He said that most often they will pick up the book and look at the last pages first. If what they see catches their interest they look more closely.

I can think of several reasons for this behaviour. At trade shows there are many suppliers peddling their wares, It is important for photographers to be efficient in their research. The last image in an album is often a defining one and in some way summarises the quality, content and feeling of the album.

When photographers look at albums at a show they are either critiquing their content or their construction, feel, and look.

When brides approach an album they flick from the front. Often they will survey for people or places they know. They wiill pause on the details, but they will look for the feeling of the wedding.

When other people look at albums they are more open to engaging in the story they are being presented with.

Interestingly photographers doing a ‘check out’ of other photographers, under the guise of a prospective bride (or groom), will look intently at each image. They are surprisingly obvious.

That is the difference between engagement and research.

Its our job to make albums engaging.

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One of the most beautiful features of Queensberry Press Books is the ability to add translucent pages. The PJ team have been busy working on this feature and you can now add text and images just as easily as you can on ordinary pages. Translucents can be added just about anywhere you like using the button at the bottom of the layout window (see image below).

Translucent pages can be used to overlay text over an image; or image over image. They give a whole new dimension to your book – adding a soft delicate atmosphere or “unveiling” the story.

It’s really a personal decision as to how much opacity to use on images that are placed on translucents. Many images look good at 100% opacity, and we don’t recommend less than 60%. Take a look at the amount of detail in the image and whether you want to be able to see through it or not. Below I have used a detail shot of the bride’s dress on the translucent page to overlay a portrait image of the bride. I kept this at 100% opacity because the image is already quite soft and light in colour – and it includes text.

Turning the translucent reveals the portrait.

This next layout works with the translucent page image at a 60% opacity – the image is dark, being shot at night, and has a very similar image on the underlying page, so lends itself to being super-imposed over the top with a different take on a sequence of images.

Always use your best judgement when choosing images and text, and remember there’s no harm in white space. My advice would be to keep things simple and just use effects and translucents where they really work with the images.

Cheers,
Anna

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Some magic lighting, a beautiful bride and a handsome groom, standing staring emotionlessly at a camera.

In ten years time what does this picture say about the happily in love couple on the happiest day of their lives? Actually what it says about them now is that they appreciate a current and popular expression of fashionable imagery. It isn’t possible for them to say that they didn’t know it was happening.

Because something is fashionable doesn’t make it good, or that it suits the outcome. We go out of our way to keep up with current trends, sometimes losing sight of what we are doing.

There is a huge difference between creating a tome dedicated to fashionable imagery and telling the story of two people who got married and were fashionable.

In 20 years time do these people look at the image of themselves staring soullessly back and say ‘I remember being young and in love’?

The trick is to balance the knowledge of people and photography with creativity and not link it to a passing trend.

The secret is to make the moment important by photographing it well and then to educate your audience to seek that out. The success is in making it be fashionable to have really good photography, and not that really good photography is defined by fashions.

So what does this mean with reference to Gen 2.0? It means that their longevity is based on recognising the fickle hand of Fashion that, in a day, swipes aside the flared, emotionless, strangely coloured image of two people staring meaninglessly straight ahead only to replace it with the next new big thing. It means that to survive the long haul this fashionation of wedding imagery must still be underpinned by damn good photography.

Herein lies the meeting of generations. Where experience and fashionability get together to create an attractive product for brides and grooms that has power, emotions, beauty, and creativity married for the long haul.

Cheers,
Johannes

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1. Avoid unnecessary repetition (eg this is the bride looking slightly left, straight ahead, and slightly right) unless you make your profits from the number of images you sell.

2. Embrace open space (especially in sample albums – lead by example).

3. Offer a two album option that allows people to have lots of images without overcrowding.

While I’m mentioning ‘leading by example’:

If you don’t make a sample album from each order, at least make each design into a slideshow you can show prospective clients.

This library of slideshows allows you to show them how you can work at specific locations and how diverse your work is. It also allows you to customise your presentation to suit the prospective’s perspective.

Cheers, Johannes

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It’s a question that came up recently with a photographer who was considering changing his strategy.

He was saying that there’s a fine balance between creating a beautiful album design, and not letting the clients destroy it, and delivering something the couple feel connected too.

So what are your options? Here are a few. None of them are right or wrong. Like your pricing, style, branding etc you’ve got to figure out what works best for you, and your clients.

1. Pre-design and allow a limited number of free edits: Once an album design is completed your clients can make a pre-stipulated number of changes to it. After that you charge them. This method is a great way to keep a lid on the time spent designing an album. You are the professional after all.

2. Pre-design and don’t limit the number of edits: Great if you want your clients to feel that they have real freedom to influence the final outcome, should they want to. You’ll probably have a mix of clients who want a lot of input, and others who don’t. Just be prepared to spend extra time with those who do.

3. Design the album together with the couple: Another popular strategy is having the couple come into your studio, sit down with you, and develop the design together. Most photographers will still have a pre-design prepared as a starting point to stimulate discussion, then continue editing/designing in front of the clients (Photojunction is great for this). You may take a bit longer on the design, but you’ll know, when they walk out the door, that the design is fairly well done and you’ve got a happy couple.

Outsource: If you outsource the design work, your designer will probably work using the first model (allow a certain number of edits for free, then charge). That way they can approximate how long an album design will take, and put a few boundaries around how far they’re willing to go. They do have other clients’ deadlines to work to also.

If your designer works this way you’re probably going to want to do the same. Otherwise if you get a indecisive client you could be up for a big editing bill by the end!

What strategy/ies have you found most effective in managing client album edits, and why? Leave a comment below, we’d love to hear from you.

Cheers, Nigel

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If you’ve been wrestling with Photojunciton’s Problem Reporter or you’ve been having some alignment issues, pop over the Photojunction blog and check out this post (including a video).

The Problem Reporter and alignment

Because it’s a hot topic, we chopped 15 minutes or so out of our recent Problem Reporter webinar where Danny and Ian talk specifically about alignment and spacing.

Cheers, Nigel

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I was in vacuuming this morning when Sonya skyped me (yes, I may be 76 but I do have the interweb!) and said there are a few people who don’t understand why Photojunction has a problem reporter. They say it’s frustrating and they don’t think it benefits them at all.

Sonya I said, you’re a lovely young lady, and I’m rather busy – why don’t you tell them yourself?

Well it was your idea, Nanny, she said, and besides you have a lovely manner too – I’m sure it would be better coming from you.
Whatever, I said, quoting my favourite niece … but here I am

Forty years of making albums gives one a good idea what makes people happy. Perfection! Let me tell you a story…

One day one of the order processing team was checking an album in Photojunction before it went to be made … and she sneezed … and in the process nudged one of the images out of alignment. It was a tiny error, really, and no-one noticed … until it got to the client.

Now this client may have been particularly fussy, but I don’t think so. The point is, sooner or later you notice things that aren’t right.

And that’s what the problem reporter is for. To try and avoid things that people won’t like – as well as the things that Queensberry can’t make. (It can’t avoid everything you might not like, but it will certainly detect most of them.)

The good news is that there are a few tips and tricks you should know so that the problem reporter hardly ever bothers you, so I’m asking those nice boys Danny and Nigel to talk about them in a webinar.

Wrap up well out there.

PJ Nanny

PS Are you listening boys?

PPS Handy hint: a great way to ensure everything is OK with your layouts is to export full size proofs (under the Album menu) and check them carefully before sending your order. A stitch in time, remember!

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Every time I know that I must do my best.

That is what my clients expect and what I would expect also.

How do you make each day your best?

I started writing this thinking that there was an answer. There is, but it is personal to each photographer.

Having great assistants makes the best more achievable.

Do your homework, have a safety net, have the skills to stay out of danger, underpromise and always overdeliver.

Be stimulated by your work and by your clients.

Have fun.

There was a time when I would have told people the real answer was, ‘Drink more coffee and eat more chocolate.’ It worked for me. In truth it was a front for the excitement of shooting a wedding, ‘being in the zone’.

An undeniable truth is, ‘Look after yourself’ in body and mind.

Some days it’s harder to turn it on than others, but as professionals that is what is expected … your absolute best, and nothing less.

Cheers
Johannes

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We say “Yes… but we need to work on this together.”

Often the dream comes with an expectation. Anything that is not ideal will somehow miraculously correct itself on the day … or at least we, as the recorders of the day, will create the truth that they, the happy couple, hoped for.

So when the bride says, “I want to look thinner on my wedding day” we tell them they need to help us out. (Sometimes this is the not so subtle difference between our roles as dream keepers and miracle workers – Photoshop jockeys).

We say to them that they need to “think thin” in the build up to their day. We say they need to have the right dressmaker making the right dress for them. We say that we will help them stand in ways that look great, but we never promise them that the magic of Photoshop will be the answer to their prayers.

We want them to be a part of the process and make the effort to get it right. It certainly makes our job more realistic.

Cheers

Johannes

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The bride and groom

They want it told with beauty and creativity. They chose you because they saw your work and figured that you would be the best person to tell their story. Or was it that they fell in love with your prices, and assumed that all photographers were equal (except for pricing)?

Ultimately we are telling a story … we need to know whether we are the authors or the observers, and apply those principles to our album designs. BUT then in spite of all of our creativity and hard work THEY want to change our creation! How dare they!

We were employed as the trusted story teller … so what happened to trust! The truth is we were possibly employed as an image maker over being the story teller. You own the images, because they are your vision, but in truth the story is theirs.

If we do our homework right we know this from the beginning. We remind ourselves that the story being told is theirs, and we try to build the trust that lets us tell it our way. But every now and then we need to concede that, in 10 years time this story is what paid for a new camera for us: for them, the bride and groom, it is a memory of something big that happened long enough ago to be easily forgotten, if it were not for the story in their album. For that reason the story is truly theirs.

Cheers, Johannes

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