Hi folks, this is my first post here and I need some tutoring on wedding albums. I've just agreed to shoot my first wedding in October (9 months from now).

A little background: I've developed a niche in dance and performance photography (primarily ballet) as well as shooting portraits of dancers. I've also shot several events for corporations and a cancer fundraiser. I'm pretty comfortable with my photographic skills, plus, my 'assistant' on this shoot is a former wedding photographer (1970s) and I have several months to prepare. A principal ballet dancer for one of the ballet companies I regularly photograph has asked me to be her wedding photographer. I made sure that she knows the risk of hiring a 'first timer' but she is certain she wants me. Ok, 'nuf said.

I'm preparing an estimate for her. I can price out my time and put together a print package for her, but I'm somewhat at a loss for the wedding album. Now, I still have to meet with the bride to discuss her specific desires when it comes to her album (and parent’s album). All I have so far is that she wants lots of photos and a "big" album. I asked what big means, and she said 30-40 pages. She told me she wants a 'coffee table book' style album, which I understand is the popular style today. For the performance photography I do, in the past I've used Blurb.com to make some proof books from which parents can order prints of their dancers, but their quality is nowhere near the quality I would expect for a wedding album. Plus the layout was pretty easy: a 3x3 grid on a white background.

So my question is how to price the album. I’ve been looking into AsukaBooks and the wholesale cost of a common size and style is $200-$400, depending on the number of pages. I understand AsukaBooks is middle of the road in price and quality. I don’t think the bride knows how much to budget for an album of this kind, and I don’t know how much time I should plan on spending on page layout. I think I could easily spend ½ hour per plate, which for a 40 plate album at my normal hourly rate makes the price of the album more than my first car.

What should my expectations be when it comes to the time required for album layout (I’m pretty proficient with Photoshop)? Should I price the album based on its wholesale cost? How much do you collaborate with the bride/groom when it comes to album design?

My instinct is to quote the price of shooting the wedding/reception, offer several print package options, and have an allowance for the album. Just like when I built my house, the builder had allowances for several items, and if it cost more (it never costs less!), I had to pay the difference. The big question, what should I have for an album allowance?

Thanks for reading a long post and any advice you can offer.

-Dave-

HI Dave,
I try as much as possible to keep "simple" a part of everything I do. I use zoho design to do my albums ($10 a side) and then they send everything to zookbinders. Your cost for 20 pages/40 sides design, print and bind is around $900. Not cheap but it sure does save time and eye sight staring at a computer screen.

Hope that helps.

-Ryan

http://www.kissweddingbooks.com/

They are very simple and straight forward. They offer three sizes. There are a lot of raves going on about them. I have not tried them for myself yet, but definetely plan to do so in a very near future. Their customer service is GREAT. Just to give you an idea about prices: 10x10; 20 pages album is $300. If you want more info, just sign up with them.

Elena

Define coffetable book - in her mind!
Even photographers disagree on what it is. To ME, it's the TYPE of book - like the asuka book. A hard cover, paper page book.
Storybook to ME is the design of it - a story of the wedding day. Collage style sorta thing. Non-matted design maybe a better way to say that. Labs sometimes call it 'digital design' or a digital album.

I (and my clients, or at least this market) prefer teh story book style design, but on hard pages, non-matted. GP Albums Optimus, ArtLeather's iMount and many others are in this category and very popular.

As for design there are as many ways to that as there are labs out there - hundreds. Some companies sell or offer their own software (usually with templates) cheaply, or not, as the case may be. You can always use PS, but to me that takes way too much time.

For a one-off wedding deal I'd suggest you outsource the design - you should be able to get a sample of some kind (web even) so you and the bride will know what to expect.

I'll do the design if you want - I can put a rough design together in a couple of hours using Fotofusion (by lumapix).

Cost wise...a 30 side 10x10 self-stick book can be had for $80-100. Prints cost what they cost ($3/each? no need to pay for CC on storybook style pages). So $200 covers the physical cost. PM or call me and we cant talk design issues, costs, etc if you're interested.

Christopher, do you have any sample spreads you can share?

If you still need to see an album check this out. It is headed to Graphi.
Chris J.