Help with wedding photo album.

[woof woof]

Hi all,

Me and my GF married in July and I asked a family member to do the pictures and produce a couple of albums, one for us here in the UK and one to send to Mrs Woof Woof's family over seas. This family member is a struggling part time pro and amongst other things does weddings so I thought I'd offer to pay the going rate and keep it all in the family and help them out etc. What could go wrong?

Anyway, fast forward four and a half months and I was given a link to our pictures, 300+, they're all unprocessed raws and they're not mind blowingly good (poor compositions, heads cut off, under exposures, over exposures, out of focus shots etc) I feel disappointed for my Mrs but we can get enough together to make an album so we'll be happy enough. The vast majority are landscape orientation 3:2 with just two portrait orientation shots and to overcome some poor compositions I've had to heavily crop some. I kept the heavy crops 1:1 so that we have just the three image types, 3:2, 2:3 and 1:1. So that's where we are now but the lack of communication and excuses and poor end results make me nervous about going back and asking for albums so I think I'll do it myself.

I'm nervous of sending the pictures off and having albums made up as I don't know who to use and it's something I've never done before and the only digital picture I've ever paid to have printed was unusable, I redid the picture myself at home and that's the one that got framed and hung. So, a lack of experience with professional printers and my one bad experience has made me nervous. An option is printing at home. I have an Epson R2880 and basic but good enough home printing skills and everyone's been happy with my prints to date.

I thought I'd ask here... am I mad to think about home printing or is it perfectly reasonable or should I send my pictures off for albums to be made up.

For the home DIY option I looked on Amazon and wedding albums are from under £20 or so and up. If this is a good enough option is there anything I should go for or avoid or is sending the pictures off a much better option and if so can anyone recommend someone and what would I need to supply.

HELP appreciated

 

[DG Phototraining]

If you're happy to print them yourself then buy a good quality album to put them in and have fun with Mrs Woof Woof planning the layout etc.

There's plenty of album 'books' available online now which have their own software to aid design, though I've only ever found it annoying that it doesn't do what I want, so you might find it better & more fun to design the layouts yourselves in Photoshop and save them as one 'page' jpegs to upload

I'd be asking Mrs WW what quality she's after and see what budget she has in mind and take it from there

Congrats btw

Dave

 

[AMcUK]

Congratulations for July!

Are you after a selection of prints stuck in an album - which it seems you're well set up to do - or a printed and bound photobook?

I've made a few photobooks at Photobox and I've been happy with the results. You upload JPG to an online album then use their tool to set up covers and pages.
I usually end up with a couple of simple page layouts which I copy and paste, their auto arrange is very hit and miss. I made a 100 page one for our last USA holiday that I was very pleased with.
The quality is fine for me, but if you're really concerned with perfect colour reproduction and pixel perfect cropping and alignment it probably won't suit.

I've also heard very good things about Blurb - but I found their tool infinitely flexible to the point that I ran out of time messing about and ended up remaking the project on Photobox to get it in time for Christmas.

If you used PB then sign up for their emails. Design the book online and wait for one of their plentiful discounts before you order.

 

[woof woof]

We haven't got a budget... a set of cartridges costs just under £100 and I use Epson premium glossy, the cost of the ink, paper and an album from Amazon (or whoever) isn't a worry.

I think I'm leaning towards DIY at home but I'm just worried I'm missing something.

What I usually print is just general casual landscapes, day out and holiday pictures, portraits, flowers etc. My most popular seem to be family pictures and the once a year calendar and these are all supplied as prints or framed prints. I've never produced an album or book.

 

[woof woof]

Congratulations for July!

Are you after a selection of prints stuck in an album - which it seems you're well set up to do - or a printed and bound photobook?

I've made a few photobooks at Photobox and I've been happy with the results. You upload JPG to an online album then use their tool to set up covers and pages.
I usually end up with a couple of simple page layouts which I copy and paste, their auto arrange is very hit and miss. I made a 100 page one for our last USA holiday that I was very pleased with.
The quality is fine for me, but if you're really concerned with perfect colour reproduction and pixel perfect cropping and alignment it probably won't suit.

I've also heard very good things about Blurb - but I found their tool infinitely flexible to the point that I ran out of time messing about and ended up remaking the project on Photobox to get it in time for Christmas.

If you used PB then sign up for their emails. Design the book online and wait for one of their plentiful discounts before you order.

I was thinking of buying an album and inserting printed pictures but a book also crossed my mind but with on line people I'm worried about quality, dark prints etc. If I do it at home obviously I'm in control of quality and if a print is a bit off I can tweak and do it again. I tend to be the OCD one but my Mrs was quick enough to spot the shots with cropped heads and I think she mostly keeps quiet to stop me getting upset. I think she'd like good quality and of course we both want an end result that our families will like.

 

[cargo]

Hi. It's a shame you don't know of a local printer that could help personally. Where are you based ?

Gaz

 

[woof woof]

Middlesbrough area.

The only printer I've used is RGB but the result was less than inspirational I think they're still in business and doubtless they have many satisfied customers and I know I'm being irrational and that one poor print shouldn't put me off.

 

[cargo]

Not irrational. I would be the same. It's not something I've ever had printed. Just recently I was put in touch with a printer via freind. He his the type of guy that would have been good. As you can call in is little unit and have things printed there and then. He brightens darkens stuff on his monitor while you watch before printing so they match what your screen looked like at home. He is Manchester way though. Good luck.

 

[woof woof]

Thanks.

RGB used to have a shop in town, I used to buy a lot of kit off them, they moved to an industrial estate and now only do printing.

So I suppose I have a few options,

- Buy an album and print at home.
- Use a local printer.
- Use an on line printer for an album or book.

I'll have to think... but any help and advice is more than welcome!

 

[viewfromthenorth]

While it's quick, home printing can end up being expensive and frustrating. You can reduce the cost by buying cheaper papers and non-OEM inks, but don't be surprised if the prints fade after a few years. I'd suggest sending them away to be printed - select a couple of images and send them off to several different printers and compare the results to see whose prints you like the best.

Alternatively, go down the photobook route. My own preference is for Blurb as you can produce a book in Lightroom, and just upload it from there, but there are many other suppliers,

 

[Project Valentine]

Hey Alan! You going to edit the snaps yourself I'm guessing? Still sorry to hear about you not being totally happy though! The company I use, C41's, do a really nice photobook that's 8x8 and costs £110 with postage for 30 spreads (60 pages). I usually use a silk paper which you don't get on the high street to make it pop more also. The can press or foil names onto the front also. I use Smart Albums to design it.. they do a free 30 day trail also. If you'd like help putting it together though I'm on top of all my editing so would happily help you out if needed?

 

[Kell]

If you're happy to print them yourself then buy a good quality album to put them in and have fun with Mrs Woof Woof planning the layout etc.

There's plenty of album 'books' available online now which have their own software to aid design, though I've only ever found it annoying that it doesn't do what I want, so you might find it better & more fun to design the layouts yourselves in Photoshop and save them as one 'page' jpegs to upload

I'd be asking Mrs WW what quality she's after and see what budget she has in mind and take it from there

Congrats btw

Dave

I've just responded in another thread about Photobox. I've used them for around 12 years to put together annual albums of my daughter to send to my Mam and Mother in law. I've uploaded single photos and also created jpeg images in photoshop to upload and get a specific design for one book.

Would I recommend them for a wedding album? I think the quality's OK. I do it because otherwise I'd never print anything - and quality is way better now than it was the first year I used them.

But, from the sound of it, you're quite anal about your prints (this is not a criticism), so I'm not sure you'd be blown away by the finished quality from 'a photobox type' online. If it helps to rule out this particular way, then hopefully you find this useful.

 

[woof woof]

I think I've pretty much decided to buy an album and print the pictures at home but I just needed the confidence and as it doesn't look like I've overlooked anything and no one has screamed "Don't do it!" I think I will

While it's quick, home printing can end up being expensive and frustrating...

I've been printing at home since I got my first printer for my first digital camera back in 2003 so I know how expensive and frustrating it can be but on the plus side I'm in control of quality and when it all comes together I can have a picture in my hand just hours after I was out taking it I'm by no means cutting edge but I get by I'll stick to Epson ink and premium glossy for now.

Hey Alan! You going to edit the snaps yourself I'm guessing? Still sorry to hear about you not being totally happy though! The company I use, C41's, do a really nice photobook that's 8x8 and costs £110 with postage for 30 spreads (60 pages). I usually use a silk paper which you don't get on the high street to make it pop more also. The can press or foil names onto the front also. I use Smart Albums to design it.. they do a free 30 day trail also. If you'd like help putting it together though I'm on top of all my editing so would happily help you out if needed?

Yes, I processed the shots myself, I had to really. I weeded and deleted the total duds, did some cropping on some of borderline pictures to rescue them and kept the better ones and we're going through them and selecting those we'd like in our album. I am disappointed but it's lesson learned and if there's any other big events I'll be using an established pro and if I want to help a family member in the future I'll just give them some cash

I've been quite happy with Epson premium glossy but if I run into any hitch I'll keep your recommendation and offer in mind. Thanks

But, from the sound of it, you're quite anal about your prints (this is not a criticism), so I'm not sure you'd be blown away by the finished quality from 'a photobox type' online. If it helps to rule out this particular way, then hopefully you find this useful.

The main thing is to get an end product that the Mrs and our families are happy with and that's my goal. My Mrs is from a country far far away and no one from her side could come to our wedding so getting a quality album to them is pretty important but if for any reason home printing doesn't work out I've got your suggestions to fall back on.

Thanks all.

 

[Kell]

My Mrs is from a country far far away and no one from her side could come to our wedding so getting a quality album to them is pretty important but if for any reason home printing doesn't work out I've got your suggestions to fall back on.

Thanks all.

Ah well - the good thing about those online albums is that you can create one and then send the link and other people can buy it. That might be an option.

 

[keeweeman]

What about doing both? Make it something enjoyable for yourself and the Missus by making your own album at home that is your copy as per DG's suggestion, and then do an online photobook for the copy that is heading off into the sunset for the far flung family to enjoy? Photobooks are relatively simple to produce online using the various websites own software so long as you have the photos in a decent order so it shouldn't take you too long to produce something decent, and you still get to have a bit of a laugh and look back at the day with the OH when you make your own copy at home.

 

[Kell]

...Ignore...

(Sorry, I posted a deal that had dropped into my inbox for Photobox, but it's expired. As you were.)

 

[PaulButler]

If I may make a suggestion about paper ... try the Epson Premium SemiGloss paper or Premium Lustre - imo/e they work better than full gloss in albums etc ... the prints shouldn't fade either as the R2880 uses pigment inks iirc Either way enjoy it and belated congrats too.

 

[f/2.8]

Making an old school album from photos you have printed yourself sounds like a lot of work for little gain. For what you would pay for a decent quality album and the prints you could buy a very decent quality photobook which is a lot less hassle and from one of the decent players liklely a better option in terms of how long it will last for. Maybe have a look at some of the options Loxley have as they well sell to the public.

 

[woof woof]

Making an old school album from photos you have printed yourself sounds like a lot of work for little gain. For what you would pay for a decent quality album and the prints you could buy a very decent quality photobook which is a lot less hassle and from one of the decent players liklely a better option in terms of how long it will last for. Maybe have a look at some of the options Loxley have as they well sell to the public.

You may well be right but as I said I've only ever bought one print and it was a waste of money so I'm nervous about paying for an album as it's such an important thing and I have no first hand good experience.

One of the main complaints seems to be dark prints and indeed this was partly the issue I had with my one paid for print whilst the same picture printed perfectly at home on my HP. I've had the dark print issue with my Epson when puctures that were perfect from my HP were turned into night scenes by the Epson but playing with settings has cured that and I now only print after doing a small test print to make sure nothing has wandered.

So as my experiences have been at best patchy I'm nervous about asking a company I've never used to print our wedding album unless there's a very good reference from one of you guys.

 

[Kell]

How about going half way and ordering some test prints from one of the companies?

I'm sure I bought some a while back for 6p a print (6"x4") after buying lots of credit. No doubt that's gone up in the 12 years since I did it, but it would give you an idea of their capabilities for an album without committing too much cash.

I know a friend of mine recommended one place (which I can't remember now) for prints, but it needed you to calibrate them all in PS to their required setting to get the most out of them. I don't think I've ever heard of anyone having to do that with one of the standard online places.

I know I keep mentioning photobox in these threads (it's the only company I've had experience with) but if you order 50 prints, you get 100 free as an intro offer.

https://www.photobox.co.uk/shop/pri...81WrfLkxBibMGukzp0bMOkyh542aOoMxoC1FgQAvD_BwE

 

[woof woof]

That's not a bad idea.

I'll take a few days to think about it and what's the best way forward.

I don't know... This all started with my idea to give the family member a bit of a lift by asking them to take the shots and make the albums for which I said I'd pay the going rate. Best part of five months later what I get is 300 unprocessed raws anyone passing by could have taken if we'd handed them the camera and no albums. I'm tempted to post some examples but I'll resist. We even passingly thought about a reenactment with a pro. There's a lesson here somewhere.

Thanks all.

 

[woof woof]

I'm after a bit more help

After the kind offer of a Jessops photobook voucher (thank you very much ) I've completed a book on their site. It's been a right royal pain as the website keeps crashing and needing to be recovered etc but I got there eventually apart from picture sizes.

When I drag and drop a picture onto the page it (sometimes) displays it as a reasonably sized print on the page with the shaded area representing the edge of the page as it disappears towards the spine well off the picture... fair enough but I'm wondering if it'll look ok in the finished book if I enlarge the picture and drag it towards the outside edge of the paper. Hopefully people will follow what I mean.

So, if anyone has ever made a photobook, is it a good idea to enlarge the picture and drag it more towards the outside edge or will it look better smaller and in the middles of the page.

This may seem an odd question but I'm sure that a physical book in the hand will look different to the Jessops representation on screen.

 

[Kell]

I normally do mine right up to the edges.

I tend to use the templates as a quick guide - i.e. I want three pictures on this page - then resize, and move them around.

I haven't made one for a year or so, but the problem with my approach was that they didn't always snap to guides and you have to be careful that stuff lines up.

Also, we've ditched flash on our computers at work, so I can't upload stuff from there any more and have to wait until I'm home.

 

[StewartR]

When I drag and drop a picture onto the page it (sometimes) displays it as a reasonably sized print on the page with the shaded area representing the edge of the page as it disappears towards the spine well off the picture... fair enough but I'm wondering if it'll look ok in the finished book if I enlarge the picture and drag it towards the outside edge of the paper. Hopefully people will follow what I mean.

So, if anyone has ever made a photobook, is it a good idea to enlarge the picture and drag it more towards the outside edge or will it look better smaller and in the middles of the page.

I'm not an expert on Photobooks, but I made one (via Bob Books) a while ago with images from our holiday in the Maldives when we celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary, and fortunately it's sitting on the shelf here in the study so I can inspect it for you. I had no standard aspect ratio for images. I inserted them at 3:2, 5:4, square, panoramic - whatever suited the image and the layout. Virtually every double spread has a different layout. So I've got lots of different layouts I can look at and judge how well they worked "in the flesh".

What I think I'm noticing most obviously is that how much space to leave around an image seems to depend on the size of the image. It may also depend on the size of the page, but of course that's a variable I can't experiment with. Each page in my book is 30cm square, and it opens out to lay flat so each double spread is 60 x 30cm. My observations about margins and spacing might not apply to a significantly smaller book.

Anyway ... Where I've got 1 image on a page, or 2 images (typically 24x12 or 18x12), I think a margin of at least about 1cm around and between all the images seems to work well. On some pages I've squeezed them a bit closer and I don't think it's as good. But where the images are smaller (eg a stack of three at 12x8 or a stack of 4 at 9x6) then smaller gaps and margins are OK. The back cover has a collage of 25 images, typically 6x4, and they work with 0.5cm spacing.

I don't know the Jessops product and I don't know how much space it recommends leaving. But I think if I were you I'd be inclined to respect its recommendations. As I've observed, big images do seem to need a bit of space around them. - or alternatively if the Jessops product allows images to occupy the full page then that's an option. But narrow margins around big images don't seem to work so well, at least to my eyes.

One other possible consideration is that some of these printing processes aren't very accurate and they require a sort of safety margin to allow for that. For example when I'm creating artwork for magazine adverts they usually require a safety margin of about 3-6mm, meaning that anything within that zone might be cropped at the printing stage. The reason that's potentially important here is that if you aim to lay out the images so that they have margins of say 5mm top and bottom, and the printing isn't very accurate, you could end up with 2mm top and 8mm bottom which will look wrong. But if you were aiming for 20mm top and bottom, then 17mm top and 23mm bottom won't look so obviously wrong.

Hope this helps. If you like, I could take some snaps of the layouts in my book to show you. Just let me know.

 

[woof woof]

It does help Stewart, thanks a lot for posting. I understand what you're saying so I don't think that snaps will be necessary.

The biggest problem I had was the constant drop outs and page needs refreshing messages that lead to a mammoth six hour session and lots of frustration but all of the problems were fixed by using a different browser and I was then able to zap through the book very quickly.

I used the Jessops frame guides, left space and lined everything up so it all looks symmetrical and my Mrs is happy with the chosen pictures and how they look in the book on screen and all we have to do now is add a few more captions and we're all done.

I'll just order one book for now and see what the quality looks like once we have the hard copy and if everything looks good we'll order a second copy to send off overseas together with some additional prints which I'll do at home on my temperamental but quite capable when it's in a good mood Epson

A big thanks to everyone for helping me with this as I've never done a book before... I do like the idea of a book and if the quality is good I might just do a lot more

 

[bass_junkie83]

I had no end of trouble using the Jessops online service.

I shot a wedding for some friends of my wife who were a bit skint so they opted for a digital only package and were going to make their own album.
I had a load of hassle from them complaining that there was something wrong with the images and they couldn't get the right. The software kept throwing up low resolution warning despite the giving them 5200px long edge images and them only trying to make an A4 book!

 

[Kell]

I had no end of trouble using the Jessops online service.

I shot a wedding for some friends of my wife who were a bit skint so they opted for a digital only package and were going to make their own album.
I had a load of hassle from them complaining that there was something wrong with the images and they couldn't get the right. The software kept throwing up low resolution warning despite the giving them 5200px long edge images and them only trying to make an A4 book!

It might not have been able to cope with bigger images if the file size was too big..then just throw up a random warning.

 

[bass_junkie83]

It might not have been able to cope with bigger images if the file size was too big..then just throw up a random warning.

They started off with more manageable file sized but had the same problem. A few emails with Jessops customer support and the conclusion was it was just crap buggy software. IIRC the couple continued with the layout ignoring those warnings and the finished item was fine. I've not seen it myself though.

 

[woof woof]

I just used the full sized files mostly from a Canon 5DII although about half had to be cropped to 1:1.

I'll report back just in case my experience can help someone else.

I'm still disappointed with the quality of some of the shots but we've made the best of it and hey ho, lesson learned.

 

[cuillinade]

You might have seen a review I did of Saal Digital photobooks (link below).
Top quality printing and very speedy service. I know it's all relative but they aren't cheap but , I guess, you get what you pay for.

https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/threads/saal-digital-photobook-review.665172/

NB I have since ordered a large panoramic book (A3) which is 84cm wide and the prints look stunning. Lots of vouchers floating about for discounts and they were (might still be) looking for people to review their product in return for a free book.

 

[woof woof]

And an update...

Just before we headed out today (actually had our coats on) the postman came with our large landscape album from Jessops and we're very happy with it.

The pictures were added full size from phones, compacts, MFT and APS-C CSC's, my Sony A7 and mainly from the photographers 5DII (I think it's a II.) All loaded ok once I changed the browser as with my usual one it just kept freezing and crashing.

Anyway... I was worried about dark prints and general quality but it's fine... the pictures are less glossy than Epson Premium Glossy looks when done on my Epson R2880 but they look ok and although the "large" book is smaller than I thought it would be the Mrs is very happy so we'll probably order another to send to her family overseas.

Thanks to all from me and the Mrs and particularly to those who went the extra mile to help!

One more thing...
Looking at the price I don't think I could have done it at home for less... ink and paper cost money and I'd have had to buy a nice album and overall I'm quite surprised at the quality considering the price. Money isn't the issue... but just saying