My two-part interview series with Daniel of Richmond's dmfoto is now a trilogy, thanks to PartyPlannerGal, who asked a great question that definitely calls for a follow-up. Have even more questions about album design? Keep them coming!
Do photographers mind if couples go to them just for the purpose of having a professional album created? Or is this a service that's offered only to clients?
Designing an album using another photographer's photos is something that a select few photographers will do, but most won't. It wouldn't hurt to call around and ask, but if a bride is trying to save money on an album, I definitely don't think this would be the way to go. Albums purchased a la carte from most photographers are usually considerably higher in cost than when purchased as part of a wedding day package.
I have thought about designing albums like this in the past, but this year alone has told me that I simply wouldn't have time. We shoot an average of 40-50 weddings a year, and almost all of them include albums that I design. At my slowest points during the year, I have the first album design ready for a couple to see about three or four weeks after the wedding. But during my peak time, it can be close to four months after the wedding before the couple sees their first album design. I design my albums completely from scratch, so it definitely takes time putting each page together.
This is also a sensitivity issue for a lot of photographers. For example, we shot a wedding reception a few years ago here in the United States, while the actual ceremony took place in Ireland. We unfortunately weren't taken along to shoot the wedding itself, and since the couple purchased an album from us, we had to get permission from the Irish photographer to design an album with those photos included.Did you purchase an album as part of your wedding photography package?
(Photo Credits: dmfoto)
What a great question!
ReplyDeleteThanks for this detailed response! We still haven't made any progress on our album, but it seems like we will need to go to DIY route after all. I imagine it's also pretty difficult to piece together the couples' day if you weren't actually there to know how it unfolded. Great, informative post :)
ReplyDeleteI completely agree!
ReplyDeleteNo, we didn't purchase one through our package as it was more costly. We won our wedding photography and paying for their travel fees to come to the wedding.
ReplyDeleteI was fortunate enough to win some photo album credits for 3 albums on the Picaboo site (one for our parents and one for us to keep!) through a giveaway so it all worked out great!
Really informative article.. thanks for sharing...
ReplyDeleteOur album came as part of our package which is what I wanted as otherwise I think we probably would have either never got round to it or never had the money again to pay for it.
ReplyDelete