Ten Tips to transform wedding photos into wonderful preserved memories.

There’s nothing like a wedding for creating photo opportunities.  Here is advice for the bride and groom, the parents, guests (especially camera-buffs), and even somebody who wants a novel wedding gift idea.  If you’re the official photographer click here.

They flow naturally.  Some are predictable and formal, some are informal – a chance to capture a fleeting moment that the bride, groom and all present will cherish for years to come.  Then there are the whacky – even bizarre things – seen by everyone – or maybe just seen by one guest from his or her viewport.  They all add up to a wonderful day – to be remembered – to be preserved and to be looked back on pictorially, by the couple family and even as-yet-unborn children.  What's more wonderful pictures - which need to be made up into delightful books - can be captured by anybody - amateur, hobbyist or even a totally raw point-and-shoot photo taker.  

A word of warning: You cannot rely on your hard disk, CD's or on-line service to be accessible in 5, let alone 15, 25 or 50.  We asked Microsoft for a guarantee that Winows in 2020 would support JPG and CD files.  They said that with technological advances they could not guarantee it*.  So - produce not one - but a collection of albums on archival paper easily and inexpensively either in the family or by a professional.  

If it's your wedding - God bless you - may your life together be long, prosperous, healthy and happy.  If OPUS can help you, we will!

 *See our blog www.opusalbums.com/adirewarning

 Ten wedding photo album tips

OPUS albums Tip 1

Have one or two back-up photographers.  Some of the relatives or guests are keen amateur photographers –  keen to record the event but know that the event does not depend on depend on them.  These photographers will be more informal and relaxed, will be more personally acquainted with the bride groom and at least part of the family and friends – and they are not charging for their services!  That’s why two are good – one who knows the brides family and friends, one the grooms.  Make sure they meet and can work together – but tell them not to interfere with the official photographer.  Also let the official photographer know – so that he (or he and his assistant) do not play the ‘mess-up-everybody-else’ game.

 

OPUS albums Tip 2

Encourage as many wedding guests as possible to participate in picture taking.  Everybody sees a different view.  And with good high-pixel compact cameras, the results can often be good too – even taken by an occasional user.

Also encourage all ‘serious’ photo-takers to make up albums.  Run a competition!  (of course OPUS Albums is biased on this one!).  See our gift suggestion www.opusalbums.com/weddingday

 

OPUS albums Tip 3

Remember photographing weddings is 90% people, and 10% camera technique. But don't try it without the 5%.  The album is the same. 

 Please the bride, groom relatives and guests – don’t push yourself as a photographer – don’t get in the way.  Bring out the people – good photography yes – but keep it natural.  Let the ‘official photographer’ do the special shots (unless you think of something that person has missed, and it does not detract to do it).It's a matter of wedding etiquette.
 

Therefore plan on bringing out the best of the day.  Ensure that you get yourself enough material to make up 2 or 3 pages of an album for each part of the day (8 to  18 usable pictures of each event  With digital photography you can't take too many pictures!).

For example

• Bride’s home before leaving
• Leaving with father
• The Church (or whatever)
• Outside the church
• The reception
• Later parts of the day – and going-away
• The lighter side (but don’t embarrass people – amuse but don’t offend - we don't want to hear about Uncle Harry getting drunk for the next 20 years!)

 

 OPUS Albums Tip 4 

  Plan to produce a range of albums:

• -                     for the bride and groom
• -                     for the parents
• -                     for close relatives and friends
• -                     for yourself

  As pages can be duplicated from one album to another (I suggest you standardise on one software package of course) the exercise need not be tedious.

Maybe these albums could be a wedding present – a present that has given pleasure not just to the couple, but to all there.

 

OPUS Albums Tip 5  

Choose the right albums

If you are producing an album for your own coffee table – or that of the close relatives then the OPUS PhotoArt range is unquestionably the best.  It uses the award winning Innova digital art archival acid-free fourdrinier paper.  With pigmented inks and kept in normal atmospheric conditions in  a cupboard, it should last indefinitely with minimal colour degradation. You have a choice of sizes and paper textures.

For size you can have A4 (the most popular), A3, 12x12in (30x30cm) and 8x8in (20x20cm).

For texture there is a choice of:

• Soft texture natural white – for a soft ‘arty’ feel
• Smooth cotton high white – for brilliance and clarity 

There is no ‘best’ – it is a question of taste.  I prefer the textured paper; my wife prefers the high white.  They cost the same.

 If you want to produce a number of albums – e.g. for all the guests – then the less expensive, but quite serviceable OPUSalbums.com Print&Bind using high quality photo-glossy paper is recommended - or you can choose your own paper and have a permanent looking book with the Pics Book Jr. - based on the Unibind MyBook.  All you need is a heavy duty stapler. 

 If you want the top quality leather bound albums then an external service is our recommendation.  (If you use dg Foto Art many suppliers accept this format – we are forging relations with them)  There is one print-your-own album available with leather covers and protection sheets between each page.  This is the Hahemuehle Leather Luxury Photo Album - available in A4, A3 and 12x12"(30x30cm).  The paper is the 276gsm Photo Rag Duo - similar to Innova's smooth cotton high white, but a bit heavier.

Finally if you need to print Photobooks regualrly especially if they lend themselves to permanent binding then you should invest in a thermal binding machine.  Unibind with its steel strip spine, and its unparallelled range of covers is clearly the winner and we are proud to be one of thier distribution parnters.  We call the range - binding machines, covers, paper and software, the Pics Book range.  Read more about it .

Some might say "Do I need an album at all?"  Well you can print on ordinary photo-glossy paper and put in a binder.  You can have ordinary

6x4”(15x10cm) prints and put them in a album with pockets.  We believe our solutions are the most satisfying.

 

 

 

OPUS Albums Tip 6

 

  Select the most appropriate software 

  We have researched many packages and have three recommendations depending on your budget and the type of output.

  The best package for wedding albums is undoubtedly dg Foto Art.   It has been adopted by many of the bureau services.   It is a fast & easy-to-use software tool to create stunning photo albums in minutes with ease using blend of easy-to-use tools, ready-to-use templates and huge library of added décor. Being stand-alone Dg Foto Art is independent of any third party tools or plug-ins.  In  most cases you will not need access to Photoshop.  That is unless you want to make substantial changes to the pictures.  The top-of-the-range Dg Foto Gold version has come down significantly in price and is within the budget of any professional.    For amateurs we recommend the high-function Essentia version.  It gives a great range of templates, masks and frames.  There are a few facilities not in the Gold package and you don't have access to the template development tools.

   As a professional said “What took me a day to produce with Photoshop takes an hour with dg Foto Art” .  What's more it is supported by a very good hot-line support service with a local number in the UK and USA.   If you like producing wedding albums and your budget can reach that far - then it is undoubtedly our recommendation.

 We recommend the stand-alone approach.  If however you feel you have such an investment in Photoshop CS that you would not  consider any other software then we recommend SPC's Album Design 5. This does everything in Photoshop layers.

Our other album package is ACD Fotoslate4.  It is a more basic offering – but can produce very good results, if some editing on Photoshop (or Elements) is done beforehand.  It is also easier to add text items in Fotoslate.  It is my favourite for vacations etc, though I produced some nice wedding albums before I had dg Foto Art.


Finally if you want to produce a scrapbook – with that type of appearance then Art Explosion Scrapbook Factory is our recommendation.  Personally I don’t think it is right for a wedding – but if you want total informality, then it is worth considering.

  There are other album packages.  You can use an editor, or printing utility.  The former is more difficult to position for printing; the latter generally limits you to blocks of photos 4, 6 to a page etc.  Warning: many programs have ‘photo album’ in the title.  They are for organising photos on the computer or on the web to be viewed electronically.  They have poor or no printing capability.

Finally if you want to produce a scrapbook – with that type of appearance then Art Explosion Scrapbook Factory is our recommendation.  Personally I don’t think it is right for a wedding – but if you want total informality, then it is worth considering.

  There are other album packages.  You can use an editor, or printing utility.  The former is more difficult to position for printing; the latter generally limits you to blocks of photos 4, 6 to a page etc.  Warning: many programs have ‘photo album’ in the title.  They are for organising photos on the computer or on the web to be viewed electronically.  They have poor or no printing capability.

OPUS Albums Tip 7

Map out each album to get the balance.  Keep a theme running.  Allocate the pages remembering that you have a double page view on Photo Art albums. 

With single sided paper such as with Print & Bind you can create a double page spread if you so desire by reversing every other sheet.  Also if you want to add a lot of text the reverse side is quite suitable for this. 

  Allocate 2-3 pages per subject (see tip 3).

 

OPUS Albums Tip 8

Select material for the point of pleasure.  You will gain no friends by embarrassing people.  You will by bringing out the amusing parts. 

 

Focus on the principal people – no brownie points for you if an album (other than for yourself) is full of pictures of your children.

Add in non-photo material - scan in a copy of the marriage certificate, menu, order of service, newspaper announcement.  And have a verbal story ready - or at least some anecdotes.  

Add in text items - anecdotes.  Aim to have some text on each page.  Not just a bland title.  The album is a photo-story.

 

OPUS Albums Tip 9

Make up a suitable background theme using FotoSlate 4 (or whatever software you chose) – a light gaussian-blurred picture of the couple – or something more abstract.

With dg Foto Art you will be spoiled for choice with templates. 

What albums to use

 

 

 

 

OPUS Albums Tip 10

Let the official photographer do the expensive professionally produced, fixed, leather-bound books.

  But tell him (or her) about OPUSalbums.com - we have a range of offerings for the Professional - as well as dg Foto Art Gold.

I would suggest:

  For the bride and groom and the parents use albums from the OPUS Photo Art range.  I prefer the natural white soft textured paper.  Why not A3 for the bride and groom; A4 or 12x12 for the others?  20 double sided sheets should be enough.  You don’t want the album to become boring.

 

 

Do a draft album on Print&Bind first.  This gives a draft – but is a reminder for you to keep of what you gave others.  Of course you will need more sheets.  As the paper is not double sided you may wish to manually punch alternate sheets to make them face one another.

 

Offer to give Print&Bind album to other guests.  As an OPUS Club member you will even get some introductory commissions if they order from OPUS too!

 

A novel gift idea.

 

All of the guests will have had different views of the wedding.  All will be pleased with some of their results.

 

So get a couple of 15-album cartons of Print & Bind.  Make them up into packets of two – maybe with a CD with a 60 day version of FotoSlate 4 and a letter to each.

 

Give the packs away to those guests who are taking a lot of digital pictures.

 

Tell them the reason why there are two albums is that they should make up two sets – one for themselves and one for the lucky couple.

 

The result will be the couple having a number of similarly looking albums – each showing their great day from a different point-of-view.  

  

A service from OPUSalbums.com

 

E-mail us with your thoughts.  Date and place of wedding, how many guest parties.  Tell us your budget.  Let us know anything else.  We will give you an idea and a quotation for a package of albums – discounted of course!

To send us an e-mail click here.

 

 

Bobby Jonnes articles on Wedding Photography

 

We are indebted to Bobby Jonnes (www.photobiz4u.com) for some excellent articles, which we have reproduced with his kind permission

• Photographing a wedding
• Posing and Photographing the Bride
• The Bridegroom and Groups
• Photographing the Wedding Cake Ceremony
• Photographing after the Ceremony