Last week at the DWF Convention (which was great by the way) I was asked multiple times, “But I’ve only used templates, how do I design on my own?”
Since my album software is the “anti-template” software, I often get asked this question. Sooner or later, most photographers get tired of using pre-designed templates, and want to do something on their own. But, it is often a bit daunting when first starting out. What goes where? How do I know where to put images?
I am, by no means, a professional designer, but I do have a simple, tried and true approach to album design that our clients like. I first find a key image for a page, then I find supporting images that play well with that key image. Often times I’ll place that key image as a full bleed. But sometimes, I’ll place it framed within the album page. But, more often than not, the key image is alone on a single page by itself. I then find 2-8 supporting images and build those into a simple design on the opposite page.
While this is simplistic and the design possibilities are endless in album design, this is a simple starting point for those that are apprehensive about free-designing their first albums.
Fundy
All photography by Fundy and Focht – “The Two Guys that Shoot”
Fundy is the creator of the Fundy Album Builder – a free trial is available here.
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3 Comments at "Say Goodbye to Album Templates"
My method centers on telling the story of the events of the day, and using Apple’s Aperture with it’s book mode has been one of the fastest ways I know how to at least get my layout ideas down.
I break down the day into the different events and make an album under the wedding project for each. Then I rate photos and tag them with preset labels for their type of use. This makes it easy to drag and drop types of photos into a blank photobook’s image selection and really narrows down what I want to use from those 1000s of images. Even with my 5-year old machine I can come up with a 50-page album in a day or so, at least, after all the sorting, tagging, and initial post-processing tweaks of particular photos are done.
If I want to photoshop in any effects, I just do the basic layout in Aperture, ‘print ->save as pdf’ and open that in photoshop as my background, and export the RAW images to PSD to bring in as layers for any special effects, trimming, etc. that I can’t manage to do in Aperture, and import the resulting page-sized psd in aperture to be dropped into the book as a full-page or spread-sized bleed.
I’ve found this is a whole lot faster and a lot easier to manage files than doing everything with your own folder structure of your originals and copies galore clogging up your storage space. In terms of knowing what to put where, a little exposure to current trends and a willingness to experiment will go a long way in creating your own unique and popular style. The method described above is just a vehicle to making experimentation and refinement easier.
Greart insight into wedding albums. We also design our own using Photojunction. It is easy to learn and reliable. There is not as large a learning curve as Aperture, InDesign, or other album software programs. Similar to Fundy’s style we use a more minimalist approach to the individual placements of photographs, but use different backgrounds with color matching the clients photos for a finishing touch. We have done Indian wedding album that was truly different than a typical western/contemporary style wedding album as well. It was nice to stretch the creative process in a culturally different direction.
Thanks for sharing and inspiring Fundy!
Curtis
Wedding Photographers Miami
Your blog and images are just great!. Thanks.
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