I just finished up a new design that I had been working on since mid-summer for a new photo guest book sample. I used the amazing shoot I had in Seattle with Mary & Scott for the book, since it had more of a lifestyle session feel to it... props, action, playful. I encourage all couples who haven't done their engagement session yet to come up with unique ways to make the shoot more personal... props are an effective way to achieve that... sans balloons :)
One of the more popular add-ons couples choose to customize their wedding photography package with, is the photo guest book. I design the album with ample white space for guests to leave well-wishes and love for the newlyweds at the reception, and an ordinary coffee table book becomes a great memento of the time before the couple married. Oh and it's actually a guest book that you'll want to look at again!
Here is the design, feel free to look at it larger here.
This year has been such a learning experience. Figuring out workflow, taxes (ugghh), dealing with equipment issues... I have a feeling that every year I will learn through trials and tribulations... I will never sit back and say, YES! I now have it all figured out. Won't ever happen... and I don't want it to.
One huge thing I learned this year was the importance of THE album. I have memories of looking at my parents wedding album, opening up the plastic covered white silk album, the corners adorned with metallic photo corners... one huge print per page. It's funny how certain things stick with you. That memory made me want to make sure everyone of my couples had a wedding album... and that's what happened... though they all may not have them yet, they will soon. :)
Midway through the season, I reworked my workflow. The first thing my couples saw after their wedding wasn't a blog post or their gallery full of thumbnails, it was their album design. I designed the biggest, baddest album without any limitations and presented their wedding to them in story form. They saw their wedding for the first time how I visualized it while shooting. This has been the biggest and most rewarding change to how I do my post work.
I design the album 100% in Adobe InDesign from scratch, no templates. InDesign makes it extremely easy for me to design a modern album in hours. I know the spacing is perfect and it works seamlessly with Photoshop & Bridge, so I can easily make sure the photos will look great in print. All the spreads have white backgrounds, are completely clean and modern. I don't want the album to look dated in 5 years, and by keeping it simple, about the photos and not the design, I know it will never look trendy. Pro DPI (an environmentally conscious pro lab) does the printing of my spreads, sends them to me to so I can approve the color and quality before I ship them off to Renaissance for the production of the album.
If you'd like to look through a couple completed albums, take a peek at the albums page here.
3 comments so far
joshua says:
is it weird if i call that thing sexy?
Mary says:
red silk?! it's hot!
Jenn Stark says:
Hi! I've only just started offering albums as an option in my packages and just wanted to thank you for sharing some insight on your album production workflow! They are beautiful!
We are now offering 7 fabulous holiday card designs that give you the look of letterpress without the outrageous cost of letterpress.
These fabulous design by Millie Holloman Photography fit our style perfectly!
Login to your gallery and get some! Deadline to get them by December 21st is December 14th. Also, all print orders intended for holiday gifts, must be ordered by Monday December 14th to have them in time for the holidays!
Here's a peek at two of our favourite card designs...
These fabulous design by Millie Holloman Photography fit our style perfectly!
Login to your gallery and get some! Deadline to get them by December 21st is December 14th. Also, all print orders intended for holiday gifts, must be ordered by Monday December 14th to have them in time for the holidays!
Here's a peek at two of our favourite card designs...