Wedding Photogs...I have some questions

[Clint_Smith]

Ok, I have cruncked the numbers I gotta be shooting relatively big jobs ( me anyway) at least twice a month in order to maintain our current lifestyle seeing as how my wife is no longer employed.

My seniors are gonna start getting big pretty quick, but they will dry up in late April. So I figure better go ahead and start doing weddings again. In the past I shot weddings for friends and family and basically gave them albums at cost as a gift. And I must say I think I had some relatively nice albums we gave them.

But my question is, how many different album options do you offer or do you just do everything al a carte? The two weddings I did last year that were not for friends or family were basically shotgun weddings and they just wanted a guy with camera....I don't wanna market to those clients. $300 for a wedding is not getting me anywhere...

I have decided on the Art Leather Albums, but there are so many options I am having a hard time narrowing down exactly what I should offer or if I should offer everything....Ok starting to get a head ache now so If you got some pointers I am all ears....

[MyKey]

Albums! We would need an entire forum just to go over the different designs and features of all of them.


I have several companies which I have samples from, and several more which I price out and have the information handy for the client. Albums are not cheap the client is not paying for the binding but paying for the prints in it. On the larger albums the prints can be upwards of 20x30's on each page and for my cost it can easily go into 4 figures.

From Trad to modern flush mount albums there are a ton of choices so find the one or few companies you like and push their product. We try and figure out a design that the client likes first, get all of the details worked out on that area, then go into the binding process. It is like an entire new meeting to be honest, there are so many questions, leather color, metal cover, silk cover, do you want your picture on the cover, do you want small images in the cover - if so flush mounted or do you want them sunk in with a border around them, etc. etc. etc.

I personally go with Leather Craftsman - Their Sales rep in San Antonio is a great and I mean super guy, helps you out whereever he can.

Also we carry Graphi Studio, Zook Binders, La Vie, and a few other companies for parent albums. Our proof albums are Art Leather 10x13 folios.

Figure out what you want to spend out of your pocket on the binding and your prints for each size, then figure out what you need to charge for design time and the prints of course. I don't make any money off the binding for the most part to me that is just a personal option the client makes and not a profit making one since it has nothing to do with me and my work.

Hope I made albums about as clear as mud for you call me or PM me if you have any questions.

[AjP]

agree with Mike, album could be from $$$ to $$$$, really depend on client, of cause if you just starting it is too much $$ for you to have all samples... but at least have one average type album and catalogs, pics of other brands that you prefer.

GraphyStudio is awesome coffeetable book, I could say the best

as far as albums I'll go with Leather Craftsmen ArtLeather or Renaissance ,

Proof albums also big deal, be ready to spent from 50-150, unless you can do online proof... there are so many different ways,

just make your mind how much you capable spend right now for examples/samples

[LoungeLizard]

I'm taking a good/better/best approach with my albums - I think

I've costed/priced albums and have made some available in each price range - from different companies.

Except for the VERY high end stuff that Mike mentioned (i.e., LaCie), I offer stuff from the others mentioned plus Asuka. I also show them the ZookBox as an alternative though I need to look at the pricing on that as I don't think it's as attractive as I'd like for it to be.