Wedding album workflow

custom luxury wedding album in green and pine wood colours

Wedding Album workflow by Peter Lane Photography

Wedding albums (any albums) – the right workflow

NOTE: It’s not about wedding albums only. The rest of the albums, like: christening album, bar mitzvah album, birthday or baby album, portfolio album, etc, follow the same or very similar workflow.

Why do we still order albums in the 21st Century? The camera obscura gave the birth of photography as a tangible product, and since then, any essential memory is expected to have high value as such. To be printed, archived, and cherished.

Why do we –  Peter Lane Photography – still offer albums to our clients, and also design and provide the service to other photographers?

The answer is simple. We love to do it as it brings massive joy to our clients. We always shoot our events with the album in mind as a finished product. 

What do we do better than others?

Well, most of the photographers out there are not even photographers. Sorry about that! I’ve seen a lot, so I can say it. Having a website and a business card that says a photographer, doesn’t necessarily make one. This is half of the problem. The other half is, there are brilliant photographers in the industry, but they don’t have any knowledge and experience to design, layout, tell a story with images, and very important – to print! I mean it.

90% of the photographers now just use drag and drop software, which will do the layout job. No storytelling at all! Just populating empty pages with randomly spread images. Next, next, and finish! Print.

Roughly the same process when you order from cheap online vendors.

Now you know the wrong way, so let me explain the right one.

Technical education

Every digital file photo is just a source of information. If you want a nice-looking and sharp print with vivid colors, using this image is not enough. Every printer or offset works with different profiles and settings. Different papers also have different profiles and instructions for the printer and the ink. I’m skipping monitor calibration and tons of extra technical knowledge. So, printing a non-optimized image for the specific printer and paper will deliver mediocre results. Well, if the client doesn’t have the chance to compare it with a professionally printed image, they can still like it, but this is another story.

This is about the technical stuff. Scratching the surface of course.

Our wedding album making workflow

Now to the designer’s part of album making. The goal of every album is to tell a story. The layout should lead the eye and provoke feelings. Every spread should reveal a unique story. The good album is like the good wine. Aging makes it more attractive and desirable. 

NOTE: When we speak about aging, it’s very important to note that we always work with the world’s best providers, offering durability and longevity. If the client is “on budget”, OK, your wish is my command, but we won’t leave our logo on the last page. It’s a shame to open your album in 20 years and to realize that colours fade off, corners split apart, etc.

So, our wedding album workflow and what to expect by working with us:

1/ The very first page comes with a nice font introduction that usually comes from the client. It could be just “Our wedding” and date, a poem, a vow, etc. The second page (still on the first spread) is either a romantic photo of the bride and groom or a close-up detail, like a wedding ring, wedding dress, etc.

2/ The last spread is again a photo of bride and groom (whoever the event hero is) on the left page, and our studio signature on the last page, the right one. The album starts and finishes with the couple. 90%.

3/ Every spread tells a certain story in chronological order. No overlapping! We don’t mix let’s say venue details plus first dance, group shots with bridal preps, or ceremony with dancing people. This is taboo! This rule guarantees certain feelings in the viewer years after the event. You look at the ceremony spread and discuss with your guests’ memories from this moment. Then you flip the page and you remember the funny speech of the groomsmen. Everybody laughing. Then next spread, everybody crying, etc. The good album is not just a book with images, but rather a memento experience.

From time to time we have requests “we’re on a budget and want to merge the pages”. We have to explain that merging the dancing page with another one is fine if the client can live with smaller photos, of course. But merging one story with another is totally wrong from the designer’s point of view.

4/ Every spread we design, we pick a hero photo and make it full-page or larger than others. If there’re few photos that compete with each other, then we make an exclusion and design accordingly.

5/ The album workflow is a step-by-step interactive dance with the client.

  • – We always design more pages than the agreed amount, as our clients love our photography and the majority of clients just want more. It is easier for us to offer more and let the client remove the excess than the opposite. It’s a great time saver and guess what? 99% of our clients approve and love the extra pages.
  • – The proofing process goes in 2 stages. The first stage is design approval. The client receives a link with their digital online album, with the ability to click on a photo and comment the desired changes, like: replace with …, remove, add on another one, make it bigger, move it to another page, etc. Approve the whole page or mark for removal. After clicking on the finish button, we receive the clients’ comments and redesign according to the desired changes. The client has one free layout review.
  • – After layout approval, we start working on beauty retouching, body shaping, other improvements, coloration, sharpness, skin smoothing, etc. Followed by file optimization for the specific printer and paper type. To save time we don’t retouch all hundreds of images piece by piece. We export each spread and treat it as an individual image, that contains other images. So we don’t provide retouched images afterward, but only retouched spreads for the purpose of the album. This is the reason that we don’t accept structural/layout amendments at this stage, as we have to start everything from scratch. Unless paid of course.
  • – Next step is choosing the colour theme and cover/boxing material preferences. We offer hundreds of them to please everyone.
  • – Next step before printing is to request the payment for extra pages/materials, etc.
  • – The album comes in 1-2 months. The client can’t hold tears of joy, and we’re over the moon for the great job that we deliver.

So dear ladies and gentlemen, now you understand why our albums can’t compare to others. Why do we spend days finishing an album compared to a few clicks by other “colleagues”. We always request the local wedding couples to come and visit us. We know that they’ll meet other photographers too, but the moment they touch and feel our albums, they don’t go any further.

The Big Wedding Bundle – A to Z Wedding photography & videography workshop

wedding photography & videography workshop

The Big Wedding Bundle – A to Z Wedding photography & videography workshop

Please take a look at the wedding photography workshop and wedding videography workshop for more details.

This Big Bundle creative wedding photography & videography workshop is designed for those of you interested to succeed in both creative fields photography and videography. The workshop will give you tons of knowledge, know-how, and the most important – our experience. We’ve gone through many mistakes, fake advices, trial and errors and pseudo knowledge to filter down only the things that work. The workshop will save you precious time and money, and focus on your skills and profit.

Take the shortcut, get the tested knowledge and start making money with your wedding photography & videography business.

£1499 – 2 or 3 days

Workshop carefully created and proudly presented by Peter Lane Photography, London.

9 + 2 =

Creative lighting workshop – Flash and Video lighting

creative lighting photography workshop london

Creative lighting photography workshop – Flash and Video lighting

Ideal for entry level wedding photographers and not only. This workshop will teach you how you can wear your “photo studio” in your camera bag and create amazing photos. You’ll be amazed how versatile can be a Nikon, Canon, etc.  flash together with a video or torch light.

You’ll see their advantages and limitations and be prepared for awesome photos. Most of our creative photos on this website are created by flash or video lights. Huge booster to your creative portfolio.

What’s included?

  • Advantages and limitations
  • camera set up
  • Lights set up
  • Using radio poppers
  • nailing the exposure
  • Lighting set ups
  • Solving real life strobist problems
  • Using video light
  • Advantages and limitations
  • Useful tips
  • Shooting
  • Time for your question

£399 up to 3 hours workshop – at least 10 people required.

£499 – individual session.

Workshop carefully created and proudly presented by Peter Lane Photography, London.

10 + 2 =

Wedding photography workshop

Wedding photography workshop

Wedding Photography Workshop

How to become successful wedding photographer in 21 century?

How to shoot beautiful wedding photos and how to run your business successfully? How to differentiate from the thousands wedding photographers and clickers out there? How to friend with light and your client? In Peter Lane Photography we’ve developed workflow and technics that work. We’ve been thru and tested many not working models and what you are going to get is only proven professional knowledge.

The wedding photography workshop covers?

  • Knowing your gear
  • The manual, your best friend
  • Jpg vs RAW
  • Nikon vs Canon vs Sony, etc.?!?
  • Modes of shooting
  • Focusing
  • Exposure
  • Shooting with flash
  • On camera and off camera
  • Shooting with video light
  • The right lenses for the right time of the wedding day
  • Posing, directing or just PJ
  • How to sell
  • The wedding album
  • How to negotiate
  • Branding and marketing
  • The wedding agreement
  • Shooting with flash
  • Shooting with video light
  • Analysing
  • Time for your questions

£599 – a compressed full day workshop which will load you with tons of practical wedding photography know-how – at least 10 people required. Apply for individual customised tutorial.

£299 – Individual 1 to 1 compressed teaching online by Skype video, up to 4 hours. Please send your question in advance.

Workshop carefully created and proudly presented by Peter Lane Photography, London.

11 + 10 =