accurate color conversion (even if the company does the conversion for you, which most of those listed do)… so will they be happy in both the short run (trouble with skin tones) or the long run (color shifting/fading)? IMO, a wedding album should outlast your lifetime, something you can pass down to your grandkids, ya know? You’re also asking for quality, fast, and cheap… and those are the three things you can never have all at once, you are only allowed 2 out of 3! Fast and Cheap: Blurb Quality and Fast: Couture Book Cheap and Quality: (doesn’t exist in the consumer market) If you’re willing to handle the back-end, two companies I recommend that only work with photographers (no consumers) are http://www.finaoonline.com/ and http://www.lushalbums.com Good luck with the search!

  12. Anne at 6:50 pm

    FWIW, we tried CoutureBook and the quality was beyond dreadful. Two colleagues from different companies had the same experience as us around the same time. In all cases, the binding split; there was awful banding in the prints; it took 3 times (or more) the promised time frame to deliver the finished books; etc. For the price, you’re much better off going with AsukaBook. Couture did a horrible job and I cannot give them a good recommendation.

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